Who broke the TTC? Inside Toronto's public transit disaster

Toronto used to have one of the best transit systems in North America. Now it’s overcrowded, underfunded, unreliable and dangerous. The inside story of what went wrong and who’s to blame BY STEPHEN SPENCER DAVIS | JULY 6, 2023 T oronto’s transit system is a mess. In the past year, fares have increased, service has decreased and wait times have ballooned. A staff report from late 2022 showed that the Toronto Transit Commission’s bus and streetcar routes were particularly migraine-inducing. About two-thirds of riders were routinely getting stuck on vehicles that were either chronically late or mired in construction. A lucky 14 per cent rode routes that were classified as on-time. The rest were what the TTC calls “on the cusp,” meaning that they were mostly punctual, most of the time. Major projects are habitually completed years late and millions over budget. And then there’s the rise in violence throughout the system, the half-measured response to it and how both have combined to turn p

Toronto used to have one of the best transit systems in North America. Now it’s overcrowded, underfunded, unreliable and dangerous. The inside story of what went wrong and who’s to blame BY STEPHEN SPENCER DAVIS | JULY 6, 2023 T oronto’s transit system is a mess. In the past year, fares have increased, service has decreased and wait times have ballooned. A staff report from late 2022 showed that the Toronto Transit Commission’s bus and streetcar routes were particularly migraine-inducing. About two-thirds of riders were routinely getting stuck on vehicles that were either chronically late or m