Tens of thousands of TTC customers were in a very bad mood on Tuesday morning after an “environmental spill” caused the service to shut down on Line 1 between Union and Bloor station.
The event at 8:30 a.m. turned an ordinary morning commute into a nightmare.
After lining up for shuttle buses in frigid temperatures for several hours, many customers were thrilled when service finally resumed at 1:30 p.m.
TTC CEO, Andy Byford, said they were aware of the problem on Monday night, but weren’t aware of the severity until early the next morning. They initially thought it was water, but later found out the fuel-mixed liquid came from an underground expansion joint.
Kate Jordan, the spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, said Wednesday the leak has been stopped and the spill has been cleaned up.
“The material was vacuumed up and removed from the site and the area was power washed,” Jordan said. “Ministry staff were on hand to oversee this work and make sure it was done properly.”
“Testing has shown the material contained a mixture of hydrocarbon,” Jordan added. “TTC is conducting further testing to pinpoint the exact compounds.”
TTCriders is calling for better transit funding from the Ontario government, following a surprise fuel leak at College Station that made tens of thousands of Toronto commuters late for work on Tuesday. “This is another example of our transit system being stretched to breaking point, because once again thousands of riders are late,” said Jessica Bell, the executive director of the public transit advocacy group, in an interview Tuesday morning.
—http://torontoobserver.ca/2015/03/25/ttc-shutdown-poor-funding-leads-to-poor-transit-says-ttcriders/