Mayor John Tory accepts Twitter challenge to ride in hot subway car

After being challenged on Twitter, Toronto Mayor John Tory has agreed to take a ride in one of the city's subway cars with air conditioning that isn't functioning..

Bianca Spence first issued the challenge in July after enduring sweltering subway rides on her regular commute.

"I just thought the mayor would want to see what it is like, because I know sometimes people say, 'How bad could it be,' and it's pretty bad!" she said.

When Spence heard nothing back from the mayor's office, she kept pushing.

"Another heat advisory day would come up, and I'd retweet it again, and there was nothing ... and I think it just got really absurd, and I just didn't give up," she said.  

• TTC says it's working to fix hot subway cars on Line 2

A representative for Tory said that he is now in touch with Spence, looking for the right time for the pair to take a ride together from Kipling station to Kennedy station on Line 2, which is where the subway cars without air conditioning have been in service.

Hot subway cars have been an ongoing problem on the TTC this summer, with the air conditioning on almost 25 per cent of cars either broken or not operating at full capacity.

Earlier this summer, the TTC said the hot cars cannot be taken out of service because the system needs all of its cars during peak periods, and that it has crews at more than one work site focused on the hot car problem, which was identified as an issue last year.  

"By next year, everything should be fine," said TTC spokesperson Susan Sperling.in an interview with CBC News in late June.

Tory said Monday that he has been meeting with the TTC to work on the problem.

"I'm not happy with a status quo that has had us take as long as has been taken to get all the cars fixed," he said.

"We're going to do much, much better next year."