A couple of weeks ago I commented on how I believe Canadians to be inferior drivers to Brits, but also sympathised with the state of driving in Toronto. The traffic and extortionate parking rates downtown make four wheel travel in Canada’s largest city a wholly unenjoyable experience. When it is this bad, you tend to look towards other forms of transport.
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport for the city, and while a one way journey is cheap at $3, the price is reflected in the service. Some subway stations tend to flood, spontaneously combust or, failing that, the train will trap a pensioner in its doors. These issues inevitably lead to delays. The buses and trams are the worst. Below is a phone screenshot of a typical wait for a bus: an 18 minute wait, with another three buses right behind it.
Bicycles are best: this city is a based on a grid system with anything below Bloor Street (the north border of downtown) being flat terrain, so most of the time pedal power will beat horsepower on the road. It’s just a shame that some cyclists and drivers are clueless in how to accommodate one another at times. This faltering relationship was perhaps epitomised by crack smoking Mayor Rob Ford’s thoughts on fatally injured cyclists in 2007: “My heart bleeds for them when someone gets killed. But it’s their own fault at the end of the day.” Despite the risks it brings, like jamming your front wheel in tram tracks and getting ‘doored’ by the mayor’s car, it is still best to negotiate this city on two wheels.
But what about going further afield? When Brits want to avoid the stress of driving somewhere in the UK they catch the train. What better way to spend a journey than with a load of 17-year-old Hartlepool United fans swilling Fosters on their way to an away game at Accrington Stanley?
While that may not sound the most appealing way to spend a Saturday morning, trains out of Toronto don’t fare much better. If you manage to catch one, that is.
Union Station, supposedly the nucleus of Canada’s railway network, is a constant ‘work in progress’. It is a deeply heated, poorly lit, labyrinth of scaffolding. The walls of entrances and exits make you feel a running approach will have you smashing through paper or slamming against a fake and immovable wooden door. You are against the clock as you are directed outside, inside, and then outside again by confusing signs.
After all this, you might just make the train or, if you’re staying in town, the aforementioned TTC. Unfortunately, you may have to swim into the subway train as Union Station’s underground stop is one that is known to flood.
The Pan American Games are partly to blame for all of Toronto’s transport issues. Thousands of athletes will arrive in Toronto in 2015 to jump hurdles and breast stroke. It’s time the city gets a move on with the roadworks across downtown and the construction of Union Station, otherwise the competitors will be tired out before they get to the stadiums, pools and velodromes.
Daniel Rouse moved to Toronto from Shropshire in 2011 and spends much of his time penning short stories, writing freelance articles, attending gigs, and watching the city’s disappointing sports teams. You can follow him on Twitter.
