TTC: A Transit Disaster

Longer waits and agony!

I don’t often take public transit but today I had a conference to attend at the Carlu which is situated in the Yonge and College area of Toronto. My morning commute was pretty good as I left early (6:45 AM) and started off taking a short bus ride on the Glencairn bus along Chaplin Crescent to Davisville station.

You can always get a seat on this bus but the road is so torn up and cratered, one feels like they’re on an old rickety bus in Tijuana going to the Tamale Factory! The roads in Toronto are a complete disaster and cause millions of wasted tax dollars on the maintenance of TTC vehicles – never mind private and commercial vehicles!

So I get to the Carlu in good time. The ride on “Line One” (whatever the hell what that means) was okay. Being early in the morning (just after 7AM), there were no seats but standing room was not crowded on the way to College station which is not too far.

I arrived at the Carlu at a very reasonable time and the venue was extremely well organised and all the staff were friendly, helpful and professional. The dining there is exquisite and the ambience is divine! Ooh La La!

Well the conference went well and now it was time to make my way home. It was 5PM so I get on at College station on what they refer to as “Line One”. In other words, I take the Yonge line north to Davisville from there. I go downstairs to board the subway. It was 100F in there! What is this? HELL! And the platform was lined wall-to-wall; people waiting and waiting! After 15 minutes, some announcement comes on which no one can hear – except something about “signal problems”. So I says to myself, FUCK THIS! I’m walking up to Bloor!

I finally get to Bloor and was greeted by wooden planks which lead to the stairs to the platform. It’s just below that monstrosity of a condo that’s about 100 stories high. There is that new Chick-fil-A which people are still lining up 2-blocks for and I also went by a few bubble tea establishments and a Popeyes. Wow! What a great variety of eating establishments!

So it was only 95F at the Bloor station and the train came and was packed but I finally get to Davisville and have to board that Glencairn bus which, for at least the past 1 1/2 years, is NOT accessible from within the station! Due to endless and lethargic construction at Davisville station, everyone has to go outside to catch the bus! It’s “okay” with me but how do disabled or elderly people cope with this?

I really feel sorry for the citizens of Toronto who have to use this disaster of a transit system. How do you put up with this? How do you do this 5 days a week and keep your sanity? The people running the city of Toronto are completely incompetent and negligent and are running this city into the ground!