Passengers wait on the southbound subway platform at Toronto's Bloor subway station on Wednesday morning. (Andrew Davidson/CBC)

Thousands of fuming TTC riders spent more than an hour crammed on subway platforms on Wednesday morning, waiting for rush hour trains that never arrived.

The transit commission made announcements on its audio system telling commuters switch problems at its Wellesley and Eglinton stations were to blame.

But TTC spokesman Brad Ross said in an email that "a number of issues this morning, including ill passengers, door problems and a police investigation at Eglinton [station]" were responsible for the delays.

Commuters stuck on the platforms on the Yonge-University-Spadina line said the waits were long, and when the trains finally arrived, they hardly moved.

Others complained that the TTC did nothing to restrict access to the platforms. Many said the crowding on the platforms was unsafe, even dangerous.

The same complaint was made less than a month ago when the same stretch of subway was closed by another problem.

On Nov. 18, a contractor cut through the pavement and into the roof of one of the subway tunnels on the same line.

That closed most of the Yonge Street section of the line for more than 12 hours and led to rush-hour chaos in the city, as thousands of people tried to get onto buses.

At the time, TTC rider Loreen Lalonde told CBC News the transit authority provided no information and continued to allow people onto the subway platforms.

"It was a huge safety issue," she told CBC News.

The TTC made no mention of the signal problem on Wednesday in trying to explain what happened in the latest incident.

"We had three ill passengers at the same time and there was concern that it might have been a gas of some sort. In the end, there was nothing, just coincidences. The bypass lasted seven minutes," Ross wrote.

But people who were waiting for southbound trains reported 40-minute waits.

When the trains finally arrived, they were so full, no one could get on.