CBC: Toronto's First Subway 1954 TTC

1954 Documentary piece about the new subway in Toronto

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• subway
• 1954
• CBC
• B&W

[staypuft42]

That is the Bloor station. The video shows the surface streetcar platforms which, until the Bloor subway line opened, were located just east of Yonge street

[jsl321]

Funny how the stations still look the same now from 50 years ago.

[trolleywire]

Very cool.. thanks for the great footage!! I miss the old red trains. As a kid I would make my mom wait for a red train (Gloucester cars) oh the screech they would make as they came in (music to my ears,lol) they were very heavy trains so I knew when they were coming as the rumble was much louder then the The Montreal Series or the H cars. I lived on lola rd, right next to the open section of that part of the line, ka-click ka-click....ka-click ka-click!! all day long, I loved it!!

[jackiechan511]

@300582228 Not unless you're willing to advocate a price ceiling or a ban on inflation. At the rate we're going, in 50 years, each token will cost $10 each. What's the point in inflation if every other wages and prices will go up simultaneously.

[OofusTwillip]

@breakonthrough72 - It wasn't useless. It was where there was the highest concentration of businesses & stores, and it connected to the most important rail hub in Canada. It also replaced the very inadequate streetcars on Yonge.

You're supposed to build subways where there's the density to support them. Otherwise, you end up with a white elephant like the Sheppard line, which is deserted except at rush hour. There won't be sufficient density on Sheppard for another 15 years, at least.

[OofusTwillip]

@300582228 - Back then, there was plenty of funding, from all three levels of government, because NO transit system is totally self-sustaining. This subsidization continued into the 1980s. I remember paying just $35 for a Metropass back then.

As successive governments (especially that of Mike Harris) promised & delivered huge tax cuts, they paid for those cuts by cutting ALL funding to the TTC. The result is the crumbling, overcrowded, unreliable, filthy, overpriced TTC we have today.

[fartamplifer]

$59 million dollars? The Sheppard line, which has 5 stations and was abuilt almost 50 years later, cost just over $1 billion to build. : (

[Will87]

@breakonthrough72 not in 1954

[camperjohn6464]

Later, the TTC was offering $1,000 to anyone that had a transfer from the opening day.

[cookiemaster1234]

@Evanforevertill2012 above ground streetcar station before the opening of the bloor-danforth line in 1966. it was emoved that same year

[Evanforevertill2012]

at 6:42 where was this type of station ?

[HurricaneNWG]

@breakonthrough72 of course, YUS started with 12 stops and grew as time passed, and of course sheppard is only new, but will likely expand as time goes on, so simply calling it something like a "waste of money" or being "useless" is completely nonsense when you look at what it may be in the future.