TTC’s top 25 secrets revealed in new book from Toronto transit experts

Two transit enthusiasts dove deep inside the TTC’s history to compile a compact list of its secrets

Thestar.com
April 19, 2018
Gilbert Ngabo

Ever wonder how the colour patterns on TTC platforms were chosen? Or about the process of collecting and sorting out the fares from the stations, buses and streetcars?

That’s the type of curiosity that drove two Toronto transit aficionados to dive deep into the long and rich history of the city’s public transit system in search for answers. The results are compiled in an upcoming pocket book which the authors, Dylan Reid and Matthew Blackett, have titled 25 Toronto Transit Secrets.

“There’s so much interest in transit in Toronto, and great in-depth studies, but there’s not a lot of easily accessible books about transit that people can just read for fun,” says Reid, senior editor at Spacing Magazine.

Take, for example, the “most mysterious station,” the subterranean subway under Bay Station that’s been closed for decades and is only occasionally accessible to the public during Doors Open events.

“Trains would go down Yonge, then come around the bend and go along Bloor-Danforth and split in two different ways, and then reverse their path back around the loop,” he says, noting there was already a Bloor-Danforth line running straight, which added to the whole puzzle.

“It was so confusing to passengers who didn’t know whether they should be on the upper or lower platform if they’re going east or west. It was kind of crazy, and they gave it up.”

There also used to be a “money train.”

Reid says it was a bulletproof streetcar that would go around the city collecting all the fares from stations and bringing them to the headquarters. A special back entrance would let that streetcar right inside the Board of Trade Building near Yonge St. and Front St.

When the building was demolished in the 1980s, it took weeks to destroy the well-fortified vault that was used to store TTC fares.

A new problem emerged when tokens were introduced and toonies and loonies replaced dollar bills. The TTC had to build a new vault because the collected fares were so much heavier, says Reid.

“It’s a great story and it’s getting so much easier now because of things like Presto,” he notes.

Another discovery that delighted the two authors is a little-known gem on display at TTC headquarters. Those who used the city’s transit system before the 1980s will remember a signal from a train guard, who would look both ways and blow the whistle twice to let people know the subway car doors were closing. That was before the modern door chimes and flashing lights came into use in the early 1990s.

“The TTC actually held a ceremony to mark the last whistled train, and afterwards bronzed the last whistle,” says Reid. “Such a charming way to mark the passage from an old system to a new one.”

Reid says there were many more stories that didn’t make it into the book, like the history of the sweepers and plows that used to be in front of streetcars.

“Now they have all these specialized vehicles that go through at night when nobody can see them, either for snow or repairs or other things,” he says.

The book will be available for preorders starting Saturday, April 21.