If there's one thing Toronto doesn't miss about the pre-lockdown days, it's the woes of daily commuting on the TTC. These regular headaches are now coming back into the fold as Labour Day and the school year approaches, and many offices are asking their employees to return.
The final weekend of August and subsequent start of the workweek may have proven a foreshadowing of the miserable months ahead for commuters.
A string of closures and detours for Downtown surface routes made for a confusing day on the TTC, evidenced by one post by Reddit user Coollime17, warning commuters to steer clear of King Street in particular.
TTC service advisories have shuttle buses plying the 504 route for August 26 through 31. Combined with construction chaos, these advisories resulted in a snaking path turning about a dozen times between Jarvis and Spadina.
Stuart Green of TTC Corporate Communications tells blogTO, "Unfortunately, when there are unplanned on-street diversions due to emergency construction or police activity, we must divert service."
"We absolutely understand how that can be frustrating for customers, and we always do our very best to mitigate the inconvenience," said Green. "There are already a number of planned road closures we are diverting around, so any unplanned events really can make things complicated."
And then there was a classic TTC start to the week this morning when a fire shut down a large stretch of the Line 2 subway, spilling shuttle buses out into the streets at the start of rush hour. This latest hiccup came after another stretch of the subway was replaced with shuttle buses over the weekend.
Line 2 Bloor-Danforth: No service between St George and Woodbine while we respond to a report of a fire. Shuttle buses have been ordered and will operate.
— TTC Service Alerts (@TTCnotices) August 30, 2021
Crowded and out-of-service shuttle buses are a common complaint during these unexpected closures.
We waited for 45 minutes to have 3 busses go by full . We are at Coxwell and Danforth. pic.twitter.com/gcFn6Xrba2
— Paulina Boffil (@pau185) August 30, 2021
As much as nobody likes this downgrade in their daily commute, few people running late on a Monday are likely to put much thought into the logistical challenges of replacing a high-capacity subway with surface routes at a moment's notice.
A video shared on Twitter offers a window into the morning chaos as hundreds of pedestrians pour into the Bloor and Bedford intersection towards St George subway station.
@TTChelps y’all are slacking today, eh? pic.twitter.com/RX0Y52qP63
— Whizzletits (@nolanalon) August 30, 2021
Frustration has come to be expected when TTC passengers are forced to switch from rail to tire, but this morning's headaches were only brief.
Line 2 Bloor-Danforth: Regular service has resumed between St George and Woodbine.https://t.co/wLnyvE6WpW
— TTC Service Alerts (@TTCnotices) August 30, 2021
The fire-related shutdown was resolved remarkably quickly, with service halted at 7:18 a.m. and resuming by 8:03.
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