Update — Thursday, February 15, 9:27 a.m.: A report to today’s meeting of the Toronto Transit Commission has supplied a more extensive list of the events that occurred.

Yesterday, Tuesday, January 30, was not a good day for the TTC, its passengers or its workers.

A series of incidents before and during the morning rush hour on the Line 1 Yonge - University subway resulted in dangerous levels of overcrowding at many stations along the line, especially, the two interchange stations, St George and Bloor - Yonge. At those stations, passengers transferring from Line 2 Bloor - Danforth trains flooded the station platforms that were already inundated with Line 1 passengers coping with the delays.

Brad Ross, who is the TTC’s Executive Director of Corporate Communications, tweeted a list of the events that occurred to help explain the situation:

• “A late-clearing work zone after overnight track work near Finch Station meant that TTC crews had to park some work cars in pocket tracks until after morning rush hour.
• “Trying to run the work cars back to Wilson Yard just as rush-hour trains were leaving the yard would have interfered with the start of service.
• “A frozen switch earlier in the morning compounded issues at Wilson Yard, but did not impact overall service this morning.
• “For reasons we need to better understand, a disabled train with brake issues parked in the tail track north of Finch Station was moved to Davisville Yard at 7 a.m. — this is not something that should have happened.”

All of these events occurred before the peak of the rush hour had begun… but unfortunately more problems would occur, within the next hour, leading to the crisis. Ross’ list continues:

• “At 7:23 a.m., that train was emitting smoke at Eglinton Station, which caused service to hold for 16 minutes.
• “There was also a switch / signal problem northbound at Davisville, affecting train movement into north York, causing very slow service approaching St Clair Station, which cascades up and down the line.
• “At about 8:15 a.m., a southbound train at Museum Station experienced door problems, which caused a 10-minute delay.
• “Just as that was clearing, an emergency alarm was activated on the train, resulting in another 11 minute delay.
• “A 21 minute delay at that hour truly kicked off this morning’s problems.
• “Overcrowding at St George Station resulted, and the station was by-passed with trains sent to Bloor - Yonge Station.
• “It didn’t take long, then, for Bloor-Yonge Station to become excessively overcrowded, as one might imagine.
• “Eventually, some empty trains were able to alleviate the crowding at Bloor - Yonge, because, as the problem at Museum Station had cleared.
• “The pocket tracks mentioned above would have been useful to park some empty trains in and to insert quickly into service as platforms became excessively overcrowded.”

Ross then told followers that the TTC would work to make sure that the situation would never recur.

• “That’s what happened and we learned from it - for example, suggest and use Spadina Station to customers as an alternative to St George and Bloor - Yonge when by-passing; don’t move a disabled train until after rush hour; clear work zones on time so pocket tracks are available for empty trains that can be used to alleviate crowded platforms.”

The Toronto Star’s transportation writer, Ben Spurr, explained in an article:

“Crowds grew as new customers arrived and had nowhere to go, and stranded passengers began to tweet about ‘chaos’ underground and ‘scary’ conditions on platforms.”

According to Toronto Sun reporter Kevin Connor, “Commuters took to social media to complain about the delays.

“August Bourre wrote his 20 minute commute took 70 minutes on Tuesday to get to work. ‘Forty minutes spent waiting for a southbound train at Yonge and Bloor,’ he tweeted. Jim Gifford wrote on Twitter it was the ‘worst commute in a long time.’ ‘Crushed and pinned on train. Took 10 mins. and hundreds of people to exit train and station at Bloor. Dangerous situation,’ he posted.

“Empty Red Rockets travelling the system didn’t help TTC customer relations.

“‘I know TTC service was messed up this morning, but a good way to annoy customers is (to) run an empty train through Bloor Yonge station,’ Zach Henderson tweeted.”

The Star’s report continues.

“In an interview, TTC spokesperson Brad Ross asserted that the subway system is safe. He noted the agency has protocols to deal with overcrowding, including slowing trains as they enter a station and shutting down escalators.

“But he acknowledged that… the TTC was ‘very, very close’ to closing Bloor-Yonge, its busiest station, and evacuating passengers, something he said he has never seen the agency have to do as a result of crowding. The TTC is reviewing what caused the delays and will report to its board later this month.”

In the news, read:

• BlogTO post, “TTC apologizes for horrendous subway service [Tuesday]”, here.
• BlogTO post, “The TTC was total chaos during [Tuesday] morning’s commute”, here.
• BlogTO post, “Safety concerns arise after mass overcrowding on the TTC”, here.
• Globe and Mail article, “Chaos ensues as TTC experiences slew of problems”, here.
• Toronto Star article, “TTC passengers voice frustration after delays cause longer travel times”, here.
• Toronto Sun article, “Crowding, smoke among issues leading to TTC commuter chaos”, here.