Photos by Bryan Partington Picture of TTC downtown line buttons.

The program reduced trains delays while giving much faster care to sick riders. The leading cause of delayed trains on Toronto's subway system is sick passengers. More than 49 hours of service was lost just last year due to a sick passenger. The Toronto Star reports:

"The trains are running on about a two-minute cycle. For us to get from a surface route down into the TTC, it could take us eight, nine, 10 minutes to get right down to the train. With a TTC paramedic on the scene, it may only take them two minutes to get there. So you're saving in some cases six or eight minutes," Paul Raftis, manager of EMS operations said.

The new pilot program saw paramedics responding to 70 per cent of all subway passenger illness and injuries from its onset. The paramedics from Toronto Emergency Medical Services are stationed at Bllor subway station during the morning and afternoon rush hours. The goal for for the program is to serve 95 per cent of emergencies. For every eight-minute delay of service 1,300 people are unable to connect on the trains during rush hour. The program costs the TTC $150,000.