Victoria Park Bus Terminal – once a cavernous, concrete bunker – now has a much friendlier face. Thanks to the Toronto Transit Commission, 25,000 daily commuters will be bathed in natural light from multiple windows, as they connect to the subway and buses. Access to the outdoors has also been greatly improved. Well done, TTC!
The Federation of Canadian Municipalities was impressed, and gave the TTC a Sustainable Communities Award/2013.
Opening in 2015, six new subway stations will extend the Spadina Line from Downsview to Vaughan.
<PHOTOS – Toronto Transit Commission; STATION DESIGNS – Highway 407/Finch West/Sheppard West/Vaughan Metropolitan>
The Toronto Transit Commission’s Hillcrest maintenace facility, 1138 Bathurst Street, opened in 1923. The property, once home to the Hillcrest Race Track, is now one of the TTC’s major maintenance garages. This is where buses and streetcars come for an overhaul and repairs.
The Harvey Shops, unique in North America, are named after D. W. Harvey, the TTC’s general manager from 1924-1938. They’re actually a series of smalll repair shops under one roof – each specializing in one skill or another – from sheet metal and upholstery, to motor, body repair and paint.
Highly skilled employees here have the expertise and equipment to build streetcars from scratch, an idea the Commission sltudied a few years ago.
PHOTO ABOVE – a yellow rail grinder car in front of the Harvey Shops at Hillcrest, ca1967-68.
For anything and everything about TORONTO’s transportation system – subways, buses and streetcars – take a look at Steve Munro’s excellent website: http://www.stevemunro.ca
PHOTO BELOW – one of three new streetcars arriving at the Harvey Shops, Hillcrest. They’re now being tested, without passengers, and will go into full service in 2014. The present-day streetcars will be retired.
ANDY BYFORD, a graduate of London’s Underground, and now CEO of the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission) wants to prioritize the building of a Downtown Subway Relief Line (DRL). From Pape to Union Station, with 5 stops along the way, it might look something like this:
Our subway system is overloaded, and ANDY BYFORD believes the time has come to stop talking and start doing. “We’re just holding back the tide, we really do need to start thinking about relief for (the Yonge Line), to provide additional capacity to get people from the suburbs downtown,” he told CBC radio. “The way to do that is to get people off the Bloor-Danforth line earlier, so that they don’t interchange onto the Yonge line.”
And before suburbia starts kvetching about building another downtown subway at their expense, BYFORD adds: “At the end of the day, this isn’t a private shuttle for people living around Queen and King (in the core). This is a line to get people from the suburbs, primarily, into the prime traffic objective — in other words, where people want to go — which is the commercial and financial centre of downtown Toronto.
“Let’s get that debate going. Obviously funding is an issue, but let’s at least start the talking.”
This is a gift: unlimited travel on all Toronto Transit Commission vehicles and the subway for a whole day. The TTC Holiday Weekend Day Pass allows one day travel for a group of up to 6 people – for $10.50. 1 or 2 adults; 1 adult with not more than 5 children/youths; or 2 adults with not more than 4 children/youths (19 and under). Available at all subway collector booths.
In the above 2010 election returns map, BLUE represents city wards voting for Mayor Rob Ford. RED – the wards voting against him. http://www.cbc.ca
This week, in a memo leaked by the Toronto Environmental Alliance, and reluctantly confirmed by City Hall, it seems there’ll be ‘major service cuts’ to 62 bus and streetcar routes. Below are some of the service cuts hitting the BLUE district – epicentre of the Ford Nation – the folks who put him in office. Downtown leftie, bike-riding, pinkos are perplexed.
10 – Van Horne
16 – McCowan
17 – Birchmount
21a – Brimley/Kennedy
24 – Victoria Park
25 – Don Mills
30 – Lambton
32 – Eglinton West
34 – Eglinton East
35 – Jane
36 – Finch West
37 – Islington 39 – Finch East 41 – Keele 42 – Cummer 44 – Kipling South 45 – Kipling 46 – Martingrove 52 – Lawrence West 54 – Lawrence East 57 – Midland 58 – Malton 60 – Steeles West 66 – Prince Edward 67 – Pharmacy 68 – Warden 69 – Warden South 81 – Thorncliffe Park 84 – Sheppard West 85 – Sheppard East 89 – Weston 96 – Wilson 102 – Markham Road 110 – Islington South 112 – West Mall 116 – Morningside 117 – Alness 123 – Shorncliffe 129 – McCowan North 131 – Nugget 133 – Neilson 134 – Progress 139 – Finch Don Mills 190 – Scarborough Centre Rocket 192 – Airport Express 199 – Finch Rocket
Columnist ROYSON JAMES, Saturday Star: “How do you feel today, you wretches along Finch Avenue West? You cram the buses. You wait and wait and wait.
“Then you wait some more when a bus comes and is too full to take a single passenger. And now transit officials say you must wait longer. And endure more crowded buses once on board. Do you not count in this city?”
