Mass Transit and Private Ownership: An alternative Perspective on the Case of Toronto

Abstract

For more than thirty years Toronto has been renowned for the quality and efficiency of its public transportation. Studies have repeatedly described the Toronto Transit Commission or TTC as "probably the finest mass transportation system in the new world." One statistic alone establishes its uniqueness: it was the only North American transit system to increase its total patronage between 1946 and 1971. While not quite as successful as the TTC, mass transit systems elsewhere in Canada have generally out-performed their American counterparts. As a result, analysts have credited them with an important role in making Canadian cities more viable and livable than those of the United States. Yet urban transportation has received scant attention from Canadian historians. But the era of neglect now seems to be passing for a recent article by Michael Doucet in the Urban History Review has attempted to put Toronto's unique development in historical perspective.