345 TTC delays of 15 mins or more reported in first 10 months of 2019

If there is one thing Torontonians love to complain about, it’s TTC delays, but how often are they actually happening?

Based on data available on the City of Toronto website, there were over 345 delays of 15 minutes or more reported in the first 10 months of 2019. Data for November and December have not been made available yet.

There were also 36 delays which lasted an hour or more.

That works out to an average of 34.5 delays per month, exceeding one per day. The delays were caused by numerous factors including signal problems, rail issues, weather-related issues, unauthorized people on track levels, fires and so on.

The longest delay recorded was 455 minutes (approx. 7.5 hours) on June 25, 2019, between Wilson and Sheppard West stations on the Yonge-University Line caused by a rail-related problem.

There were also 73 scheduled closures, early closures and late openings on the TTC in 2019, but there only ended up being 58, a number that is anticipated to almost triple in 2020.

Currently, the TTC is planning 166 closures and late openings for signal upgrades and maintenance work in 2020.

CityNews Associate Producer Erick Espinosa filmed every time he was caught in a subway delay in 2019, illustrating what it’s like to be a daily TTC rider. He was caught in at least 31 delays.

Here is a list of how many delays there were in 2019, broken down by month:

• January – 45 delays (four 60 min+ delays)
• February – 42 delays (seven 60 min+ delays)
• March – 36 delays (six 60 min+ delays)
• April – 33 delays (one 60 min+
  delay)
• May – 32 delays (three 60 min+ delays)
• June – 30 delays (five 60 min+ delays)
• July – 30 delays (one 60 min+ delay)
• August – 32 delays (four 60 min+ delays)
• September – 34 delays (two 60 min+ delays)
• October – 31 delays (three 60 min+ delays)
• November – N/A
• December – N/A