66% of subway delays are caused by passengers, CBC Toronto data analysis shows

Next time you are stuck on Toronto's subway, look around. The reason you're losing five, 10 or 45 minutes on your commute could be sitting right next to you.

Or it could even be you.

According to TTC data analyzed by CBC News, of the 411 service hours lost to subway outages in 2016, a total of 269 hours 66 per cent were caused by passenger-related emergencies and misbehaviour.

Most of the incidents are unpredictable, the TTC says, includingpassengers being drunk and disorderly, people walking on the tracks for the fun of it and litter causing fires.

Last year, 2,373 unplanned subway outages lasting five minutes or more were reported. That's almost sevendelays a day, with the worst time for stoppages on Friday nights at 6 p.m.

The longest delays were medical emergenciescaused by 485 injured or ill passengers. The TTC says most of them were riders fainting or having seizures, especially in crowded subway trains during rush hour.

"We've seen a lot more medical-type calls. In the winter with a heavy coat, flus and colds, we get a lot more people feeling faint and requesting medical aid. That's definitely a trend,"says the TTC's acting head of subway transportation, Michael Hazlett.

The data obtained by CBC News also outlines 25 unplanned outages caused when a passenger was hit by a train. With more than one medical emergency a day, the transit commission is now paying $200,000 a year to have full-time paramedics on call on weekdays.

In a big city like Toronto, medical emergencies are to be expected, saysHazlett. It's the hundreds of preventable outages caused by riders he is most frustrated about, such asthe 177 times a train was delayed because a cigarette, newspaper or trash caused fire or smoke on the tracks, resulting in 20 minutedelays every time.

That time could have easily been saved if only passengers would stop littering,Hazlettsays.

"If we had a lot more people putting their newspapers in the garbage, we would have less trash blowing on the tracks and a lot less track fire.''

Drunk riders and track hoppers

Next come what the TTC calls "disorderly patrons,"most of them drunk or intoxicated riders. Hundreds of them were disruptive, aggressive or drunk enough to force the operator to stop the train and call security,which means riders got stuck for an average of 11 minutes each time.

''Probably the most frustrating thing is trying to explain to people that it's other people causing the delay. At the end of the day, it's out of our control in most cases'',Hazlettsays.

The TTC can't know for sure who these disorderly patrons are, but a look at when these outages are reported is telling. The majority of the 220 outages linked to a disorderly passenger happened on Saturday nights from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., mostly on trains travelling betweenSpadina, St-George andBloor-Yongestations.

Finally, if you think track hopping videos are funny or adventurous, consider this. Beyond the obvious threat of getting hit by an oncoming train, every time someone walked on the tracks in 2016, they also froze several trains for at least 20 minutes.

''Those delays can be so long because we have to cut the traction power and check the tracks. If somebody's injured, we are the ones that have to respond to that, and that's very troubling,''says MikeHazlett.

According toCBC'sanalysis,Bloor-Yongecould be renamed track-hopper central, with 10 of these outages reported last year, mostly on Friday and Saturday nights.

Little improvement despite numerous campaigns, says TTC

Despite numerous campaigns to address false alarms, littering and disruptive behaviour over the years, the TTC says it isseeing little improvement in passenger-related outages.

''No, not that I can say honestly,''saysHazlett. ''If we have mechanical issues, we are all trained to deal with them. The problems with people are the most challenging ...It's about trying to educate customers on the impact of their actions.''

TTC data shows unplanned outages have dropped since 2012.Hazlettsays part of that can be attributed to signal work, track repairs and improvements on theYonge-Universityline.

TTC employees also causing delays

Riders aren't the only one slowing down the system. TTC employees are responsible for eight per centof the hours of service lost in 2016. Most of those 34 hours were lost because an operator violated a traffic signal or failed to monitor the train doors properly.

CBC News also discovered that the pilot project for the new video monitored system for train doors on theSheppardLine led to one outage a day between October and December 2016. Riders paid the price: nearly 6 hours of service were lost in the four stations participating in the trial.

''It's definitely been a learning experience,''saysHazlett. He says operators were learning to useCCTVcameras to monitor train doors during that period, and outages have since dropped significantly. The TTC says the new system of having one employee per train instead of two will save about $18.6 million annually.