While our raccoon compatriots here in Toronto are adorable and hilarious, they also have a habit of causing serious trouble, whether by breaking into our cafes, stores and homes, stopping heavy traffic or causing widespread power outages.
The latest in this never-ending series of raccoon-related shenanigans in the city occurred on Thursday when one of the furry animals managed to stop commuters as he or she ventured, well, onto said tracks.
In the middle of the morning rush hour around 7:45 a.m., the TTC received reports of a raccoon at track level near the Davisville Station, prompting staff to suspend subway service on a portion of Line 1 while they jumped down and tried to persuade the wild animal to get out of the way.
TTC spokesman Stuart Green tells blogTO that the raccoon attack resulted in a 45-minute delay, although a supervisor and special constables did their best to move the little guy along – unfortunately just one of several significant disruptions to the subway network the city for the last week or so.
A passenger took a photo of the raccoon it was and shared it on Reddit. The results ranged from light-hearted jokes about our resident raccoons to complaints about the attacks this raccoon caused.
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Some hoped that the raccoon had been safely scared away, while others wondered why transport had to be stopped for a long time because of a single animal. “Will the highway be closed if there are traffic fatalities?” One of the less sensitive comments from a frustrated traveler is.
Green explains, “The concern with running over the animal, aside from the obvious, is that it could become entangled in the wheel/brake assembly, posing a safety risk.”
He added that “animal intrusion is unfortunately a common occurrence in the open parts of our route network” and said that in this case a total of 15 shuttle buses were deployed to fill the service gap while the subways fell short.
He, like many others online, couldn't help but find some levity in the hiccups, being in Toronto as it was.
“I don't want to diminish the inconvenience to our customers, but isn't this the most Toronto thing you'll hear today? A TTC delay caused by an invading trash panda,” he said.
Encounters with raccoons on and near TTC vehicles are not uncommon. There are many videos and stories of raccoons trying to board streetcars, successfully boarding subways, and, yes, roaming around train stations and tracks.
And earlier this week, a cat disrupted traffic on the 504 King route when it darted under a streetcar, but was thankfully rescued by a crew of helpful commuters.
Harder to forgive than the clueless cat and raccoon mentioned above was the GFL dump truck driver who accidentally ripped off the streetcar lines over King and Spadina on Tuesday, resulting in further closure of the entire intersection.
Main photo by
eskystudio/Shutterstock.com