Fun fact: You mentioned the similarities to Japan's rail systems, but one that you missed is only on line 2. If you watch the conductor at the rear of the T1 series cars, you can occasionally catch them using the Japanese point technique when operating doors and arriving at stations. Fun little detail that even I've only noticed after living in Toronto for almost my whole life

Those T-Series cars are the oldest-looking rail cars for the years they were built in the world.

St Andrew - named for a nearby church
Osgoode - named for Osgoode Hall, a courthouse
St Patrick - named for a nearby church
Queen's Park - named for the Legislature nearby
Museum - Royal Ontario Museum

Fun fact: The Toronto Subway font's modern variation (Introduced in 2013) is actually known as Bloor-Yonge, with one of the key differences being the inclusion of numbers - They didn't need them until Highway 407 station on Line 1 opened as part of the Vaughan extension in 2017

Too bad you didn't stop at the little family-owned bakery [Fahmee Bakery On the Go] in Bathurst Station. There was a brief glimpse of it in the video. This bakery has been loved by Torontonians for many years.  Though the family who runs it is East African, they sell a good selection of Jamaican snacks --- patties, bread pudding, co-co buns --- as well as samosas, donuts, buns and lots of other stuff.

The Scarborough RT was...interesting. So basically, in the early 1970s, the Ontario government launched GO-Urban, a plan to build an intermediate capacity transit system across Toronto's suburbs using experimental ARTs by Krauss-Maffei, a then West German manufacturer. And that's exactly where its troubles began because the West German government refused to give further funding for Krauss-Maffei's ARTs, leading to the project's cancellation in 1974. But this didn't affect the plan in Canada, as GO-Urban actually studied the Krauss-Maffei's Transurban ARTs and created their own simpler version called the ICTS (now known as the Bombardier Innovia Metro after Bombardier's takeover of the Crown corporation that developed them).

During this same period, the TTC wanted to extend its streetcars, and had a Scarborough extension in the books. But the Ontario government, being ambitious about their new system, demanded the TTC to use their new ICTS for the Scarborough extension as a testing ground. Since streetcar construction already began, they felt just stopping and putting the ICTS there instead would be a waste of money, but since a big percentage (75 percent) of the money was coming from the Ontario government...they had no choice. So yeah, as you said, it was political pressure. They really said "Build this...OR ELSE" to the TTC. When the Scarborough RT opened, you could see a loop at Kennedy that was clearly designed for uni-directional streetcars, be used for the RT instead, and proved too sharp for safe operation of the ICTS cars, which did not have a reason to turn around, so the loop was replaced by a single-track Spanish solution-like crossover. They only used that loop at Kennedy from 1985 to 1988. The line began using two-car trains, which were able to travel along the turning loop, but was later converted to use four-car trains, which could not be operated along the tight loop. Thus, the use of the loop for reversals was discontinued after 1988, although the loop was occasionally used as a tail track to store trains.

So in 1985, the Scarborough extension opened as the Scarborough RT, and before it closed in 2023, in 2022, had an average weekday ridership of 22,872, had rolling stock used since 1985 that reached past the end of its life, and was home to the bottom two least-used stations on the entire TTC system (Midland and Ellesmere, with a third within the bottom ten which was McCowan). In 2021, it was decided for Line 3 to close in November 2023 favor of a subway extension of Line 2 to Sheppard/McCowan from Kennedy shown at 11:46. Though it closed months before Line 3 was supposed to close due to a July 2023 derailment. However, this wasn't a quick decision. There was back and forth regarding replacing the system with light rail or just simply replacing the rolling stock with newer Mark II vehicles (in fact the TTC Board initially approved this, but it was cancelled) as those options would be cheaper, but Scarborough insisted on heavy rail saying, "if everyone else can have a proper subway line, then so can we!"

I know Line 3 was a joke of a line, but whether people like it or not, Line 3 helped pave the way for other systems around the world. The Vancouver SkyTrain, Riyadh Metro, Kuala Lumpur's Kelana Jaya Line, Beijing Subway's Airport Express, AirTrain JFK, Yongin's EverLine, and as mentioned, the Detroit People Mover have all used Innovia Metro/ART rolling stock! In June 2024, the Detroit People Mover actually purchased 12 Mark I trainsets (24 railcars) and equipment from Line 3 to replace Detroit's own fleet.

As I mentioned, before choosing to extend Line 2, there was another idea to convert it into light-rail. The TTC and the City of Toronto completed an environmental assessment in 2010 to convert the line to light rail transit and extend it to Malvern from McCowan, with potential intermediate stations at Bellamy Road, Centennial College's Progress Campus and Sheppard Avenue with a possible additional station at Brimley Road between the existing Midland and Scarborough Centre stations. After initially planning to include the line with the proposed Eglinton Crosstown LRT line and create a single line called the "Eglinton–Scarborough Crosstown line", Metrolinx proceeded with plans to convert the line to light rail and extend it to Sheppard Ave with a single new intermediate station at Centennial College. The line would have closed after the 2015 Pan American Games and be completed in 2020. In January 2013, Infrastructure Ontario issued a request for qualifications to shortlist companies to construct both this line and the Eglinton Crosstown line. The Eglinton Crosstown line was later renamed Line 5 Eglinton and officially given an orange color. In June of that year, Toronto City Council again debated having the Scarborough line replaced with an extension of Line 2 Bloor–Danforth north to Sheppard Ave along a different right of way. Metrolinx issued a letter to Toronto City Council indicating it would cease work on the Scarborough portion of the line, because its position strayed from the original LRT agreement. Scarborough councilors had argued that providing Scarborough residents with light rail, not heavy rail, treated them as "second-class citizens".

its unfortunate you didn't get a chance to ride line 2 over the don valley its a very cool ride and you didn't even mention how the great ttc bus service feeds into the subway

The DWA also used to indicate where the guard cab would be when in the station. However, that is no longer the case with them at the end cab.

Fun fact, BD trains rerouted through lower bay to museum for a few weekends back in 2007 due to construction on the main line. These days, it is open for the city's annual doors open weekend, halloween, and other private events.

thanks! i live in toronto, love the subways!

7:08 quite fast hehe

The lower platform of Bay Station was part of Doors Open Toronto last year (2024) and may be again, as part of the huge citywide open house event. They had posters from all the movies filmed there! It’s a great season to visit the city and see things you usually wouldn’t or couldn’t! It’s usually in late May, with amazing weather and lining up with Memorial Day weekend for those of us visiting in the U.S.

Thanks for visiting Toronto! Hope to have you over in our wonderful city again soon. (Whenever those LRT lines open at long last...)

If you get a chance you should ride line 2 again east past castle frank especially in summer or fall. Trust me you’ll want your camera for it 😉.

Disused platforms are fascinating especially if the tracks still remain.Sometimes they are used to store empty stock, for driver changeovers and the like and a place to put engineering trains so they don't block the running lines.

Well done! Lines 5 and 6 are now up and running, and we look forward to the Ontario Line. You are VERY thorough in your research; I am very impressed!

I’ll always love the sound of the T1’s departing stations. I miss them on the YUSL (Line 1).

The T1s look as old as they do because they are a modified design based on the Hawker Siddeley's rolling stock that was built between the 1960s and 1970s

It will be very sad when the T1s on line 2 will retire. They were one of my favourite trains to ride on the Toronto subway :(

2:03 The T-series of Toronto subway cars look younger than some of those I’ve seen in other cities whose subway systems I have gotten to use.

Kinda amazed that line 2 still uses guards. Went out of fashion in europe in the 1990s, as far as I am aware. Another fact I did not know. Thanks Thom!