The Toronto Metro: History, Demand, Performance

From a small 7.4 km line with 12 stations in 1954 to full network of four lines, 69 stations and close to 70 km of track length today, the Toronto metro has become an integral part of the city's transportation system; in 2008, it carried more than 200 million passengers (number of fares collected). The goal of this paper is to offer review of the Toronto metro by looking at its history, demand, and performance. First, the authors find that ridership and operations have increased relatively similarly from 1967 to 1990 at about 4.3%; after a decrease in the 1990's, ridership now increases by 2.59% annually on average. Nevertheless, despite this increase in ridership, transit mode share has remained around 22% in the past 25 years due to a strong growth in population. Demand seems to be more acute at stations located within the Central Business District and at stations located close to neighboring municipalities, which is reflected by the fact 69% of trips are home-work/school trips. Compared to its North-American peers, and despite a relatively small track length, the Toronto metro is performing quite well when looking at various characteristics and indicators. Overall, the Toronto seems to have performed well to date; nevertheless it will likely need to be expanded significantly in the new future to accommodate the forecasted substantial growth in population.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • The DVD lists the title of this paper as: Toronto Metro: History, Demand, and Performance.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Hemily, Brendon
  • Derrible, Sybil
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 90th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2011-1-23 to 2011-1-27
• Date: 2011

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: DVD
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 15p
• Monograph Title: TRB 90th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Central business districts; Commuters; Demand; Forecasting; History; Operations; Performance; Public transit; Ridership
• Geographic Terms: Toronto (Canada)
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01334192
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 11-0088
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Mar 25 2011 10:28AM