With record breaking temperatures occurring in Toronto this summer, the TTC received thousands of complaints from passengers about providing air conditioning in their cars on Line 2. Mayor John Tory tried riding the sweltering Bloor-Danforth line after being challenged on Twitter by west-end resident, Bianca Spence. Tory found the ride uncomfortable and encouraged the TTC to “find ways to do better”, but not offering any funds to fuel repairs.
The problematic “hot-cars” among the TTC line 2 have been an inconvenience for commuters for several years. The air conditioning is continuing to fail because of the lack of maintenance and obvious age of the units on the Line. “Tunnel fur”, which is a combination of human hair and skin, rodent feces, and debris accumulates along the tracks and is then sucked up and accumulates within the condensers. This creates clogs in the air conditioning systems, not allowing cool air to flow. The TTC said that air conditioning is not available in 15-20 percent of the 370 cars on the Bloor-Danforth line.
In an article with The Globe and Mail, Bob Kinnear, head of local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union stated that there has not been any work on said cars to increase comfort. Kinnear also stated that this was a problem of resources and “the inability of the TTC to recognize the effect of preventative maintenance”.
Tory promised the TTC and riders, “we will do better the next year and going forward”. After riding the entirety of the line, experiencing the heat and a passenger emergency that caused the train to momentarily slow down, Tory was 30 minutes late for his news conference. These are many of the trials daily TTC commuters face on their way to and from school, work and other activities.
This discomfort isn’t the first time commuters have been let down by the TTC. Early May 2016, U of T student Steve Warner found himself and a thousand other commuters unhappy with TTC service. Warner wrote a letter of concern and discontentment with the service provided by TTC after an uncomfortable and inconsiderate experience.
On the evening of May 19, 2016, service was suspended between Keele and Islington stations because of reported smoke at Jane and Runnymede stations and an empty train at High Park Station. Passengers were unloaded at Keele station, which was not built to handle that high capacity of passengers. Trains continued to pull up and unload passengers. The TTC employee over the announcements began to instruct passengers to head to the shuttle buses, specifically anyone heading Eastbound to head to the Westbound platform, which was already where thousands of passengers were standing.
The instructions being delivered were from an actual TTC employee on site, where they were able to clearly see the safety concerns and confusion of the many congested passengers. Warner stated in his letter of concern to the TTC, “Everyone on the platform was trying to head to the shuttle buses, yes the crowd wasn’t moving at all. Someone yelled for help. People were up against the edge of the platform. We literally could not leave”.
The TTC addressed the reported smoke and service disruption in a report on their website. They failed to communicate the discomfort and poor service delivery at the Keele station, where a dangerous situation was created by having thousands of passengers unloaded at a small station.
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