While fans of Spain's soccer team can be excused for wanting to party after its historic World Cup win, TTC officials are saying some fans put themselves in a dangerous position by climbing on top of a streetcar.
Moments after Spain defeated the Netherlands 1-0 in extra time during Sunday's final – for the nation’s first-ever World Cup win -- fans poured out of Plaza Flamingo and onto College Street at its intersection with Bathurst Street.
At the same time, an eastbound 506 streetcar was passing by on College. Crowds surrounded it and people began climbing on top.
Brad Ross, spokesperson for the Toronto Transit Commission, said officials cut power to the lines immediately after they were notified of the situation.
"The wires above are live, with 600 volts of electricity," he said. "… Power Control Centre cut the power to that line, and unfortunately, it affects a fairly wide area."
Three streetcar routes had to be diverted as a result of the power cuts, he said.
Police were on scene quite quickly, but they took a low-key approach. Some officers had young women asking if they could pose for pictures with them.
A CTV Toronto reporter observed one apparently inebriated fan get placed in handcuffs and led away from the main party zone. However, the officer escorted the young man one block westward to Markham Street, checked his identification, uncuffed him and -- after a brief lecture about public behaviour -- released him.
By shortly after 6 p.m., a TTC supervisor had climbed on top of the streetcar to start asking the revelers to leave. They obeyed and clambered back off the car.
The rear window of the streetcar appeared to sustain some damage.
Police did step in at one point. "It would be a matter of picking an opening in the crowd," said Chief Bill Blair of the Toronto Police Service.
"You have to talk them off, because they're partying and having a good time. And then you have to walk the streetcar out of that crowd," he said.
Even moving the streetcar is a challenge because of the volume of people around the vehicle, he said.
Streetcar service on College was fully restored by about 9 p.m., making for a disruption of about four hours.
Blair said the last time he remembered someone climbing on a streetcar was in 1993 to celebrate the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team winning the World Series for a second time.
However, College Street has been party central for soccer fans for years. In 2006, Italian fans had their chance to crowd onto College Street after the Azzurri won the World Cup for the first time since 1982. That shut down traffic for several hours.
In 2002, Brazilian fans got to party after winning the World Cup. They started at College Street and Ossington at 9:30 a.m. and were still going strong at 9:30 p.m.
However, after the initial outburst, police were able to keep the demonstrators out of the streetcar lanes as the massive vehicles passed by.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Alicia Markson
