vidTO: TTC Opens Subway in 1954

I always found it remarkable how the TTC ad featuring a photo of the crowd at the first subway's debut has a huge sea of people and not a single person isn't caucasian. The 50s is spooky, outdated racist slang "pun" actually not intended.

Amazing. The "50sness" of the clip is just reducing me to giggles -- the overblown orchestral score, the pompous announcer, the flickering black and white graphics. I didn't think this style of television was really real -- just a product of exaggerated modern-day parodies.

What good is an LRT (which is really just a trendy newfangled way of saying street-car) in a city where congestion is already unbearable and it is winter at least 8 months out of the year?

Wouldn't it be more in the TTC's interest to perhaps put in a new subway line along lakeshore connecting Missaussauga (sp?), in an effort to reduce the number of cars on the Gardiner every day?

Or how about continuing the Sheppard line so that it actually goes somewhere people want to go to?

Wow, all kinds of awesome. I believe the station shown at the end with streetcars was the temporary station at Yonge and Bloor that fed subway passengers onto the Bloor Street streetcars (which ran with multiple units).

This video reinforces that the TTC subway really is of unique vintage, being built after the time of the original systems (NYC, Chicago, Philly) but before the subsequent generation of "modern" subways (Montreal, DC, San Fran, Atlanta). As a result it has a bit of the old-style feel to it while offering futuristic touches like integrated transfer stations, glass headhouses and contemporary materials. What a swoosh of sophistication it must have brought to what was then a rather flat, nondescript place that was every bit Canada's Second City.

The TTC has certainly done much for Toronto city in 50 plus years. Unfortunately, those last decades have really hurt. In a competitive world where Madrid throws up 47 miles of new subway lines between 1999 and 2003, the TTC needs to grow again to get back the optimism and pride that served Toronto so well in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

4:14 into the vid
check the big lawns around wellesley station

is that wellesley station?

Because the subway was built in the 1950's, there is a noticeable lack of escalators. Handicap access was not a requirement as it is now.
Another note of interest, at the 5m 20s mark in the film, a man can be seen taking a drag on his cigarette.
Was there any film of when the Queensway streetcar right-of-way opening in July of 1957, available?

Minor typo in the first sentence - when the subway first opened it ran from Eglinton Ave to Union. (Hence the former massive bus transfer station at Eglinton)

Chris, I believe the man at 6:28 is "non-caucasian", though you'll notice the woman in front of him appears frightened for her life.

I wasn't referring to the video, I meant the 50th anniversary transit poster ads.

Gloria mentions in the second contribution the music in the report.
This style of music was common to the television newsmagazines and film newsreels of the day. It helps to remember that most people didn't have a television and would see the newsreels at the local cinema. The CBC report may not have been destined for the cinema but was made to look and sound like a newsreel.

One thing that threw me was the person putting a transfer into some type of date stamping machine. I can't remember the need to do that. I remember only transfer dispensers that had the time and station name printed on the transfer.
There was no need for a stamping machine.

Perhaps it was a short-lived experiment. Anyone out there who knows ?

David E,

I know you're one of our older and wiser readers, but were you actually a subway rider back in the mid-50's? I'd love to hear more about the TTC experience back then.

To uSkyscraper,
The streetcar station at Bloor St. was hardly temporary. It was in operation from 1954 to the opening of the Bloor-Danforth line in the 1960s.

The platforms were in the centre of Bloor St. E. and were situated in front of what is now the Xerox Tower to the south and the Hudson Bay Centre to the north. You'll notice there's a widening of the road at that point. That allowed the two lanes of traffic in each direction to bypass the platforms for the streetcars. The platforms were protective much along the lines of the platforms of St. Clair Ave. W. They had a large concrete mass at the end to meet and divert oncoming traffic. This was surmounted by a large amber flashing light and a sign that show cars to keep to the right--much like St. Clair W.
The length of the platform had a concrete barrier which rose more than a metre from the street level and by virtue of its height and thickness protected the passengers waiting on the platform. Some of the concrete rose higher and provided the support for a roof over the platforms to keep us dry waiting for our streetcars. The overhang was like those at Eglinton station for those waiting for buses.
There was also some type of plastic divider that "walled off" the passengers and protected them from discarded debris such as cigarettes being ejected from passing cars.
Yes, people just let their butt go out the no-draft window and that was that. I plead guilty to the same thing until I stopped driving in the late 1960s. Passengers could and did smoke on the platform and streetcars would discharge their passengers at one end and then move forward to receive new passengers at the other end of the platform.

You mention the architecture and design of some of the stations. The Internationalist style was emerging at that time and those stations use some of those design elements.

Look at the old Continental Can building at the south-west corner of Bay and College and also the old Motor League building at the north-east corner of Yonge and Carlton.
The stations use elements that can be found in those buildings and others of about the same vintage.

You also mention multiple units. Streetcars coupled together were something for rush hours and special events.
Generally during the day, streetcars were individual.

I finally watched the video and the crowd shot I was talking about is duplicated at the 3:29 or 3:30 mark.