There was just one rule for partygoers at the biggest, wildest New Year’s Eve bash the city had ever seen: “No kissing the drivers.”

The puckering prohibition didn’t deter tens of thousands of revellers from packing public transit on Dec. 31, 1972 and into the first hours of 1973.

After all, the party was free, thanks to McGuinness Distillers Ltd., who paid $30,000 to rent every TTC bus, streetcar and subway in Metro Toronto for eight hours.

“New Year’s Eve is the worst night of the year to drive. So don’t. Travel free on the TTC instead,” urged an ad by the booze maker in late December.

It was a generous gesture that would continue for five years until an ugly incident derailed festivities for three decades. But that first raucous affair was a night to remember.

“I guess, in a city of this size, it takes something special like this to bring people together,” marvelled a subway driver as 1972 wound down none too sedately.

“I can’t believe it’s free!” was the common refrain, according to Toronto Star journalist Judi Timson, reporting from the midst of the noise and merrymaking.

If you didn’t climb on board a Toronto Transit Commission vehicle, “you missed the weirdest, wildest, most wonderful New Year’s Eve party of them all,” she declared.

Partygoers populated all the routes but it was a sardine scene on the Queen St. E. streetcar and downtown subway as tots to tottering older folks — liquor flowed freely if illegally — danced, tooted horns, sang, played harmonicas and smooched it up.

McGuinness extended its generosity again the following year, this time drawing an estimated 250,000 freewheelers. Many of them packed the transit system at the same time after the clock ticked past midnight and parties pooped. The subway was so jammed people had to wait behind turnstiles just to get on the platform.

But going home took a back seat to celebrations as the giddy crowds made good use of their prepaid ticket to ride.

“The kids smoked pot, couples kissed and people went the length of streetcars shaking hands and chanting ‘Happy New Year,’ “ reported the Star’s Alan Mettrick.

Computer operator Dick Lamratt, 26, happily gave up plans to head for home on Parliament St.

“It’s the best part of the whole night for my friends and I,” he said. “This is too good to miss. We’ll ride until the party’s over.”

That day came three years later when increasingly rowdy behaviour by TTC users on New Year’s Eve escalated to violence. Riding the Yonge St. subway just before midnight on Dec. 31, 1976, James Carson witnessed half a dozen youths beating and taunting two men he thought were of Pakistani origin.

As Carson, 61, jumped in to stop the assault, the group turned on him, kicking and punching before throwing him off the train at Rosedale station.

Carson told the Star he had captured enemy soldiers in war. But “I have never seen hate in the eyes of men as I did on the subway train that night,” he told reporter Dave Norris a couple of days later.

“I have been in two world wars and I have captured enemy soldiers but I have never seen hate in the eyes of men as I did on the subway train that night,” he told reporter Dave Norris a couple of days later.

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About 30 other passengers just sat there “like lumps of granite” during the altercation, said the small-built man, an investigator with the Ontario Ombudsman’s office.

Carson, who suffered a broken nose and leg injuries for his trouble, was later named Man of the Year by the Council of Muslim Communities of Canada.

Following the racist attack, the provision of free service on New Year’s Eve was given sober second thought. One TTC commissioner suggested McGuinness, which had handed over $55,000 to cart an estimated 350,000 revellers around the city that night, should pay an extra $10,000 for beefed-up security next time.

But the distiller nixed that idea.

“We simply buy time from the TTC. We can’t be expected to pay policemen’s salaries as well,” protested president Peter Mielzynski, maintaining the free rides were a “life-saving service.”

Several months later, McGuinness pulled the plug on its sponsorship. Legislation prohibited the TTC from providing free transit at its own expense, and because no other sponsor could be found, the practice came to an end.

Thirty years later, the freebie was born again as Capital One credit card company stepped up with $85,000 to offset lost fare revenue for four hours beginning at 12:01 a.m. GO Transit had begun offering free service on New Year’s Eve the previous year, so the mobile party extended to the far ends of the GTA.

But if the goal was to persuade drinkers to leave their cars at home, the mission failed. During the first few hours of 2008, the number of 12-hour impaired driving suspensions jumped almost 40 per cent over the previous year, according to the Ontario Provincial Police.

Police officers nabbed their first culprit just five minutes after a RIDE checkpoint was set up at Highway 401 and Avenue Rd.

“Here it is, New Year’s Eve, the most widely publicized RIDE night of the year, and we’re easily making arrests for drinking and driving and other crimes,” said OPP Sgt. Cam Woolley.

But public transit’s tradition of giving New Year’s carousers a safe, free ride to and from festivities continued. Partnering with the TTC, Corby Spirit and Wine has picked up the tab for the past few years, and will continue doing so for a while yet.

But there’s no word on whether bussing TTC drivers is permitted.

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