Tobes Transportation Authority

Tobes Transportation Authority (formerly known as Toby Transit Commission) was one of the longest running Roblox transit groups, with over 4000 members and a network to match, owned by TobyOH. The company started in 2012 as Toby Transit Commission, later Tobes Transportation Authority in 2014, and ceased operations on September 28, 2021 after nine years on the Roblox scene.

Toby Transit Commission
Toby Transit Commission, also known as ToTC, was founded in 2012 by user toby999999 (now TobyOH). Under competition trying to create a new transit line, he founded his own group. The first line debuted on October 23, 2012 with several stations, called the Downtown Line. This line started south at Orono Station and continued up north to Tobes Town Centre. At one point, the game was the first Roblox transit game to hit the front page of Roblox, gaining over 12,000 place visits per day.

User theawesomeSC4sim (the founder of Sauga Transit), assisted Toby in upgrading assets on the Downtown Line. He upgraded Orono, Tobes Town Centre and extended the line southbound to Suriani (now Braodway). He added 5 stations: Ghaney (now Dupont), Vukovic (permanently closed), Sambilay (now Metropolitan), Minoza (now Queensboro) and Suriani. The extension opened on December 10, 2012.

Toby Transit Commission used a variety of rolling stock including the R46 made by Da555nny, an in-house made "T1" and some other fictional trains.

In June 2013, due to high demand and capacity issues at Suriani Terminal, the station was expanded. A new food court was installed that looked very much like Toronto's Eaton Centre Urban Eatery Food Court in real life. Despite getting positive feedback on the new terminal, others criticized it for the long walk to the trains and the unnecessary food court.

In July 2013, new roads were installed as well as a Target planned to be installed in the map, hinting there would be bus service. Unfortunately due to a dispute, these rumors were untrue.

In August 2013, a dispute between theawesomeSC4sim, toby999999 and Da555nny delayed some of the adjustments that needed to be put on the line, and theawesomeSC4sim ended up being kicked from ToTC. The south extension made by theawesomeSC4sim had their station named changed due to the fact that theawesomeSC4sim chose the names when they were built, naming them after his friends at the time. ToTC also unveiled a new line called the (C) Line.

In September 2013, theawesomeSC4sim rejoined ToTC under a new agreement. He agreed to make a completely new subway line from scratch. This line became the (M) Metropolitan Subway Line, which went from St. Onge in the west to Liscio in the East. A new line called the (T) Line, opened on October 2013, based off of New York Subway Lines. 2 months of construction on the M Line later, the line opened to the public on November 25, 2013.

The Metropolitan Line was praised by mostly everyone who used the line, including Toby himself. The line consisted of many architectural focused stations, with Toby saying "Broadway West is currently my favourite Station so far" when testing the line. It was a huge step forward for the ToTC as many users were driving along the line and enjoying the beautiful architecture, curvy and hill-packed climbs it had to offer. Toby also praised Penn Island station on the line for its amazing skylight.

In December 2013, new washrooms were added on the M Line's St. Onge terminal. They were based off of Yorkdale's washrooms in real life. Like with the rest of theawesomeSC4sim's creations, they were praised for its realism. They were used by many people on the line.

In January 2014, user jimgeobulider got into a dispute with Toby, which he ended up being fired. In retaliation, jimgeobulider hired exploiters who deliberately exploited all of Toby Transit's subway lines, including the (D) Line, (S) Line & (M) Line. This move crippled Toby Transit since their assets were used in jimgeobulider's Transit! game. The map is still playable today as a free drive game, although it is heavily broken and outdated. However, as a result of this incident, TTA maps and vehicles are often exploited and leaked in retaliation to TTA's poor management even to this day.

In April 2014, Toby Transit Commission inadvertently ceased operations without telling theawesomeSC4sim and his other staff who was working for him at the time.

History
On April 27, 2014, Toby secretly founded the current group. It didn't get much attention until October 2014, when it started getting popular among ex-ToTC members. Toby made a new line using some assets from the M Line including the track & some stations. In 2015 however, he reused the Downtown Line, renaming it to Line 3. The line has went through numerous expansions and continues to be used to this day.

In early 2015, the TTA began using more realistic buses with fill-in displays, which was considered new technology at the time. Vehicles used were 1996-2003 Orion Vs, 2007-2012 Orion VII "NG" buses and 2014-2015 NovaBUS LFSes. These debuted at Line 3 and were eventually expanded to the company's bus divisions as the first generation bus fleet. Most of these vehicles did not have fleet numbers.

In February 2015, TTA opened the Sentinel Boulevard Transitway as part of its Sentinel Division map. This map was the first one with BRT service and would lead to the design on future maps. Ironically, bus branding for the transitway only showed the developers' names rather than destinations served. At the same time, TTA introduced its first order of NovaBUS LFSAs, which were to serve on both BRT and local routes- POP was also added to ensure that people were able to purchase tickets using in-game money which increased as you stayed longer in the game. For subway service, new custom built K1 cars were added (based on the Bombardier T1) were added, this being an update from the older brick cars and Hawker-Siddeley H5s and H6s.

Roughly around this time, TTA required visitors to its maps to be in the group before joining.

Around June 2015, TTA opened it's line 101 map. This was the first streetcar map in game and featured the company's custom built streetcars. This was also the first map to have an integrated streetcar and bus map, allowing operations of both types of services simultaneously (like Line 3 with buses and subways).

In 2016, TTA introduced arcade style chassis models, which were to form the brunt of the fleet for the next year. However, many older buses were still kept as to maintain service levels. The company introduced fleet numbers on buses and these are mostly based on model year, even though there are now some variations for different vehicle purposes. Throughout 2016 and 2017, TTA introduced different types of buses, such as the Alexander Dennis SuperLo and the Thomas SLF 230s (both of which are no longer used). The company also added New Flyer D40LFs on the older chassis, which would be refurbished. Most buses at that time used a YRT-based livery.

In 2017, the famed K1 cars, which had been in service for two years were retired. In December of 2017, TTA's owner, Toby_OR entered an agreement with MiniChamps Factory to provide new models, in order to replace the older buses that had been around since 2014. This started with the New Flyer D30LF, refurbished D40LFs and eventually, 17xx TTA buses, which were 2017 NovaBUS LFSes and LFSAs, complete with a new livery. The program ended with the completion of new Orion VIIs for the company. Sadly, this partnership caused issues for TTA and TTC joint members, which were forced to decide which agency they were loyal to. Buses made in this period were called S1 or S2 (S1 having no interior and S2 having interior). All S2 buses were put into service upon introduction to the fleet, then put in storage around mid-2018 due to PGS/Filtering Enabled. The buses were briefly reactivated after being modified to comply with PGS filtering.

Following the fallout of the MCF agreement in 2018, TTA went with WAVE Solutions, which was charged with completing TTA's orders and replacing the older buses. The company provided TTA with New Flyer XD40s and eventually, built NovaBUS LFSes for them. The buses saw service for about a year until WAVE Solutions shut down and deleted its Twitter account. Around this time, TTA also changed its livery and based it off OC Transpo, which was again the same livery as the latter but in a green colour scheme.

In 2019, TTA changed its development partner to nextTransport/nextLogic. While the company originally used WAVE chassis models, they eventually switched to the A-Chassis, following suit that it was better supported since WAVE had gone defunct. All buses now use the A-Chassis and as time passed to the present, more American models were added into the fleet due to TTA having a larger American user base. The company's vehicle suppliers at the time were NextTransport and AutoLogic Systems. Eventually, the group expanded its bus fleet to include older models, such as 1990s Orion Vs, the Orion VII "OG" and the New Flyer D60. TTA was also expected to get New Flyer D40LFs but the plan for this model was aborted, then reinstated in late 2020. The plan was then aborted again following CommodoreCDTV's resignation from the group.

After two years of hiatus, streetcar service finally resumed in early 2020, with lines 101 and 104 reopened after UTDC CLRVs were refurbished. In addition, subway service resumed with new married pair sets after service was suspended due to PGS/Filtering Enabled issues. Some buses, however, were pulled from service when AutoLogic was removed from NextTransport.

In August 2020, TTA took delivery of NABI 40-SFWs, which are 2008 models. These buses are based off New Jersey Transit units (which were also put into service at Manhattanville Transit Commission's map).

On December 20, 2020, CommodoreCDTV (known as AnalogPentium) resigned from TTA, with a follow up tweet on Twitter stating that he could not handle the stress of working there. Former supplier NextTransport stated that they would no longer be affiliated with the group, although deliveries would continue if Cra3yCatzTV permitted them. This left TTA with a non-supported fleet and on December 23, 2020, rumours began to surface that the group would cease operation, following the group suddenly locking down its Discord server. However, an official announcement on the group's Discord stated that TTA would be going on an indefinite hiatus as of December 23, 2020, ending eight constant years of operation. Group operations resumed after a few days.

In February 2021, TTA announced it would be updating its Lorimer Division (which is used for subway service) and redoing some of its subway stations. One of their longtime staff also retired that month.

With TTA having no official vehicle supplier as of early 2021, little information has been released to the public about the group's future in terms of vehicle orders. However, subway service and bus service continues to run despite this with the existing fleet. However, as of early 2021, TTA has begun building new vehicles in house that could potentially replace nextTRANSPORT vehicles. This began with New Jersey Transit-specification MCI D4500s, numbered in the 8000 series (which was enough to remove its Canadian base).

On September 28, 2021, Toby announced in their Discord Server that the TTA will be shutting down and ceasing operations, after a little more than 7 years (9 years if you count its founding as Toby Transit Commission). In a statement, he mentioned that he didn't have enough time for the group like he once did. Their last run is later in the night at 6:30 pm Eastern.

Fallout with 10 Transit Commission
In 2013, 10 Transit Commission used ToTC R46s for its main line service and eventually, when the TTA caught up to 10TC, they denied that they "stole" it and rather built it themselves. When the Sentinel Division opened a few years later, TTA staff deliberately put a troll to shame the latter at one of the BRT stations in the map, which has caused sanctions and controversy between the two groups. In addition, the troll was never removed despite requests from 10TC staff to do so.

In 2016, this sanction caused more problems when ColeWorks joined 10TC and attempted to rebuild it like TTA, with many "improvements" done to the map, which included redoing a large amount of the fleet. This plan ultimately failed and forced Cole to resign from the group in early 2017.

In 2018, TTA attempted to sanction 10TC again. This resulted in the latter retiring its 40' Orion Vs and starting to use a modified version of the Avanta A-Chassis for all future bus orders.

Other Controversies
In light of the 2021 mass sanctioning of Société de Transport de Summit, TTA, one of the largest groups in the community, was not a signatory on a document revealing the evidence of STS HRs' unruliness. While no public statement has been made by the group, it has led some people to believe that they are either supporting the drama or are unwilling to take action on the matter.

Streetcars
Streetcars are operated exclusively on 100-series routes. Since Flitering Enabled became mandatory, streetcar service has been replaced with buses. However, as of March 2020, streetcars are being phased back in after almost two years of absence.

Did you know?

 * When a new chassis manufacturer is introduced, vehicles on the previous chassis are often retired, some seeing less than a year of service.
 * Due to the group's influence, it is common to find leaked maps and vehicles in use.