Toronto Transit Commission accessibility

Accessibility for people with disabilities on the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) system is limited but improving. Most of the Toronto subway and RT was built before wheelchair access was a requirement under the Ontarians with Disabilities Act. However, all subway stations built since 1996 are equipped with elevators, and elevators have been installed in 29 stations built before 1996, including one station that was expanded in 2002, Sheppard-Yonge). Thirty-four of Toronto's 69 subway and Scarborough RT stations are accessible (Spadina is only accessible on the Bloor–Danforth line). In 2014, the TTC began introducing new low-floor vehicles on its streetcar network which will replace the vehicles in the current fleet over a four-to-five year period. In December 2015, the TTC retired its first lift-equipped accessible buses, which it was introduced in 1996, making all 170 bus routes 100% low-floor accessible.

Subway and RT

Vehicles

File:TTC ACTIVE ROUTE MAP SAMPLE.jpg

Sample active route map on display with the interior mockup of the new Toronto Rocket subway car

With the retirement of the last H5 series subway cars in June 2013, all subway cars offer level boarding for customers with wheelchairs and other accessibility needs and have flip-up benches at designated wheelchair locations in each car.

The T1 series subway cars were the first trains to have:

• wider doorways,
• no centre line vertical stanchion bars.

All trains offer automated audible-only station stop announcements, the Toronto Rocket subway cars have twice the accessible seating compared to the T1 subway cars. The Toronto Rockets have visual displays (showing the next stop along with arrows pointing to which side doors will open on at the next stop) and electronic route maps to assist customers who are hearing-impaired. Since summer 2015, the reconfigured audio announcement systems on some TR trains also announce the side doors will open on.

Stations

Accessible stations are equipped with elevators, wide fare gates, and accessible doors. The TTC provides a phone number, 416-539-LIFT, which provides a recorded message listing any elevators which are out of service.

• All five stations on the Sheppard line, opened in 2002, are fully accessible and equipped with elevators.

• Sheppard-Yonge
• Bayview
• Bessarion

• Leslie
• Don Mills

• 18 of the 32 stations on the Yonge–University line are accessible. St. Clair West station has an elevator at the Heath Street exit, but the station is not considered accessible as it does not connect with all services in the station.

• Downsview (1996)
• Lawrence West (2014)
• Eglinton West (2005)
• St. George (1999)
• Queen's Park (2001)
• Osgoode (2007)

• St. Andrew (2012)
• Union (1996)
• Queen (1997)
• Dundas (2001)
• Bloor-Yonge (1996)
• St. Clair (2007)

• Davisville (2002)
• Eglinton (2004)
• York Mills (2007)
• Sheppard-Yonge (2002)
• North York Centre (2009)
• Finch (1999)

• 13 of the 31 stations on the Bloor–Danforth line are accessible:

• Kipling (1999)
• Jane (2006)
• Dundas West (2002)
• Dufferin (2014)
• Bathurst (1999)

• Spadina (Bloor-Danforth line only) (1997)
• St. George (1999)
• Bloor-Yonge (1996)
• Broadview (2006)

• Pape (2013)
• Main Street (2004)
• Victoria Park (2011)
• Kennedy (1999)

• Two of the five stations on the Scarborough RT are fully accessible, while one station is half accessible.

• Kennedy (1999)
• Scarborough Centre (2000)
• Lawrence East, is partially accessible. The southbound platform is at street level, and considered accessible.

Planned elevator installation

In a 2015 report the TTC stated that its target of having all stations accessible by 2020 will not be met, and that it cannot make all subway stations accessible by 2025 unless full funding is made available by governments. The installation plan for elevators in remaining stations is as follows:

• 2016
  • St. Clair West - construction in progress (Subway-to-bus/streetcar elevator only. Completion of street-to-bus/streetcar elevator is TBD)
  • Ossington - construction in progress
• 2017: Coxwell and Woodbine - construction in progress
• 2018: Dupont and St. Patrick - construction in progress
• 2019: King, Royal York, Runnymede, Wellesley, Wilson, Yorkdale
• 2020: Bay, Chester, College, Sherbourne
• 2021: Donlands, Keele, Lansdowne, Lawrence, Spadina (University-Spadina line)
• 2022: Greenwood
• 2023: Castle Frank, Christie, High Park, Summerhill
• 2024: Museum, Old Mill, Rosedale
• 2025: Glencairn, Islington, Warden

The remaining inaccessible Scarborough RT stations appear to have been removed from the plans, as the RT is expected to be replaced with an extension of the Bloor-Danforth subway line.

Buses

File:Canada Day Bus.jpg

Blue indicator lights on both sides of the route sign indicate the bus is low-floor and wheelchair friendly

Main article: List of bus routes in Toronto

Main article: Toronto Transit Commission fleet

Since the retirement of the last lift-equipped Orion Vs on December 4, 2015, all 170 bus routes have been 100% low-floor accessible, using low-floor buses (such as Orion VII). Not all stops along an accessible route are accessible (in particular, many subway stations where buses terminate are not accessible).

The TTC's low-floor buses are identified by blue lights located on both sides of the front route display.

Wheel-Trans

Wheel-Trans bus

Main article: Wheel-Trans

The TTC provides Wheel-Trans, a door-to-door accessible transit service, to registered clients who are unable to use the conventional transit system. In some cases, Wheel-Trans buses connect customers from their homes to accessible subway stations allowing the rider to use the conventional system for a portion of their journey. The service was created in 1975 as the challenges for people with accessibility needs became more public, and at a time where the entire surface system ran high-floor (inaccessible) vehicles and subway stations did not have elevators.

Streetcars

As a result of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005, which requires all public transport services in Ontario to become by 2025, the TTC began to make its streetcar system wheelchair accessible on August 31, 2014, when the first two new low-floor Flexity Outlook streetcars entered service on 510 Spadina line. The new streetcars have also been used on 509 Harbourfront line since March 29, 2015. The new streetcars will be rolled out onto 11 other streetcar lines, replacing the CLRV and ALRV streetcars by 2020. Former TTC manager David Gunn has criticized the new streetcar order: "Oh, and they’re not accessible. The floor height is about a foot. You won’t be able to load a wheelchair on the street. There will be ramps, but the floor height is going to be about a foot. The ramps will be too steep."

With the January 3, 2016 service changes, route 510 Spadina will be normally served only by the wheelchair-accessible Flexity streetcars. Non-accessible ALRV streetcars will be used backup in the event of an insufficient availability of Flexity streetcars.

Visual impairments

Service animals are allowed on the TTC during all hours of operation.

All stations have yellow warning strips with bumps at the edge of the platforms, and most have tactile floor tiles that assist persons with visual impairments in locating elevators and other accessibility features.

All vehicles are equipped with automated audible stop announcements. Surface vehicles and Toronto Rocket trains also have visual LED stop displays.

In 2015, the TTC announced tests of a new External Route Announcement (ERA) system for buses (similar to the system already in place on the commission's Flexity streetcars), that will indicate the route, direction, destination or next major stop as a pre-boarding announcement. The announcements will be made through a speaker located on the outside of the vehicle, near the front door when the doors are opened. Four buses at Wilson Garage which operate on routes 7 Bathurst and 11 Bayview have been equipped with this system.

External links

• TTC Accessibility