A Fall on the TTC or GO Transit in Ontario: What to Do and Every Deadline

The bus braked and you went down in the aisle. Or your foot slid on wet station stairs. Or you stepped off the streetcar onto a broken curb. People were watching. You got up, said you were fine, and went to work. Now your wrist is swollen, or your back has seized, and you are wondering whether you should have said something.

You are not too late to act, but you may have less time than you think. After a fall on the TTC or on GO Transit, the rules change with the exact spot where you landed. A step inside the station, the floor of a moving bus and the sidewalk at the stop are three different legal situations, with three different bodies to notify and deadlines that run from 10 days to 2 years.

This guide puts every one of those deadlines in a single table, each with the section of the Ontario statute it comes from. We read each section ourselves. Where the law does not give a clear answer, and for Metrolinx it does not, we say so and tell you the safe thing to do.

If you were hurt, our public transit accident lawyers can sort out which rule covers your fall and send the notices in time. This article is general information about Ontario law in 2026. It is not legal advice about your own situation.

What should I do in the first 48 hours after a fall on the TTC or GO Transit?

Report it, get seen by a doctor, write down exactly where you fell, and ask in writing for the video to be kept. Then count 10 days from the fall and treat that as your deadline until someone tells you a longer one applies.

Here is the list, in the order that matters.

1. Get medical care today. Go to a clinic or an emergency room even if you think it is only a bruise. Tell them you fell on transit and where. The record made that day is the first proof that the fall caused the injury.
2. Report the fall. If you are still there, tell the operator, the station collector or a customer service agent, and ask for the incident or reference number. If you have already left, report it now. The next section explains how.
3. Write down the exact place. Not "at Finch station". Write "third step from the bottom of the stairs from the bus platform to the concourse, right side". For a vehicle, write the route, the direction, the time and, if you saw it, the four digit vehicle number. The whole claim turns on this.
4. Ask in writing for the video to be kept. Buses, streetcars, subway trains and stations carry cameras. Nobody outside the transit agency knows how long the footage is kept. Send a short dated letter or email that gives the date, time, route or station, and asks that all video be preserved.
5. Get names. A witness who gives you a phone number today is worth more than any argument later.
6. Keep your shoes, your fare record and your photos. A PRESTO or bank record shows you were on that vehicle at that time. Do not clean the shoes.
7. Count 10 days. If there is any chance you fell on a city sidewalk or road, or on Metrolinx property, a written notice may be due within 10 days. The table below shows which.

Do not give a recorded statement to an adjuster before you know which rules apply to you. You can report the facts of the fall without answering questions about fault.

I did not report the fall at the time. Is it too late?

No. A late report is still a report, and far better than none. Report it today, in writing if you can, and say why you did not report it on the day. The legal deadlines run from the date of the fall, not from the date you reported it.

Most people do not report on the spot. They are embarrassed, they are late, or they do not feel the injury until the next morning. That is ordinary, and it does not cancel a claim.

What a late report does is make the proof harder. The operator may not remember. The video may be gone. So when you report late, give as much detail as you can to make the event easy to find in the agency's own records.

For the TTC. The TTC's contact page lists a Claims telephone line, 416-393-3879, and a customer service line, 416-393-3030, open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day except statutory holidays. Those are the numbers on the page in 2026. Call, then follow up in writing so there is a dated record. The City of Toronto's own claims office does not handle claims against the TTC, so a report about a station or a vehicle goes to the TTC and not to the City.

For GO Transit and UP Express. GO's safety page gives a Security Dispatch line, 1-877-297-0642, and says you can text the word HELP to 77777 at any hour. Those are for incidents as they happen. For a fall that has already happened, use the GO customer comment form or write to Metrolinx, and keep a copy.

For a city sidewalk or road. This one is different, and it is urgent. A fall on the sidewalk at a stop is a claim against the City, and the City must receive written notice within 10 days. The City of Toronto accepts notice through its online claim form or by delivery to its claims office at City Hall.

When you report late, put these in the first lines: the date, the time, the route or station, the exact place, what you slipped or tripped on, and what was hurt. Then one sentence on why you are reporting now. "I did not realise I was injured until the next day" is a complete answer.

Why does the exact spot where I fell matter so much?

Because three different bodies control the places a transit rider walks, and Ontario gives each a different rule. The TTC controls its stations and vehicles. The City controls the sidewalk and the road. Metrolinx, a provincial agency, controls GO property. The spot decides who you notify and by when.

Think about one trip. You walk along a city sidewalk to a bus stop. You board a TTC bus. You get off inside a subway station, walk down the stairs to the platform, ride a train, and transfer at Union to a GO train. You have crossed property controlled by at least three different bodies, under four different statutes, without noticing a single boundary.

The law notices. Here is how the pieces fit, in plain terms.

• A station, a platform, a stairway or a stopped vehicle is "premises". The body in control of it is an occupier under the Occupiers' Liability Act and must take reasonable care to keep people reasonably safe.
• A moving vehicle is not premises. The Act's definition covers "trains, railway cars, vehicles and aircraft, except while in operation". So a fall caused by how a bus, streetcar or train was driven is judged as ordinary negligence: did the operator drive with reasonable care?
• A sidewalk or a road belongs to the municipality. In Toronto the rules are in section 42 of the City of Toronto Act, 2006. They include a 10 day written notice and, for snow or ice on a sidewalk, a higher bar called gross negligence.
• GO stations, platforms, parking lots, trains and buses belong to Metrolinx, which the Metrolinx Act, 2006 makes a Crown agency of the province. That brings a second set of notice rules into play, and they are not clear.

So before anything else, you need to be able to say where your foot was. If you are not sure whether the broken curb belongs to the stop or to the sidewalk, that is normal. Write down what you saw, photograph it if you can go back, and treat the shortest deadline as yours.

What is the deadline for each place I could have fallen?

It ranges from 10 days to 2 years. A city sidewalk or road needs written notice within 10 days. Snow or ice on station property needs notice within 60 days. Metrolinx property is unsettled, so treat it as 10 days. Every claim must be started in court within 2 years.

How we put this together. We downloaded the current text of six Ontario statutes from the government's e-Laws site in October 2026 and read the sections named below: the Occupiers' Liability Act, the City of Toronto Act, 2006, the Municipal Act, 2001, the Insurance Act, the Limitations Act, 2002, the Metrolinx Act, 2006 and the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act, 2019. We also searched the whole City of Toronto Act for any notice period that applies to the TTC. The table states only what those sections say. It does not include court decisions, which can change how a section is applied, so use it to know what to ask and by when, not as the final word on your case.

For every row, the lawsuit itself must be started within 2 years of the day the claim was discovered, which is usually the day of the fall. That is section 4 of the Limitations Act, 2002.

Three things about this table.

"None found" does not mean "take your time". We found no notice period for the TTC in the City of Toronto Act. The 10 day rule in that Act is written for claims against the City about its highways. But a claim that sits for a year with no report, no video and no witness is a weak claim, whatever the statute allows. Report within days.

The 60 day rule is about snow and ice, not about who owns the place. Section 6.1 of the Occupiers' Liability Act applies to an injury "caused by snow or ice" and requires written notice to an occupier, or to the contractor hired to clear the snow, within 60 days. It is explained in full in our guide to the 60 day notice rule after a slip on ice.

"Unsettled" is the honest word for Metrolinx. The section on GO below explains why, and why 10 days is the safe number.

If two rows could both describe your fall, use the shorter deadline. Nobody has ever lost a claim by sending a notice early.

I fell inside a station. Who is responsible, and what do they have to do?

The body in control of that part of the station is responsible. In a TTC station that is usually the TTC. It must take reasonable care to keep you reasonably safe. That means a working system for inspecting, cleaning and repairing, not a floor that is never wet.

Section 3 of the Occupiers' Liability Act sets the duty: an occupier must take such care as in all the circumstances is reasonable to see that people on the premises are reasonably safe. An "occupier" is whoever is in physical possession of the place, or has responsibility for and control over its condition. More than one body can be an occupier of the same place.

In a station, the usual causes of a fall are:

• Water, slush or a spill on stairs, a mezzanine floor or a platform.
• A broken, worn or uneven stair edge or tile.
• A stopped or jerking escalator, or an elevator that does not level with the floor.
• Poor lighting on stairs or at a platform edge.
• Something left in the way: a cleaning cart, a cable, a loose mat.
• Crowding that leaves no room and no handrail.

The fall alone does not prove a claim. What decides it is what the agency did about that hazard. How often was that stairway inspected? When was it last cleaned? Was the broken step reported before? How long had the water been there? Those answers are in the agency's own records: inspection sheets, cleaning logs, maintenance requests and earlier complaints.

That is the same question a store faces when a shopper slips, and our guide to a slip and fall in a store or mall explains how an inspection system is tested. We do not repeat it here.

Two things are different in a station.

The control may be shared. Some station entrances sit inside office towers, malls or condo buildings. Some concourses include shops. A big hub can have more than one transit agency in it. The body that runs the trains may not be the body that mops a particular floor. Write down exactly where you were and let a lawyer work out who was in control.

Weather walks in. On a wet or snowy day, every rider carries water into the station. An agency cannot keep every step dry in a storm, and the law does not ask it to. It asks what was reasonable: mats at the doors, more frequent mopping, warning cones, a handrail that works.

I fell on a moving bus, streetcar or subway train. Is that a different kind of claim?

Yes. A vehicle in operation is not "premises" under the Occupiers' Liability Act, so the claim is about how the vehicle was driven. The question is whether the operator took reasonable care for standing and seated passengers when braking, turning or pulling away.

This matters because the evidence is different. In a station fall, you look for inspection and cleaning records. In a fall on a moving vehicle, you look for what the vehicle did and why.

• Hard braking or a sudden start. Was there a reason? A car that cut in is one thing. An operator who was late and driving roughly is another.
• Pulling away before you were seated or holding on. This is common with older riders and people carrying bags or a child.
• Doors. A door that closed on you, or a vehicle that moved while you were still on the step.
• The floor. Slush or a spill on the floor of the vehicle that was there before the trip.

The proof usually comes from four places: the on-board video, the vehicle's own data about speed and braking where it exists, the operator's report, and other passengers. That is why the vehicle number, the route, the direction and the time matter so much. They are what lets anyone find the right footage.

A fair warning. Transit vehicles brake and sway in ordinary driving, and riders are expected to hold on where they can. Not every fall on a bus is someone's fault. A claim needs something more than "the bus moved": a stop that was harder than the traffic required, a start before an elderly passenger could reach a seat, a known hazard on the floor.

If the vehicle was stopped when you fell, for example at the terminal with the doors open, it may count as premises again and the station rules above apply. This is a fine line, and it is one of the first things a lawyer checks in each case.

Can I get accident benefits if the bus never hit anything?

Usually not. Ontario's Insurance Act says no statutory accident benefits are payable to an occupant of a public transit vehicle if the vehicle did not collide with another automobile or any other object. A fall caused by braking alone is outside the accident benefits system.

This surprises people, because in Ontario almost anyone hurt in a motor vehicle incident can claim accident benefits from an auto insurer for treatment and lost income, whoever was at fault. Transit is the exception, and it is written into section 268 (1.1) of the Insurance Act.

Here is how the pieces fit.

Some details from the Act itself:

• "Occupant" includes a person getting on or off. The Act defines an occupant as the driver, a passenger, and a person getting into or on, or getting out of or off, the vehicle.
• "Public transit" means a fare service run by or for a municipality or its local board. That fits a TTC bus. The definition leaves out special transportation for persons with disabilities, and it lets regulations add or remove services. Whether a GO bus, which is provincial, falls inside the definition is something we have not confirmed, so ask.
• Trains are different. The Act's general definition of an automobile does not include railway rolling stock that runs on rails. A subway or GO train is not an automobile, so the accident benefits question does not arise there.

The other side of the exception is better news. The same 2011 change added section 267.5 (6.1) to the Act. It says that the Act's limits on what an injured person can recover from the owner or driver of an automobile do not protect the owner or driver of a public transit vehicle that did not collide with anything. One of those limits is the injury threshold that normally applies to pain and suffering after a car accident. So where there was no collision, a claim against the transit agency is not held back by it.

If there was a collision, the accident benefits system applies in full, with its own short deadlines. Our guide to accident benefits when you are not the one at fault explains how to apply.

What this means in practice: after a fall with no collision, your treatment and lost income are not paid as you go by an auto insurer. They are part of the claim against the agency, and they are paid, if at all, at the end. That is hard on a household, and it is a reason to get advice early about OHIP, any benefits through work, and Employment Insurance sickness benefits while the claim runs.

I fell on the sidewalk at a bus or streetcar stop. Why is that the City and not the TTC?

Because the sidewalk and the road are highways under the City's control, not transit property. A claim about their condition is a claim against the City of Toronto, and the City must receive written notice within 10 days of the injury.

A bus stop is, most of the time, a pole on a city sidewalk. The broken slab, the missing curb, the pothole at the edge of the road where the bus doors open, the ice nobody cleared: those are conditions of the highway. Section 42 of the City of Toronto Act says the City must keep its highways in a state of repair that is reasonable in the circumstances, and is liable for damage caused when it does not.

The same section then sets three hurdles.

The 10 day notice. Under section 42 (6), no action can be brought unless written notice of the claim and of the injury, including the date, time and location, has been served on or sent by registered mail to the city clerk within 10 days. That is very little time for someone in a cast.

A narrow way back. Under section 42 (8), a late or imperfect notice does not end the claim if a judge finds there was a reasonable excuse and the City is not prejudiced in its defence. That is a decision for a judge, case by case. It is a rescue, not a plan.

Gross negligence for snow and ice. Under section 42 (5), the City is not liable for a personal injury caused by snow or ice on a sidewalk "except in case of gross negligence". That is a higher bar than ordinary carelessness.

Outside Toronto the wording is almost the same. Section 44 of the Municipal Act, 2001 sets the 10 day notice to the clerk of the municipality and the same gross negligence rule for snow or ice on a sidewalk. That matters for a fall on the sidewalk outside a GO station in Mississauga, Markham or Oshawa.

What we cannot tell you from the statute is where the line falls at every stop. A transit shelter, a raised streetcar platform in the middle of the road, a bus bay inside a station loop: who controls each depends on the place. When you cannot tell, send notice to both the City and the transit agency. A notice that turns out not to have been needed costs nothing.

I fell at a GO station or on a GO train. What changes with Metrolinx?

Metrolinx is a provincial Crown agency, not a city body, so the City's 10 day rule does not apply. Ontario has a separate notice rule for claims against the Crown, and the statutes do not make clear whether it reaches Metrolinx. Until a lawyer says otherwise, act within 10 days.

This is the part of the law we cannot make simple, so here is exactly what the statutes say.

• The Metrolinx Act, 2006 says in section 3 that Metrolinx is a Crown agency. In section 35 it says that no proceeding can be started against the Crown because of something Metrolinx did or failed to do. So a claim about a GO station is brought against Metrolinx itself.
• The Crown Liability and Proceedings Act, 2019 says in section 18 that no proceeding for damages can be brought "against the Crown" unless notice was served at least 60 days before the proceeding starts. For a claim about the ownership, occupation or control of property, the notice must be served within 10 days of the event. A proceeding started without the notice is a nullity.
• That Act defines "the Crown" as the Crown in right of Ontario. It defines a Crown agency separately, and it says the Crown is not liable for torts committed by Crown agencies.

Read together, those sections point in two directions. The notice rule is written for claims "against the Crown", and a claim about a GO station is against Metrolinx, not the Crown. But Metrolinx is a Crown agency, and we have not read a court decision that settles whether the notice rule applies to it. We are not going to guess in a public article.

So the practical answer is this. If you fell on GO or UP Express property, on a GO train or on a GO bus, get written notice out within 10 days, with the date, time, exact location and what happened. A lawyer will decide who it must be addressed to and how it must be served. If the 10 days have already passed, do not assume the claim is gone. See a lawyer at once, because the answer depends on a point of law that has to be argued.

Everything else about a GO fall works as it does on the TTC. A station, a platform or a parking lot is premises, and Metrolinx owes the same duty of reasonable care under the Occupiers' Liability Act. A moving train or bus is judged by how it was operated. Snow or ice brings the 60 day rule in section 6.1. And the 2 years to start a lawsuit applies.

GO has its own features that cause falls: the gap and the step between the platform and the train, long outdoor platforms in winter, large parking lots, and stairs and tunnels between platforms.

What if snow or ice was involved?

Then a 60 day written notice applies on station property, and on a city sidewalk the bar rises to gross negligence. Snow and ice shorten your time and, on a sidewalk, make the claim harder. Send notice early and say that snow or ice caused the fall.

Winter is when most transit falls happen. Outdoor stairs to a station entrance, open bus platforms, GO platforms, parking lots and the walk from the stop all ice over.

Where you were decides the rule:

The notice under section 6.1 can go to the occupier or to the independent contractor hired to clear the snow. Transit agencies, like malls, often hire contractors for their lots and platforms. Notice to either one protects the claim against both.

Ice is also the hardest condition to prove afterwards, because it melts. Our guide to slipping on ice in Ontario covers what the notice must say, and Environment Canada's hourly weather record for the day of your fall is free to download. Note the temperature and what the ground looked like while you still remember.

Will the TTC or Metrolinx give me the video of my fall?

Probably not because you asked. Transit agencies do not usually hand footage to the person who fell. Ask in writing that it be kept, not for a copy. Once a claim is under way, both sides must produce their relevant records, and that is when a lawyer obtains it.

Video is the best evidence in most transit falls. It shows whether the bus braked hard, whether the floor was wet, whether you were holding on, and how you landed. It can help you, and it can hurt you. Either way it is better to know.

What to do:

1. Send the request now. Give the date, the time as closely as you can, the route and direction or the station and the exact location, and the vehicle number if you have it. Ask that all video from the vehicle and the station be preserved.
2. Send it in a way that leaves a record. Email, or a letter you can prove was delivered. Keep a copy.
3. Do not argue if they refuse a copy. A refusal to give you the footage is normal. What you need is for it not to be erased.
4. Look for other cameras. A shop beside the stop, a building entrance, a dashcam in a car behind the bus. Those owners often say yes.

Nobody outside the agency knows how long each system keeps its footage, and it differs between a bus, a train and a station. Treat it as days. A written request made in the first week is the single most useful thing you can do for your own claim.

Your dated request also matters later. If footage that you asked the agency to keep is not there when the claim reaches that stage, the fact that you asked, and when, is part of the story a court hears.

What if I was not holding on, or I was looking at my phone?

You can still claim. Your own carelessness can reduce what you receive, but it does not cancel the agency's duty. In Ontario, when the injured person is partly at fault, the award is reduced by that share. The claim is not thrown out.

This is the thought that stops most people. They were standing when there was a seat. They had a bag in one hand and a phone in the other. They were running for the train. They decide the fall was their own doing and say nothing to anyone.

Fault can be shared. If a court found the agency 70% responsible and you 30% responsible, you would recover 70% of your damages. The rule is in the Negligence Act. Our guide to what a slip and fall claim is worth shows how a share of fault changes the numbers.

Some things to weigh honestly:

• Riders stand. That is how transit works. An agency that sells standing room has to expect standing passengers, some of them old, some carrying things.
• You are expected to hold on when you can. If a pole was within reach and you were not using it, expect that to be raised. If the vehicle moved before you could reach one, say so.
• Running for a train on wet stairs will be held against you to some degree. It does not excuse a stair edge that had been broken for a month.
• The video will show what you were doing. Tell your lawyer the truth before the footage does. A claim survives a phone in your hand. It does not survive a story the video contradicts.

Being partly to blame lowers a claim. It does not end one.

Is it worth claiming against something as big as the TTC?

Size is not the question. Transit agencies are sued, insured and represented like any large occupier, and they settle claims that have merit. What matters is whether your injury is real, whether someone fell short of reasonable care, and whether you can prove both.

People hesitate for three reasons, and each has an answer.

"They have lawyers and I do not." In an injury claim you do not pay a lawyer by the hour. We act on a contingency fee: the fee is a share of what is recovered, and if nothing is recovered there is no fee. That is how an individual can bring a claim against an agency with a legal department.

"It will take years." Some claims do. Many settle sooner, once the records and the medical picture are clear. Our guide to how long a personal injury claim takes explains the stages.

"It was only a fall." A broken wrist in someone who works with their hands, a hip fracture at 70, a concussion that does not clear: these change lives. A fall that left a bruise for a week is not worth a claim, and a good lawyer will tell you so. A fall that put you off work for three months is a different matter.

When it is worth it, the claim can include pain and suffering, lost income, the cost of treatment and care that OHIP does not cover, and out of pocket expenses. Without a collision there are no accident benefits to pay these as you go, so the claim against the agency is the only source.

What should I do in the best case and in the worst case?

Plan for both. In the best case you reported at once, the video was kept and you know exactly where you fell. In the worst case you told nobody, weeks have passed and you are unsure whose property it was. Each has a next step.

Every fall is different. Here is what to do either way.

Two honest points about the right-hand column.

A missed 10 day notice is serious, but it is not always final. Both the City of Toronto Act and the Municipal Act let a judge excuse a late notice where there was a reasonable excuse and the municipality is not prejudiced. The Occupiers' Liability Act has the same exception for the 60 day snow and ice notice. Whether you fit it is a question for a lawyer, and the sooner you ask, the better your answer to "why were you late".

Sometimes there is no claim. If the bus braked because a child ran into the road, and the video shows a normal stop, nobody was careless. If the stairs were wet from a storm that was still falling and mats and cones were out, the agency may have done all that was reasonable. It is better to hear that early from someone on your side. A first conversation with us costs nothing.

What mistakes cost people these claims?

Waiting, guessing the place, and assuming one deadline covers everything. Most transit claims that fail do so in the first two weeks, before any lawyer is involved, because a notice was not sent or the video was not kept.

• Saying "I'm fine" and leaving it there. Say it if you must, then report the fall the same day.
• Not noting the vehicle or the place. "A bus on Finch, sometime after work" cannot be found on video.
• Notifying the wrong body. The City's claims office does not handle TTC claims, and the TTC does not handle the City's sidewalks.
• Missing the 10 days because the fall "was on the TTC". If it was on the sidewalk at the stop, it was on the City's highway.
• Treating GO like the TTC. Metrolinx is provincial. Act within 10 days.
• Expecting accident benefits after a fall with no collision.
• Asking for a copy of the video and stopping when they say no. Ask that it be kept.
• Waiting to see a doctor. A gap between the fall and the first record is the first thing the other side points to.
• Giving a recorded statement before you know which rules apply.

Key terms explained

Occupier. The body in physical possession of a place or in control of its condition. For a station that is usually the transit agency.

Premises. Land and structures. Under Ontario's Act the word includes trains and vehicles, except while they are in operation.

Reasonable care. The standard an occupier or an operator must meet. Not perfection. What a careful one would do in the circumstances.

Notice. A written statement that you were hurt and intend to claim, giving the date, time and location, delivered within a deadline set by statute.

Highway. In municipal law, a public road including its sidewalk. A fall on the sidewalk at a stop is a highway claim against the municipality.

Gross negligence. The higher bar for a claim against a municipality over snow or ice on a sidewalk.

Crown agency. A body the province has made its agent by statute. Metrolinx is one.

Public transit vehicle. Under the Insurance Act, an automobile being used for a fare service run by or for a municipality or its local board.

Statutory accident benefits. Benefits for treatment and lost income paid by an auto insurer after a motor vehicle incident, whoever was at fault. Not payable to a transit passenger where there was no collision.

Limitation period. The time to start a lawsuit. In Ontario it is 2 years from the day the claim was discovered.

Contributory negligence. The injured person's own share of fault, which reduces the award by that share.

Preservation request. A written request that evidence, such as video, be kept and not erased.

How VC Lawyers can help

A transit fall is hard to handle alone because the first question, whose property was it, decides everything after it, and the answer is often not obvious from where you were standing. We work out who was in control of the spot, send written notice to every body that may be responsible inside the shortest deadline, and write to have the video and the maintenance and incident records kept. Then we gather the medical evidence and deal with the agency and its insurer.

We act for people hurt on the TTC, GO Transit and UP Express, and on the sidewalks and roads around them, under the slip and fall and occupiers' liability rules described above. The first consultation for an injury claim is free. We act on a contingency fee, so you pay legal fees only if we recover compensation for you. If you fell and are counting days, contact us today and tell a Toronto slip and fall lawyer where you were standing.