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Old TTC tickets

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With the weather making it feel like spring, I decided to start clearing out some of my clutter. In doing so, I discovered two old TTC tickets in an envelope (both sides shown above). They’re from the mid-1980s, I suspect, as Julian Porter (whose name appears on the tickets) was TTC Chairman from 1979-1987. My grandmother was a frequent TTC rider which explains why I have a senior’s ticket (left) in my possession. Also note the cost: students got 5 tickets for $2 and seniors 5 for $1.75!

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10 comments

  2. What a blast from the past!! I remember the white ones which were used for, i believe, student tickets….which were then changed to purple…

  3. Mike’s Transit Stop has an historical timeline of TTC fares that helps to date these tickets.

    The 5 for $1.75 senior fare was in place through 1984.

    The 5 for $2 student (scholar!!) fare was in place through 1986… the ticket design appears to have been slightly modernized.

    I enjoy the printed tickets compared to the more recent “graphical” designs. (Sorry, don’t know the correct terms for how the printing was/is done.) I remember thinking the same thing as a kid in the 80s when comparing the printed Leafs tickets with the Jays tickets that basically took a blank and ran it through a dot matrix printer.

  4. When I was a student (pre-1970), the scholars ticket could only be used until 5 PM. After which you either had to pay the adult fare or drop 2 scholars tickets.

  5. It’s quite noble that they called it “scholars” — seems so much more elegant than “students”. It’s like the word “youth” — when did that start spreading. Awful.

  7. It’s probably blatantly obvious, but I can’t figure it out right now…what would the “P” stand for on the left ticket?

  10. The earlier designs were simpler, before counterfeiters were able to easily duplicate ticket stock.

    The really old tickets had pictures of streetcars on them. There are some pre-TTC tickets included in an article on my site:

    http://stevemunro.ca/?p=282

    I will have to scan in some of the TTC tickets from the days of four for a quarter with nice drawings of Peter Witts and PCC cars on them.