The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) operates
the Subway/RT (Rapid Transit) network, which consists of three traditional heavy rail lines,
and a short extension that uses a different technology.
The system's earliest segment, eleven stations between Union Station
downtown and Eglinton, was put into
service in 1954. Toronto was thus the first city on the continent
to begin subway service after the Second World War, a year
or so before Cleveland's line started.
That initial route now
is part of the Yonge-University-Spadina Subway, which follows a
long, somewhat U-shaped,
somewhat V-shaped journey the prongs of which go generally north and
northwest from downtown.
The Bloor-Danforth Subway runs on a primarily east-west route a bit
north of the traditional center city. It intersects the
Yonge-University-Spadina Subway twice. The two lines run on
different levels through the St. George station.
The third subway route, Sheppard, serves a much less
densely settled part of the urban area. It goes
between Sheppard-Yonge station, transfer point with the
Yonge-University-Spadina Subway near that line's northeastern end, and Don
Mills. Its five stations are spaced much further apart than on the older two
lines.
At Kennedy, the eastern terminal on the Bloor-Danforth line,
passengers may transfer to the Scarborough RT, a six-station extension
that is borderline between light rail and heavy rail. TTC
considers it to be part of the subway network, and it is treated so in
these pages.
The above photo shows trains on the Yonge-University-Spadina
line near the Davisville station. One of the system's several
storage and maintenance areas is adjacent. The building up from
the platforms houses
TTC headquarters.
