Snowstorms and freezing temperatures brought Toronto’s transit to a near standstill yesterday.
School buses across the city of Toronto were cancelled with many students being left in the cold. Humber students were also affected with the TTC warning riders early in the morning that the cold weather was causing equipment issues and multiple delays.
Some of our equipment has been impacted by extremely cold weather temperatures. We thank you for your patience and understanding with any delays to your commute. We are working to get you to your destinations safely and as quickly as the weather allows.
— TTC Service Alerts (@TTCnotices) January 21, 2019
Alem Duranovic, 4th year creative advertising student at Humber College, said he waited 40 minutes for a bus. “It’s even worse when it’s this cold out and when the bus finally got there someone threatened to beat up the driver so it took even longer for us to finally get going.”
Senior Communications Specialist with the TTC Stuart Green did not speak on the phone, but stated in an email that “most people understand that in extreme conditions, our service may be slower than usual. However, assaults on staff continues to be of concern with one to two incidents per day on the system.” He also said that they experience a higher rate of customer service inquiries and complaints on days with service outages and weather issues.
Commuters took to Twitter to voice their displeasure over the delays and reduced service. Delays left platforms crowded and trains busy.
Hey @JohnTory. Bloor station this morning is 9 deep. 9 people deep to board a southbound train. Tell @fordnation that we, as a city, will not accept his theft of our transit system or this will be an every day occurrence. @ttcriders pic.twitter.com/LyYYo9AYKW
— Fred Shilson (@Fred_Shilson) January 21, 2019
Commuting by car can be an issue as well, as streets had 3-5 cm of snow on certain roads. Maxim Apelsin, 3rd year student in Supply Management, said that his usual commute was twice as long. “Usually it only takes me 30 minutes to get to class but today it took me an hour. I was driving a lot slower making sure to not skid.”
If you’re looking for other ways to get to class, Uber also proved to be problematic. One student shared this photo which shows an Uber ride that is usually $23.00 being priced at $80.78.
With temperatures in the double digits until as recently as late December, there has been a steep decline. Temperatures have dropped to -20 and feeling like -36 with the wind chill.
Photo from 92Canadian on Youtube.
