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The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). As of September 2023, the subway system is a rail network consisting of three heavy-capacity rail lines operating predominantly underground. As of December 2022, three new lines ...
- Background
- Early Proposals
- Birth of The Subway
- Construction of The Yonge Line
- Expanding The Subway
- Design and Architecture
- Current Network
- Current Debates
- Impact
The first decade of the 20th century witnessed a population explosion in Toronto , nearly doubling from 209,892 in 1901 to 381,833 in 1911. The city’s transportation network strained to handle this growth, largely due to difficulties in dealing with the Toronto Railway Company (TRC), a private firm that won a 30-year franchise in 1891 to operate th...
Early subway discussions in Torontofocused around underground streetcar lines. Following a meeting between Toronto City Engineer C. H. Rust and the England-based Kearney High Speed Railway Company in April 1909, it was reported that Kearney offered to build two lines. For $1 million per mile, one would run north–south under Yonge Street from Front ...
While proposals for subways and underground streetcar lines arose as make-work plans during the Great Depression, TTC officials didn’t seriously contemplate constructing a system until the Second World War. Sensing that current infrastructure was ill-prepared for postwar Toronto, the Rapid Transit Department was formed by the TTC in January 1944. T...
“Toronto Goes ‘Big League’ As Subway Project Starts” proclaimed the Toronto Star as construction officially began on the Yonge line on 8 September 1949. Ontario lieutenant-governor Ray Lawson pulled the lever to pound the first pile driver into the ground during a ceremony presided over by future television game show host Monty Hall. Most of the 7....
With the Yonge line open, debate around east–west line placement resumed. Despite City Hall’s support of a subway line along Queen Street, TTC officials observed higher streetcar traffic volume along Bloor Street and Danforth Avenue, especially among commuters heading downtown from the suburbs. Political bickering increased when Metropolitan Toront...
For the original Yonge line stations opened in 1954, Vitrolite pigmented structural glasswas used for station tiles. Overall station design was utilitarian, using a solid background colour with contrasting trim. This design remained in use for new stations until the early 1970s. When the first Spadina extension opened in 1978, commuters enjoyed a d...
The Toronto subway system, including the ScarboroughRT, consists of 75 stations on four lines, running a total length of 76.5 km. Lines were previously known solely by their geographical locations, but since 2014 have followed a numbering system: 1. Line 1: Yonge-University 2. Line 2: Bloor-Danforth 3. Line 3: Scarborough RT 4. Line 4: Sheppard In...
In the early 21st century, Scarboroughhas proven a flashpoint for subway expansion. Under the “Transit City” plan introduced by Mayor David Miller in 2007, the Scarborough RT was to be replaced with an extended LRT line. Funding delays from the province delayed the start of construction on most of the proposed LRT lines elsewhere in the city, while...
When the Yonge subway opened in 1954, TTC Chairman William C. McBrien noted that “the Commission feels its greatest gratification at the thought that it will transport tens of thousands of workers to and from their homes, speedily and in comfort, freed forever from the inconvenience and delays inherent and inevitable in surface transportation in a ...
Apr 16, 2024 · The history of the Toronto subway dates back to 1949 when the idea of a subway system was first proposed. The construction of the subway began in 1950, and the first line, Line 1 Yonge-University, was opened to the public in 1954.
Mar 30, 2013 · Fifty-nine years ago today, Tuesday, March 30, 1954, the TTC ’s first subway — the first subway line in Canada — opened between Eglinton and Union Station. In Transit Toronto’s history of the line, James Bow describes the opening: Ontario Premier Leslie Frost and Toronto Mayor Allan Lamport officially opened the Yonge subway on March 30 ...
Toronto’s Yonge subway was the very first subway line in Canada. Built by the publicly owned TTC (Toronto Transportation Commission, now Toronto Transit Commission) between 1949 and 1954, it was the beginning of postwar Toronto’s effort to accommodate the demands of the city’s prosperity and its future.
There can be no doubt that the construction of Canada’s first subway was a spectacular engineering triumph. Approved in January 1946, but delayed by post-war shortages of supplies, the ground-breaking ceremony took place on September 8, 1949.
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Apr 16, 2024 · The first section of the Toronto subway, known as Line 1 or the Yonge-University line, opened on March 30, 1954. It ran from Union Station in downtown Toronto to Eglinton Avenue, covering a distance of 7.4 kilometers. The opening of Line 1 marked a significant milestone in Toronto’s transportation history.
