Toronto Subway Station GPS Locations

After seeing the various nifty web-enabled transit maps, I realised I had the data handy to get things started. A while back, I georeferenced the TTC Ride Guide, and digitized all the station locations. I cleaned them up today, and in the hope of being useful, here are the files:

These are simple three-column CSV files, stating latitude, longitude, and station name. They should be in order of stations. Locations are probably within about 50m of real life, but don’t bank on it.

I’ll get these into more useful formats soon, like GPX and KML. For now though, if you can use ’em, go ahead and do something.

queen west

Went to Canzine today after meeting. Can you belive it, an almost full house and it was a silent meeting?

Anyway, Canzine was full. Bought a couple of Spacing TTC buttons to show my commuter tribe affiliation (Kennedy — Union), and also a m@b book. Eveyone’s favourite Bramptonian Friendly Rich was there, being friendly and well-dressed. Jim Munroe looked in his element in his No Media Kings room.

After that, I walked down to the turbine. The warm weather had brought the ladybirds out. They were all over the deck.

For the TTC strike: ATU 113 – Contact List

Just in case the strike goes ahead, and you need to tell someone exactly how you feel:

Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 113
812 Wilson Avenue
Downsview, Ontario
M3K 1E5

Phone: (416) 398-5113
Out of Town: 1-800-245-9929
Fax: (416) 398-4978

Note: All correspondence should be addressed to the Secretary-Treasurer.

— from the ATU 113 – Contact List. Bob Kinnear is the president and business agent.

You also might want the TTC Contact Details.

bad scene chesterday

A very bad thing happened on the subway yesterday. Whether it was a fire at St George, or some undefined weirdness between Sherbourne and Bay, I don’t know. What I do know, however, is that by 07:55 we were told to get off the train at Chester. 7:55 is the time that my train leaves from Union station, so things were bad already.

Me and several thousand other folks were crammed on the platform at Chester. No-one was going anywhere. There were supposed to be shuttle buses, but there was no movement. People were just on the edge of freaking out, and there were ‘helpful’ suggestions flying about. Things got especially unhinged when extra trains came in, making the platform impossibly crowded.

Then a train came in which wasn’t said to be out of service, so people surged into it. The picture below was nowhere near as crowded as it had been:

chester, westbound, 07:59

So then no-one knew where to go. It seemed that many people were locked by indecision, so when I finally managed to barge my way to the stairs (featuring non-working escalators, crowded with static people):

chester, westbound stairs going nowhere, 08:00

All told, I was stuck down there for about fifteem minutes. It was very nasty. I’ve never been in such a large crowd in such a small space. Things almost turned ugly.

It did mean I was nearly two hours late for work (streetcar from Broadview got me in five minutes after the 08:43 train had left). I didn’t enjoy a nearly four hour commute.

meet anna phylactic

This time every year, Catherine bakes cookies to remember her dad, who died nine years ago.

We were coming home on the TTC last night, and Catherine broke out some of the cookies. They’re peanut butter this year, and they’re as good as they always are. We were gnawing away happily on them when a girl sat near us suddenly leaps up from her walkman-induced reverie, and asks, “Are those peanut butter cookies?”

We thought from her tone that she wanted one, but when Catherine said that they were peanut butter, the girl yelped and ran off to the next carriage. Other folks on the train looked at us as if we’d just executed an Aum Shinrikyo-style attack on the transit system with peanut roasters planted at every station.

People just weren’t allergic to peanuts when I was young. But it’s getting so you just can’t enjoy a cookie on the subway any more.

only in toronto

A dude playing a fusion of traditional Scottish airs and free jazz on an electric bassoon in Union subway station.