Markham resident Edward Montoya has recently gotten much better acquainted with Toronto’s subway system — one paper transfer at a time.
Over the holidays, the second-year civil engineering student at Seneca College was downtown with some friends when they came across a red proof-of-payment machine at TMU Subway Station, near Yonge and Dundas streets.
At the urging of a friend, Montoya decided to embark on a challenge to collect a paper transfer from every TTC subway stop.
“I was like, ‘Why not!,” he told CP24 during a recent interview.
Runnymede Station, Edward Montoya Edward Montoya is seen at Runnymede Station (Line 2) earlier this month.
Montoya, who is 22, likes collecting things, especially items that are symbolic of urban life. Taking up a collection of TTC transfers was right up his alley.
“Just for fun,” he said he’s visited several city halls, snapping a photo at each location and posting it to Instagram.
“I’m also trying to get every library card in the GTA,” Montoya said.
So far, he’s got one from Toronto, Markham, Vaughan, and Newmarket.
Montoya has also been collecting public transit cards over the years and has one from Metrolinx (Presto), and the transit systems in Norfolk, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Chicago, Illinois.
TTC transfer challenge began Jan. 8
On Jan. 8, Montoya unexpectedly found himself with a free day after his classes got cancelled, so he decided to launch his TTC transfer challenge.
Transfers Line 4 Transfers from Line 4 are seen in this photo. (Edward Montoya/photo)
He started on Line 4 (Sheppard), a 5.5-kilometre rapid transit line that has just five stops and is the shortest of all TTC subway lines. Montoya began at Don Mills Station, which is close to Seneca College’s Newnham Campus at Finch Avenue.
It took him about 30 minutes to ride Line 4, including obtaining a transfer at each station and reboarding the train to the next one.
Montoya then decided to ride Line 1 (Yonge-University), which is 38.4 kilometres in length and has 38 stops, and do the same thing.
“I went up to Finch station. It took about five hours and it was miserable,” he confessed.
Finch station transfer, Edward Montoya Edward Montoya holds a transfer from Finch Subway Station. (Edward Montoya/photo)
Undeterred, six days later, on Jan. 14, he took on Line 2 (Bloor-Danforth) as well as the new Finch West LRT. Line 2 is 26.2 kilometres long and has 31 stations, while the Finch West LRT (Line 6) is 10.3 kilometres and has 18.
Unfortunately, Line 6 doesn’t have transfers so Montoya, shared his experience on Reddit and on his personal Instagram account, said he made his own.
Line 6 homemade treansfer Line 6 (Finch West LRT) doesn’t have transfers so Montoya made his own. (Edward Montoya/photo)
The TTC’s Line 3, better known as the Scarborough RT, permanently closed in July 2023 following a derailment, while Line 5, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT or The Crosstown, is supposed to open sometime in the near future.
Montoya said riding Toronto’s entire subway system wasn’t the most exciting thing he’s ever done, but in the end, he was never bored and had some fun collecting a transfer at each station.
“There just one (machine) at each station so it’s like a scavenger hunt,” he said.
“It’s a crazy dopamine rush when you click on the button for the ticket. I never thought it would be so much fun to click on that button.”
TTC Transfer machine Edward Montoya gets a transfer from a proof-of-payment dispenser. (Edward Montoya/screengrab)
Montoya said he got a few funny looks from fellow public transit users when he left the subway car and happened to reboard the same one but overall, most passengers were mostly unbothered.
His biggest fear throughout the whole experience, he shared, was if a fare inspector would ask him to show his transfer as proof-of-payment and he’d accidentally produce the wrong one. Luckily, that didn’t happen.
Montoya’s favourite station, he shared on Reddit, was St. Clair West on Line 1, “for its ease of its transfers with the streetcars and the buses.”
Several Reddit users said they, too, have taken up TTC transfer collections.
“There’s a lot of people that love transit,” Montoya said.
Edward Montoya, Transfer Line 1 Edward Montayo is pictured, along with th transfers from Line 1. (Edward Montoya/photo)
‘Pretty nice to have a good subway system’
And while his experience riding Toronto’s underground may not have been life-changing, he says it did help bring him a little more appreciation for the city’s public transit system.
“It’s pretty nice to have a good subway system,” said Montoya, adding in his experience trains came roughly every five minutes, as expected, which isn’t quite the case for buses up in York Region where he lives.
“We’re lucky to have a city that kinda cares about transit. They’re trying their best.”
TTC subway A TTC subway car is seen in this undated file photo.
‘Wonderful display of pride and passion’
The TTC, meanwhile, is called Montoya’s transfer challenge a “wonderful display of pride and passion.”
“People in cities all over the world really value their public transit systems and Edward Montoya is certainly no exception,” spokesperson Stuart Green said.
“We know we have our challenges, but it’s great to know that there are still people who appreciate the TTC to this degree!”
As for Montoya, he said he’s planning to create a poster with all of his transfers, and is also pondering doing a “speedrun,” riding every line as in the TTC’s subway system as fast as he can.
