Toronto is preparing to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors as FIFA World Cup 2026 comes to town in June and the City as well as TTC have been getting in gear to ensure they can handle the increased traffic on the roads and on transit.
On Friday, the TTC announced that 600 event ambassadors will be deployed across the system to help visitors navigate transit and the city.
The ambassadors will be wearing bright red soccer jerseys that are branded with “Team TTC 2026” logos to make them easy to identify. They will have iPads equipped with translators to help assist people in different languages.
Ambassadors will be positioned in high-traffic areas during the tournament and will answer customer questions, provide directions and other supports.
They will come from within the TTC ranks by volunteering for the role and will be trained in customer service and support. This will be in addition to an increase in supervisors, special constables and operators across the system.
The TTC has previously announced other planned improvements to service ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026, including increased frequency on streetcar routes 509, 511 and 504, bus route 29/929 and increased service on subway lines 1 and 2.
“With just over 30 days until the tournament kicks off, the TTC is finalizing and testing its service plans to ensure residents and visitors can move around the city reliably and efficiently,” said the transit agency in a press release.
This coming weekend will provide an opportunity for the TTC to stress test their plans as Toronto FC takes on Inter Miami. This event is being considered a “full scale dry run” by the TTC to ensure that their infrastructure is ready, service levels and response times are up to par and coordination across teams runs smoothly. They say lessons from this dry run will be used to further refine plans ahead of the first World Cup match in Toronto on June 12.
TTC CEO Mandeep Lali told reporters at a press conference on Friday that they’ve also been running such tests over the past few weeks and all systems, infrastructure and personnel are holding up to the stresses.
“We’re not doing [these tests] in isolation, we’re doing them in collaboration with our City partners, with our emergency partners and also jointly with Metrolinx – as we’re helping them, they’re helping us. Collectively, when we do this together, we will be successful,” he said.
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