Metrolinx and the TTC promise to make commuting less terrible
Service adjustments are being made to accommodate return-to-office mandates
There’s plenty to appreciate about the WFH life: comfortable pants, better coffee, lack of fluorescent overhead lighting, private washroom access and the greatest asset of all—no commute. Nothing pummels morale like sitting in gridlock, dissociating to FM radio while developing gluteal amnesia.
Alas, our bosses want us back in the office, so to the office we will go. RIP to the blissful leisure hours we once enjoyed before and after the workday. According to Statistics Canada, Torontonians, more than any other Canadians, will spend those hours in traffic. We have the worst commute in the country—eight minutes longer than the national average.
Related: After decades of delays, the UP Express will soon connect to the TTC via a pedestrian tunnel
Statistics Canada data also reveals that the number of commuters has continued to rise over the past four years. The proportion of employed people who commute has now reached 82.6 per cent.
Fortunately, the always trusty TTC and Metrolinx confirmed to CP24 that they’ll be making service adjustments to accommodate the increase in commuters following return-to-office mandates. More specific details will be shared by the TTC later this week, and Metrolinx has committed to adding more rush hour trips beginning October 27, on the Lakeshore West, Lakeshore East, Barrie and Stouffville lines.
Related: Who broke the TTC? Inside Toronto’s public transit disaster
We’re all in favour of an improved commute. But does the GO train have a Vitamix and several oscillating fans strategically placed to establish a home-office cross-breeze? That’s what the people really want.
Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
