History of The Toronto Transit Commission - Subway Boom: 1954 To 1980

Subway Boom: 1954 To 1980

Canada's first subway system, the Union Station-to-Eglinton section of the Yonge Street subway, was conceived and built with revenues gained during the war. Gasoline rationing limited the use of automobiles, resulting in increased usage of public transit. After five years of work, the subway line opened to the public on March 30, 1954. Its underground portions were built entirely using cut-and-cover construction, with reinforced boards and temporary streetcar tracks laid over the trenches to allow Yonge Street to remain open as the tunnels were built. The original Yonge Street subway line went from the railways' Union Station on Front Street, north to a suburban terminus at Eglinton Avenue. Important dignitaries, including the Premier Leslie Frost, and Toronto mayor Allan A. Lamport, rode the first train, going north from the yards at Davisville Station, and then south from Eglinton along the entire line. At 2:30 p.m. that day, the last streetcar to travel Yonge Street south of Eglinton made its final ride. The subway reduced the trip from Union to Eglinton from about half an hour by streetcar (in good traffic) to less than fifteen minutes.

It was the first subway line to replace surface routes completely. It was also later the site of as experiment with aluminum subway cars, which led to their adoption throughout the system, and by other transit systems. Several expansions since 1954 have more than quadrupled the area served, adding two new connected lines and a shorter intermediate capacity transit system.

The University line opened nine years later, continuing from Union, back north under University Avenue, to St. George station. It was intentionally designed to serve much the same area as the Yonge line, in order to increase capacity in anticipation of the planned east-west line. Three years after the University line opened, the original Bloor–Danforth line was built, going under Bloor Street and Danforth Ave. from Keele in the west, to Woodbine in the east. Within two years, the Bloor–Danforth line had been extended in both directions, to Islington in the west and Warden in the east.

Plans were made for a streetcar subway along Queen Street, which were upgraded to a full subway in 1964, from the Humber loop to Greenwood, curving north to connect to the Bloor–Danforth Subway. All that ever materialized of this line was an incomplete east-west station structure under Queen station at Yonge, which remains in existence today. The Queen Subway plan was cancelled in 1974 in favour of new lines in the suburbs.

In the 1970s, Toronto adopted a streetcar abandonment policy. The plan was to have low-volume services be served by buses, and more heavily-used routes by subway lines. Later in that decade, the rising cost of subway construction and the awareness of the limitations of buses reversed that decision; Toronto is now one of the few North American cities to retain its streetcars through the 20th century, and is now slowly expanding the service.

Changes to the composition of the Metro Toronto council moved the balance of power towards the suburban areas, and soon afterwards in 1973, the Yonge subway line was extended north to York Mills Road, and the next year it was as far north as Finch Avenue. Five years later, the Spadina line opened, going from the north terminus of the University line, to Wilson Station. In 1980, the Bloor–Danforth line was extended once again, to the current termini of Kipling Station on the west end, and Kennedy Station on the east.