When I first moved here 10 years ago and took the subway to work it was pretty bad. Distinctly remember even changing cabs/cars/sections/whatever you wanna call it in the summertime in between stations, even multiple times to escape the funk. Even remember seeing news articles in the Star stating how rancid the trains and buses were...
From that point forward I knew the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) as TTC (Take the Car)!