\u201cThe message they were hearing from their city was that we\u2019re not going to make the changes necessary to address one of the biggest events that we\u2019ve hosted in the city,\u201d he told CTV News Toronto on Thursday. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was really pissed off with the dismissive and patronizing tone of the communications that came out of the city. I don\u2019t like residents being treated that way by their own government.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can\u2019t even handle Game 7, what confidence do we have that the city and the TTC is ready for FIFA? And that\u2019s the question that I\u2019ve been raising.\u201d<\/p>\n
The TTC has since apologized, and its board passed a motion to establish \u201cpredictable late-night transit service\u201d for major special events following the backlash. <\/p>\n
Concerns, however, remain about how the city will manage transit for the FIFA World Cup. Starting on June 12, Toronto will host six FIFA World Cup matches at the Toronto Stadium. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe World Cup will be a literally different ball game,\u201d August Pantitlan Puranauth, a member of transit advocacy group TTCRiders, told CTV News Toronto on Thursday. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople will be relying on buses, streetcars and trains. Over 300,000 are going to descend on Toronto for the World Cup, and it\u2019s important they choose transit if we are to avoid massive gridlock.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matlow said during the World Series, the TTC based its decision on not extending subway service past 1:30 a.m. on the fact that the games were not \u201can emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/5K7UK3IQ5RDDVNO2IHPBFNLSHE.JPG\")
World Series crowd Baseball fans gather outside the Rogers Centre during World Series Game 7 between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers in Toronto on Sunday, November 2, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Nick Iwanyshyn <\/p>\n
\u201cThe test should not have been this is an emergency. The test should have been what kind of service should we provide people. How are they going to get home and how are they going to get there safely?\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that GO Transit also failed riders and left people stranded. He said people waited in line for long periods of time at Union Station to get on a train and were eventually told, once they got to the front of the line, that their train was gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese were people trying to go to Burlington and Hamilton. They were stuck,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe city and the TTC and Metrolinx, for the FIFA World Cup, they need to start working now on a coordinated approach to make sure that there\u2019s a seamless way to get around the region with extended and expanded service, because the volume is going to be enormous,\u201d Matlow said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think many would say that they don\u2019t do a good enough job even with the people that they have now.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an email to CTV News Toronto, the TTC wrote that it is working in collaboration with multiple partners to ensure they are \u201cdelivering excellent service during the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
GO Transit also wrote to CTV News Toronto in an email that the World Series was a \u201cunique event due to the fluid nature of the Jays playoff schedule, unlike FIFA, which is an event planned years in advance with match schedules released with months\u2019 notice.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMetrolinx and the City of Toronto FIFA Secretariat are working diligently to ensure robust crowd and platform management plans are in place to keep everyone safe throughout the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matlow said that the city and transit agencies need to remember that Toronto will not just be \u201ca stage for the FIFA World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Toronto](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/YP4ZNA3INJCUTINK4UM6MINHVI.JPG\")
Toronto City Hall preparing for \u2018very large crowds\u2019 ahead of World Series Game 1 Toronto Blue Jays fans celebrate after the team beat the Seattle Mariners to win the American League Championship Series, in Toronto, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Laura Proctor (Laura Proctor\/THE CANADIAN PRESS) <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is also going to be, even during the games, a live city where people still live and work, and so what I\u2019m what I\u2019m asking for, is for the TTC and Metrolinx, the city, to be prepared to keep the city functional for people who still need to move around while the games are happening,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Matti Siemiatycki, director of the Infrastructure Institute and professor of geography and planning at the University of Toronto, told CTV News Toronto that it\u2019s vital that the transit agencies work together to ensure people aren\u2019t left behind. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is mass transportation. Like, you know, we\u2019ve had events where there have been tens of thousands, even millions of people, and it takes preplanning and takes the right number of resources,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cPart of the failure of the World Series was just very poor communication that came across as a blip and uncaring.\u201d<\/p>\n
Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto transit goers left stranded during the Blue Jays\u2019 final World Series game have experts and riders questioning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[712,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-272494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}