The city Toronto is the capital of the province of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. About one-third of all Canadians live within a five-hour drive of the city. Toronto is located in southeastern Ontario, on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario, with the conurbation spreading outward in all directions, primarily east and west. The region of Toronto, originally inhabited by the Huron-Wendat, Seneca, Iroquois, and Mississauga people, was settled by Loyalists after the American Revolution. The townsite of Toronto, originally called York, was chosen as the capital of Upper Canada by Governor John Graves Simcoe in 1793. York was attacked and partially burned by the Americans during the War of 1812. Renamed Toronto in 1834, the city was a key site of events in the rebellions of 1837, led by its first mayor, William Lyon Mackenzie. Growth came slowly, but accelerated during the mid-20th century. By the 1980s, Toronto had surpassed Montreal as Canada's largest city. Toronto was amalgamated with several of its suburbs in 1998, creating the "megacity" of Toronto. External links:
Overview
Toronto's subway is run by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), which also runs Toronto's network of buses and streetcars. (Toronto is one of the few cities in North America to have retained its streetcar system.) Toronto's transit network is supplemented by GO Transit, run by the provincial government, which includes commuter trains and suburban commuter buses. The subway proper is steel-wheeled, third rail technology; the Scarborough RT, which is run as part of the subway, was a pilot project for a system called linear induction, in which the trains are pulled along by electromagnets. The subway's four lines include a wide variety of infrastructure types including cut-and-cover tunnel, bored tunnel, at-grade rail, and elevated structures. It has four active yards at Davisville, Wilson, and Greenwood (for the subway proper) and McCowan (for the RT). Unlike many systems, the lines are named for the streets they run under, and directions are primarily given using directions. Whereas in Montreal one might take the green line towards Honoré-Beaugrand, in Toronto one would take the eastbound Bloor-Danforth line. History Construction began on 8 September 1949 on the Yonge subway, running along Toronto's main street from Union railway station to Eglinton Street; it opened in 1954. This was extended nine years later, turning back northward under University Street. During 1966-68, the east-west Bloor-Danforth line was built; it was interlined with the Yonge-University line in the beginning, with trains running down the Yonge line and then alternately east or west from Museum station onto the Bloor-Danforth line; however, this proved ineffective and was eventually cancelled. After extensions north of Eglinton in 1973-74, the University line was capped by the construction of the Spadina line in 1978. Since then, construction has been sluggish, with a smattering of one-station extensions, except for the opening of the Scarborough RT in 1985 and the Sheppard subway in 2002. In general, much as in Montreal, extensions of the subway have not kept pace over the last 25 years with the development of the city. A number of further extensions have been proposed, but none have been green-lighted since the Sheppard subway. Trains The subway trains, with a gauge of 4' 10 7/8" (1495 mm), have comfortably wide bodies and doors. The cars currently in use are designated H-5 and H-6 (H for Hawker-Siddeley), and the more recent T-1 (T for Toronto series, built by Bombardier), which entered revenue service in 1996. The Scarborough RT was built as a demonstration system for a vehicle termed an Intermediate Capacity Transit System (ICTS) and designed by the Government of Ontario. As mentioned, it uses linear induction, a technology in which the train, instead of an engine, uses a system of electromagnets to pull itself along the track. Stations The system has been much denigrated for the very plain tiled design of its early stations (more than one commentator has referred to their resemblance to a 1950s-era washroom). However, even the metro-spotter who is primarily interested in architecture will find much to study with interest. What the system lacks for in aesthetics, it greatly makes up for in a wide variety of station infrastructure: not only does trainroom type vary greatly (side and island platforms, at-grade and elevated stations, and even stations that protrude out of slopes), but the system also includes fascinating construction features such as internal bus and streetcar loops and surface-transit access through fare-paid zones, eliminating the need for transfer at some stations. Many of the new and some of the old stations also include interesting works of art. External links:
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