You don't know what you've got until you lose it.
But subway riders going to and from work on Friday were well aware of what they lost.
Those who had to commute at or past the busy Victoria Park station were forced onto shuttle buses all day, after a gruesome discovery made at a station down the line involved police in a murder mystery.
Workers checking out the closed down system around 1:30am Friday discovered the body of a man believed to be in his 20s lying in an empty subway car at Kennedy Station. He'd been stabbed to death.
Police were quickly called. They believe the man was killed on board the train, possibly at Victoria Park, the station just before where the vehicle stopped. That forced the closure of both stations, although Kennedy re-opened at 9am. Victoria Park finally followed after 4pm.
Commuters were stunned by the news.
"It's obviously a little surprising, a little shocking," admitted Luke Jalsevac.
"People at work always talk about Kennedy Station; they say 'how can you go to Kennedy Station? You're going to get shot or killed sometime.'
"This just adds to the fuel there I guess."
"It's scary, it's very scary," seconded Teferi Zemene.
"It's not good ... it's not safe for anybody."
"I actually work for the TTC," admitted Ginette Ainey. "And I've not seen anything like it."
But just as many were upset by the endless parade of buses that took stranded passengers past the closure bottleneck. Some waited hours to get on the crowded vehicles.
"I hope my employer will understand it is not my fault," worries Norma Lewis.
TTC Chair Adam Giambrone is angry the police procedure forced the station to close for so long.
"When we close the system for five minutes that affects the whole system," he complains. "I don't know why there were not homicide investigation teams on the scene closer to 2am rather than 6am."
He assures riders the Commission will work with police to speed up the process if anything similar should happen again. But he adds the TTC is amazingly safe, and they don't expect a repeat of this kind of violence.