INTO EXTRAS: Dozens at TTC cleared $1K working OT for Game 7 of World Series
· Toronto Sun
The Toronto Blue Jays weren’t the only guys in the city working overtime during the deciding game of the World Series.
Figures from the Toronto Transit Commission, released to the Toronto Sun after a freedom-of-information request, show almost half a million dollars in overtime was shelled out for the days that game was played, with 43 employees making more than $1,000 in extra pay for Nov. 1, 2025.
Visit fish-roadgame.online for more information.
That was the day that the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Jays 5-4 in 11 innings to win the 2025 World Series. The TTC’s OT data doesn’t show if those employees worked day or night shifts, and the game ended a few minutes after midnight on Nov. 2.
While the names, titles and ID numbers of the employees are redacted, it appears 3,270 TTC employees were paid overtime for their shifts on Nov. 1.
Most of them, 1,737, worked in the TTC’s bus transportation division. Hundreds of others were also in apparent public-facing roles, with 295 from streetcar transportation, 221 in subway transportation and 213 working at TTC stations.
While dozens made more than $1,000 in OT, according to the TTC’s numbers, most made far less, with fewer than 700 employees getting more than $100 for extra work. Three bus transportation employees made just 81 cents in overtime that day.
The TTC did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Special constables got paid
Among the big earners on Nov. 1 were 16 special constables who cleared $1,000. The Sun was also given the TTC’s OT numbers for Nov. 2, and no special constables hit that $1,000 milestone for that day.
The TTC unit that broke four digits the most on Nov. 1, however, was the signals, electrical and communication department. This group, which handles electrical systems and power for the TTC, had 21 employees pull in more than $1,000 in OT, and dozens more who earned extra pay well into the hundreds of dollars. (That department had 25 employees break $1,000 in OT for Nov. 2, while only seven TTC workers in other units hit the milestone that day.)
Other departments at the TTC with workers that broke the $1,000 barrier on Nov. 1 were construction management, employee services, revenue operations, transit control and the agency’s rail cars and shops department.
Meanwhile, the data shows 1,962 TTC employees were paid overtime for their Nov. 2 shifts, again largely in public-facing roles. Of those 1,962, 1,119 worked in bus transportation.
The Sun ’s calculations put the total OT spend by the TTC for Nov. 1 at just over $460,000 — about double the number for Nov. 2, which was just over $230,000.
While Metrolinx, the provincial agency in charge of GO Transit and the UP Express, took the blame for Toronto’s biggest transit blunders on the night of the big game, some Jays fans were irate that TTC subway service wasn’t extended given the action went into extra innings.
The Sun also asked for overtime pay totals for Toronto’s emergency services. (It should be noted that different agencies record these costs in different ways, such as which day or days an overnight shift gets attributed to.)
The big OT bill rung up by the Toronto Police Service was similar in scope to that of the TTC. As part of the same freedom-of-information request, the police told the Sun that $281,902.86 in overtime pay was racked up in the overnight period that stretched between Nov. 1 and 2.
A representative told the Sun that total reflects only the overtime pay directly attributable to the costs of policing Game 7. The total payout for that period was $438,545, and the leftover $156,642 “is consistent with what the service typically sees on a Saturday night when compared with other Saturday nights in November,” the TPS said in a statement.
‘Not a typical night’
City hall told the Sun that Toronto Paramedic Services logged an OT total of $33,889.61 for Game 7, while Toronto Fire Services had $24,508.00 that was “attributed to the operational period associated with” that game.
The city’s emergency management division incurred $12,769.12 in overtime costs for Nov. 1 and 2. (For context, that division rang up $134,000 in staffing costs for the Taylor Swift concert series the year before the World Series, as the Sun recently reported .)
While it’s unclear which costs were related to World Series duties, adding all those totals together, including both nights of TTC operations, the city’s weekend OT bill exceeded $1 million.
The Sun asked the TTC and city hall for an example of ordinary overtime figures for an autumn Saturday night for context, but no such numbers were provided.
In a statement, the City of Toronto said Nov. 1 was “not a typical Saturday night” given both the World Series and the weekend’s Halloween festivities.
“Other divisions did not accrue significant overtime,” the statement added. “Staffing levels were consistent with other large-scale events, including to support emergency services, manage downtown traffic flows and mitigate disruption to residents in the area around the Rogers Centre.”