Photo Credit: Flickr

1) Strikes Affect the City Massively: The TTC has been on strike before; many times in fact.  During my own time in primary, middle, secondary and now post secondary school, the TTC has had at least three different strikes that I can remember off the top of my head and there were probably a number of near misses as well where the union was able to negotiate a deal with the city at the last minute in order to avoid a strike.  And those near misses were good things too, because the city is paralyzed without the TTC.  People can’t go to work, tourists can’t visit the places they want to visit and generally the mood of the city goes down when the TTC is not around.

2) Main Tourist Attractions are Near Subways: Whether you are talking about the CN Tower, the Rogers Centre, Roy Thomson Hall, Casa Loma or any other major tourist attraction in the City of Toronto, almost all of them are built near subway stations.  This is not to say that the buildings themselves were constructed with the subway in mind, but rather it is to say that the TTC provides a route to the city’s main attractions that allows tourists that don’t know the city very well to get to them relatively easily.  This makes the TTC very important for Toronto’s tourism industry.

3) Rush Hour is better on the Bus: I remember the feeling of joy I had when I first got my driver’s license and now six years after the fact I’ve come to realize that I hate driving downtown.  If I take the bus, train or streetcar however, I can fall asleep and let someone else worry about the driving.

4) The TTC is Cheaper: Whether you are a person working a job where money is tight or whether you are a tourist trying to see Toronto on a budget, the TTC provides you the opportunity to save a ton of money on gasoline.  A monthly metropass is just over $100 and a weekly pass is around $30.  If you toured Toronto in a car for a week, the first time you filled up you would already be past the amount of money you’d need to pay for unlimited weekly travel on the TTC.

5) The TTC Reduces Smog: Whenever people ask me when they should come and visit Toronto, I usually recommend that they do so during the summer.  While part of this is just my Canadian bias feeling that someone can’t truly see Toronto in all its glory without some snow on the ground, another part of it is the fact that downtown Toronto during the summer has problems with smog from time to time.  For a city’s downtown core that is already prone to poor air quality days, can you imagine how much worse it would be without the downtown subway system?

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

Photo Credit: toronto subway buttons ~ looking north by striatric on Flickr, used under the CCA-SA 2.0 License

If you read The Toronto Traveler on a regular basis, then chances are you’ve seen me refer to the city’s subway system more than a few times.  Toronto is one of those cities that would not be the same without its subway system.  Besides allowing hundreds of thousands of people the chance to get to work every day, the subway and the larger public transit network within Toronto and the surrounding area is absolutely essential for tourism in the city.  This is why I include information about subway stations in all of my event postings, because I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of people that read this blog use that method of transportation as their primary means of getting around the city (I know I do!).

In that spirit, here’s a nifty little picture that I found on Flickr.  It’s a set of Toronto subway buttons, with the background of each button matching the actual tiling for that subway station.  The stations that you can see here are in the downtown core and waterfront areas of the city, which is why the names might be more recognizable to you than some of the other stations around.  I thought it was a pretty cool picture, so I decided to pass it on to you.

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

The City Playhouse Theatre is set to be host to one of the most interesting events of early 2008 when they roll out the red carpet (or rather, should that be the green carpet?) for the 2008 Green Reel Environmental Film Festival.

The festival is designed to have a number of different documentaries as well as mainstream and independent productions shown at it.  The only real requirement for a particular feature to be shown at the festival is that it needs to have an environmental theme of some kind.  When this was weighed by the directors of the festival, a list of over twenty different films were selected to be screened for free in some places and for a small admission fee of $4 in other places.

Here are some films that are going to be shown:

A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash

The Edge of Eden: Living with Grizzlies

Black Gold

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Sicko

Being Caribou

Toxic Trespass

Perhaps the one major drawback of this event is the fact that getting to it is somewhat difficult if you are traveling by public transit.  You are going to have to go to Bathurst Station, take a bus north for quite awhile and then walk a bit to get to where you want to go.  For this one event, if you are interested in attending it, a taxi ride or a two-day car rental might be a better idea.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Event Name: 2008 Green Reel Environmental Film Festival

Event Location: City Playhouse Theatre

Event Dates: January 4th and 5th

Event Times: Both days 8:00 AM to 11:00 PM

More Info: Call 905-882-7469 or click here

Post from: The Toronto Traveler

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC for short) is the government authority that controls and maintains the subway system in Toronto.  They are responsible for not only making sure that the current stations and trains remain in good authority, but they are also responsible for making additions whenever the funding they receive allows for it.  A full map of the subway system as it currently exists in Toronto can be found here and while understanding the system enough to be able to navigate to different places in the smallest amount of time takes some practice, there are a few things that you can start doing right now to get off on the right track.

1) If in doubt, ask: The TTC information helpline located at 416-393-INFO is your best friend.  You can use it to get the best directions for where you want to go directly from the horse’s mouth.

2) Most attractions will be close to a subway station: If you are in Toronto and are looking for a tourist attraction, chances are it is going to be very close to one of the subway stations.  This is because stations are built with tourism in mind and they have been for decades now, so the city knows pretty well where to put new stations.

3) Day passes might be worth it: The TTC has a day pass that they sell that allows you to take a family around for a full day.  This pass can end up saving you dozens of dollars if you are planning to have a busy day of activities with the whole family in tow.  The pass is sold on a daily basis at all of the subway stations, so make sure that you consider purchasing it if you forsee the potential use of multiple TTC fares during the day.

These are just three tips to whet your appetite and get you started; I’ll have more to say about using the TTC later on down the road.

Post from: The Toronto Traveler