Hey DS -
Yes! I have been pulled aside. I have to document this at some point anyway, so the detailed history is as follows if you want to read it:
I had no problems photographing on the Spadina line, and while I was not photographing collector's booths, neither was I purposefully avoiding TTC employees.
Bayview was the first station I went to to photograph the Sheppard line. There's art all over that station, including in front of the collector's booth. The collector called me over, asked what I was doing, and I explained it. He told me that he had the authority to grant photograph taking in his station, and that it would be okay with him, as long as I did not photograph the booth. He told me to ask the collector at each station. I did not ask the collector at the other Sheppard line stations, and began to avoid them purposefully, and had no trouble.
Next up for me was the west end of the Bloor line. I did not run into any trouble until Dundas West at the bus platform, where a bus driver stepped out of his bus and told me I was not allowed to take pictures on the system. I was finished up there, so went below to shoot.
On my second or third trip along the lower Yonge line I was just getting a last pic before heading home, photographing the station name "Bloor" when a TTC Special Constable stepped off a train that had just pulled in, and asked me what I was doing. "For personal or commercial purposes?" I explained it was for my own architectural review of the system. He told that there is nothing in the TTC Bylaws that forbid taking pictures for personal use, but that if these were for commerical purposes there would be a $115 fine. (My camera is a tiny Sony compact, so it doesn't have that "destined for commercial purposes" look, despite having a 7.2 megapixel CCD.) The constable told me he had a friend that did the same kind of thing as a hobby, so he understood. I did not ask if the $115 fine was levied on a per-picture-published basis, on a getting-caught-on-a-per-photo-expedition basis, or on a per-published-product basis (such as $115 fine for a book with 400 photos in it). I had not imagined any commerical publication when I started this project, but some people are now encouraging me to publish the pics in some way.
He also told me that some people get nervous when they see photographs being taken in the system since the London bombings and 9/11, and he made it sound like he had been sent to track me down in response to some concerns without saying so specifically. That's when I started to get more cognizant of both the security camera locations in the stations, and crowds of worried looking passengers; two more things to avoid when possible.
After that nothing until photographing Finch. I took photos of an artwork on the wall in full view of the collectors booth with no questions asked, but downstairs along the subway platform a TTC Inspector came up to me and asked me wjhat I was doing shooting down there. I told him, and related what the Special Constable had told me. The Inspector was surprised to hear that the constable said there was no problem with me shooting for personal use - he said that TTC employees are told "no permits - no photographs", and that I needed to call customer relations to get a permit. A subsequent visit I made to a Flickr group discussion thread revealed that another photo-hobbyist had been told that the TTC does not issue permits for personal photography when he called customer relations.
So I haven't called them. Now that this is firmly established as a guerilla operation, I am determined to finished photographing the system without their permission. I'm getting in no one's way, I don't take a tripod, I'm not photographing anything that can't be seen by anyone, anytime. It also all dovetails nicely with the "Photography is not a Crime" movement (see
jpgmag.com/issue5.html) which I am a supporter of.
So, there's the long answer. I'll been interested in any comments on similar experiences that anyone might want to relate.
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P.S. - I'm hoping to get the Prince Edward Viaduct shots processed and uploaded tonight. I am treating it to station status and giving it its own entry in the list. Cheers!