At first glance, the Subway Toronto board game looks every bit of its 20 years of age. Its appearance is dated and a little dull, having been discontinued for decades.
Subway Toronto was published in 1994 by SUBWAY Games International, based in St. Catharines. According to the shiny gold sticker on the box, the company had plans to release versions of the game for other cities, like Montréal and New York, but they shut down after releasing the Toronto version and disappeared without a trace. The only evidence of the game’s existence is on boardgamegeek.com, and the information there is vague. The game came to Spacing via a staff member who stumbled across it while cleaning out a family member’s basement.
After setting the game up and reading the directions, I couldn’t help but think, this is going to be one of the most boring board games I could ever play. But, to my pleasant surprise, it was quite the opposite. And the more people playing, the more fun it was. We played in a light, non-competitive way, but it was easy to see how strategies could be employed to stir the pot and cause some interoffice conflicts. The game is akin to a more adult and complex version of the game Trouble.
Because Subway Toronto was manufactured 20 years ago, Downsview station and the Sheppard line are absent. The Scarborough RT line also didn’t make it onto the board, despite it having been opened in 1985.
There was an underlying humor and irony to playing this game. Although our markers were moving at the speed of sometimes five stations at a time, we often found ourselves at a standstill, or trying to access a station that would take seemingly forever to reach. This 20-year-old game manages to mimic the station delays, track maintenance, and other frustration riders can feel while riding the TTC Rocket today — while managing to make it all fun.
How to play:
- Object of the game: Be the first player to discard all of their destination cards and arrive back at the start (Union Station).
- Moving around the board: Each player begins with six randomly chosen destination cards. The game is played with a six-sided die, with sides 1–5 numbered and a subway icon on the sixth side. The subway icon allows a player to move directly to one of their destination card stations.
- Discarding cards: If you land directly on the station marked on your destination card, you have the option of discarding the card or giving it to another player.
- Signal cards: When a player lands on a station that is marked red, amber, or green, they must pick up a corresponding colour card and follow the directions. Red cards are meant to hinder a player, amber cards are destination cards, and green cards are meant to help a player.
- Direction & subway line changes: Players must make it to the end of the line they are travelling on before they are allowed to change directions. A player must land on a junction station (such as St. George) to change lines.
This article appears in our Summer 2014 issue.
