The TTC is Spiralling Out of Control!
I have been taking the TTC to work since August or so and I find that it is busier now than it has been in the seven or so years I have lived in the city. My boyfriend who has been here for 25 years says he has never seen it worse. He now stands and watches several trains go by in the morning before being able to get on.
Meanwhile, being an entrepreneur able to set my own hours, I am gaming the system, trying to come and go on less busy times. It is okay in the morning – if I leave at 9:00 the Bloor-line subway is usually free enough, and I can usually get a spot on the Spadina streetcar.
But… the problem is the evening. If I leave at 6:30, 7:30 and even beyond 8:00… it is always having a sardine-like atmosphere in the streetcar with the bodies of Toronto squished together and it is standing-room only on the subway. The Toronto automotive rush-hour does not last that long, so why should the public transit one be so extended? There is obviously a problem here.
The province is now stepping in to try to take the heat off of the city with a facelift to the GTA transit agency calling it Metrolinx. The chair Rob MacIsaac said the following recently:
"Be bold. Look around the world to see what other cities are doing," said MacIsaac. "In a couple of decades, we’ll be as big as London is today. We should be thinking in those terms."
He says London… but lately the line-ups for the streetcars look more like Communist Moscow.
Communist Moscow indeed. London is like a mini-police state.