Home for the Summer Correspondent: The TTC Is Good Actually

When it comes to being the best transit system in all of Canada, the bar is on the floor. Certainly, the TTC does not clear that bar. Such an award probably goes to Montreal. However, when it comes to the bar of being a good transit system for Canada, the TTC does clear that. Said bar is, yes, in Hell, but a bar cleared is a bar cleared. 

Now, there are those who would ask “what in God’s name are you smoking to make you think that?” And that is a fair question. The truth, however, is that the only smoke which fills my lungs is BC and prairie wildfire smoke, for this opinion has been formed as a result of being in Calgary, Alberta. For the trains and buses here, like many transit systems in this country, make those of the TTC look like the carriages of the gods.

Truly, it was once bearable to sit and wait inordinately long times for Calgary’s buses and LRT lines to arrive, but now that I’ve had a taste of what something resembling decent transit is, I would rather sit 20 minutes waiting for the 506 streetcar to arrive than sit at nearly any bus stop this city, vainly hoping that a bus might someday arrive.

Please then, next time you complain about Line 2 closures, or how late transit is arriving in Toronto, remember us poor, wretched sods, who from coast to coast deal with the sorry excuse for public transit that proliferates across this country. For however bad the TTC can get, it can be so, so much worse, and from where I sit, the TTC looks pretty good.