Thousands of commuters faced delays Wednesday after a partial train derailment on the Bloor-Danforth line shut down service between Jane and Ossington stations during the morning rush.

Frustrated passengers packed Bloor Street West, cramming onto packed shuttle buses while others took alternate routes to get to work. Some said that their commute times were more than doubled by the delay.

This is the first major unintended TTC subway shutdown of 2020. Just last month, almost 200 people were evacuated from a train at Dundas West station after a wooden board touched the third rail, sparking a fire.

The Star’s transportation reporter Ben Spurr answered readers’ questions about the delay:

Is there a way to get a fare refund if there’s an alert while you’re waiting on the subway platform?

The TTC doesn’t offer refunds for service problems, but riders can get transfers at stations to use alternate routes.

There was some discussion in 2015 about the possibility of starting a refund program akin to GO Transit’s, which repays customers whose trains are seriously delayed. But the TTC said at the time it would require significant overhead and administrative costs.

Many transit advocates would argue that money would be better spent making the system more reliable.

How many people does a subway car versus a bus hold?

The T1 subway cars used on Line 2 each have a standing capacity of 184 passengers, and there are six cars per train. The TTC’s longer articulated buses (the “bendy” ones) each have a standing capacity of 77 riders.

Is John Tory ever going to fix these TTC delay problems?

While it often feels like subway delays happen frequently, according to the latest statistics in TTC CEO’s report, as of November delay minutes on Line 1 were down 3.9 per cent compared to the same time in 2018, and delay minutes on Line 2 were down 10 per cent.

Should we get rid of all our subways and switch to buses?

From a transit service perspective, this would be a bad idea. Subways carry far more people, far more efficiently than buses, and don’t mix with private car traffic. Trying to fit the current number of TTC subway riders onto buses would likely lead to mass gridlock on Toronto’s roads.

Why are TTC fares constantly being raised, instead of critically examining the countless issues this transit system has?

The 10-cent fare increase scheduled to go into effect March 1 will be the ninth since 2009, and has angered many riders. There is a reasonable debate to be had about whether it is fair to continue to ask transit riders to pay more when the city hasn’t tapped other revenue sources, such as property tax increases, to the extent that it is able.

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However, just because fares are going up doesn’t mean the TTC isn’t paying attention to the problems afflicting the transit system. Every day and night the agency’s employees perform important maintenance on the subway network and vehicles.

Last year, CEO Rick Leary introduced a new report on the long-term needs of the TTC, which he said enumerated for the first time the cost of all the work required to keep the subways, buses and streetcars running. It outlined more than $33 billion worth of work required over the next 15 years (the number has since risen to more than $36 billion), two-thirds of it unfunded. It’s now up to the politicians who oversee the TTC to decide how to fund the work.