‘An oversight:’ TTC apologizes for ads that featured route error

A Toronto Transit Commission sign is shown at a downtown Toronto subway stop Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy

The TTC is apologizing after a number of advertisements posted in subway cars encouraged riders to follow an impossible route from Spadina Station to Kensington Market.

The advertisements are part of a wider campaign encouraging riders to use the TTC to get to some of Toronto’s well-known neighbourhoods and destinations.

The particular ad in question encouraged people to ride on the 506 streetcar from Spadina Station to the historic market.

However, there was just one problem: while the 506 streetcar does pass by the northern border of Kensington Market along College Street it does not go to Spadina Station.

The 510 Spadina streetcar, which passes by Kensington Market to the east, does serve Spadina Station.

“This was an oversight and we apologize for any confusion they may have caused,” TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said in a statement provided to CTV News.

He said “They should all be down by now. We have new/different ones coming out shortly as part of this ongoing campaign.”

Pictures of the incorrect advertisements quickly made their way to social media.

On a Toronto Reddit post, one user criticized TTC leadership as people who “live in the suburbs and drive.”

Another wrote that “Nobody proof reads at the TTC” as what would have been a better route for the TTC to advertise would be taking the 510 streetcar from Spadina Station to Kensington Market.

The 506 runs east from High Park through College, Carleton, and Gerrard to end at Main Street. While the 510’s route is Spadina Station south towards Queens Quay and Union Station, with a stop at Nassau Street where Kensington Market is.