A brief history of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)
Toronto’s publicly owned public transport system is a little over a century old. It stems from an early recognition of the failures of privatised transit provision.
The origins of Toronto’s transportation started with a private carriage company HB Williams in 1848, which was then bought out by Toronto Street Railway company (TSR) in 1862. The TSR won a 30-year franchise to provide services in the city. This initial franchise stipulated routes on three streets: Yonge, Queen, and King streets. The Yonge line was the first to open on September 11, running north to the toll gate at Yonge St. and Davenport Rd. The fare was five cents, and a separate fare was charged when transferring from one line to another. In 1861, Toronto’s population was 42,000. The TSR owned only six miles of track and carried an average of 2,000 passengers a day. When the initial franchise expired services were temporarily brought in-house before being franchised out to the Toronto Railway Company (TRC) for another 30 years period.
Anyone with experience of the UK’s experiment with rail franchising can probably guess where this is going. If Toronto had expanded over the course of the first franchise, it exploded over the course of the second. But TRC’s franchise only covered the bounds of the city as it existed in 1891. Outside this area, the expanding population was served by a hodgepodge of other providers and services. In 1904, the Toronto & York Radial Railway (TYRR) merged with or absorbed the Metropolitan, Mimico and Scarboro lines. In doing so, either the TRC or the T&YRR provided services across most of the city. However, there were no free transfers beyond the boundaries of the old city limits. By 1910, Toronto’s population was 350,000, and the city limits had been extended to include an area nearly twice the size it had in 1891. Although pressure was put on the Toronto Railway Company to extend service into the new districts, there was no financial incentive for them to do so. With the status quo, the TRC collected additional fares every time a passenger transferred from one line to another. TRC expanded to take over other services but had no motivation to introduce fair transfer and lose multiple fares from passengers switching between services.
As the 1921 conclusion of the franchise neared, dissatisfaction had reached a breaking point and Toronto ratepayers voted to approve the acquisition of all the various companies in the city. The day after the TRC franchise expired the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) took over provision of transit across the city with a unified one-fare system. Fares were four tickets for 25 cents or a cash fare of 10 cents, with free transfers.
This began a process of expansion of Toronto’s transit system East and West beyond the bounds of Old Toronto. The street car fleet expanded significantly especially after WW2 when other cities in North America began to abandon them and sell them off cheap - cars bought from Southern cities had to be adapted to remove the marks of segregation including separate carriages and seating. In March 1954 the Yonge Street Subway opened and was joined 9 years later by the University Subway Extension.
Between the 1950’s and 1970’s Toronto had the most progressive transit system in North America. With ridership that reflected that status. In the 1970’s the TTC was hailed as one of the most progressive transport systems in North America and a bulwark against the car dependency and gridlock that afflicts cities in the US. Toronto’s transit system is still one of the best in North America but Toronto also has the third worst congestion in the world.
The gap from the 1970’s to now is bridged by decades that saw the familiar pattern of underfunding and private provision. This meant that proportionally fewer residents used public transit and proportionally more switched to private vehicles. Now Toronto is the fastest growing city in North America creating capacity challenges on public transit, while increasing numbers living outside the Toronto Metro area means large numbers driving in from Mississauga, Brampton and the wider GTA.
I have talked before about the comparison between London and Toronto’s transport settlements. But if we shift our focus away from London (and a few other select places in Great Britain) there’s just no comparison. Despite all challenges listed above, Toronto has been miles better for decades, despite some encouraging, recent moves to address the transport situation in the North of England. The dire state of transport in much of Britain was such that a few years ago the former UN special rapporteur on human rights devoted a whole report to the matter. Affordable transport deserts leave people isolated without access to family, friends, education and employment. They are a major driver of poverty in Britain. Buses are infrequent and expensive where they exist at all. Trains are slow, crowded and expensive, trams and subways generally don't exist. There are a few exceptions to this. Edinburgh has a decent bus service and now trams. Reading has a good bus service, Manchester has dramatically improved its bus provision recently. What marks out these places (and forgive me, anyone who’s heard this rant before) is that the municipal authority oversees the service. Either they have managed to keep their municipal service, or else (as in Manchester and soon Liverpool and West Yorkshire) they have taken bus services back into regulation ending the wild-west days that followed privatisation in the 1980’s.
Private vehicles allow individuals to meet their own needs and those of their families. Public transport allows the community to come together and ensure everyone’s needs are met. The lesson that Toronto learned in the 1920’s is being learned again across Britain. Public transport is a public good, it doesn’t do well in private hands.
Better or Worse
Nice quick unambiguous BoW this week: Fruit & Veg. No question it is better in Toronto. Corn season has come early to Ontario, which means you can get peaches and cream sweetcorn even in July. My first Canadian summer I remember my future in-laws having conniptions over corn. I couldn’t get it, I liked corn on the cob well enough but I would never have gotten excited about it. That was before I tasted fresh Ontario corn. Peaches have also arrived early. When I was a kid I remember the deep suspicion I felt whenever a grownup suggested that fruit was a viable alternative to sweets. But Ontario peaches genuinely are just that sweet. That’s before we get to the cherries, and the strawberries, and don’t get me started on blackberries. It's just a shame I can’t say the same about the baked beans but that’s a rant for another time.