{"id":2425,"date":"2009-03-01T15:54:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-01T20:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/2009\/03\/01\/the-sorry-state-of-wilson-station\/"},"modified":"2009-03-01T17:19:56","modified_gmt":"2009-03-01T22:19:56","slug":"the-sorry-state-of-wilson-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/03\/01\/the-sorry-state-of-wilson-station\/","title":{"rendered":"The sorry state of Wilson Station"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

As I currently live in the upper reaches of North York, Wilson Station is my “home” station as I use it more than any other. Built for the Spadina Subway extension in 1978, and the northern terminus until 1996, this station is a maze of corridors and driveways, and is the TTC’s best attempt at an Escher drawing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As I explain after the fold, this maze-like set of corridors results in one of the longest and most difficult walks between subway and bus in the TTC. However,\u00a0 embarrassingly long escalator repairs has had a severe impact on this station’s already limited accessibility.<\/p>\n

Before Downsview Station opened in 1996, Wilson was a hive of activity. Three separate parking lots surround the property (on the west side, the active Downsview Airport prevented development, a big box cluster was later added). No fewer than 17 routes served the station, more than any other in the system. A later addition added a new north bus terminal to serve all the routes heading to the north up the aptly-named Transit Road to Allen Road North.<\/p>\n

Of those 17 routes serving Wilson in 1993, several are now long-gone, such as 163 Rustic Road, 3 Ancaster Park,\u00a0 (later merged into an hourly peak-only 120 Calvington) and 118 Finch Via Allen. Cutbacks, and the opening of Downsview Station reduced the number of routes serving Wilson to 7 (of which two serve in both directions). With the withdrawal of the 7A Bathurst rush hour service between Wilson and St. Clair West, this is down to a manageable 6 routes. But even with the closure of the north terminal, there are 16 bus bays, half of which are now unassigned.<\/p>\n

There is one redeeming feature of isolated, sprawling, and ugly Wilson Station – the art, which was common to all Spadina Subway stations. Below, taken by Craig James White, is Ted Bieler’s striking Canyons<\/em>. But another art installation, back-lit photographs of Toronto, are badly faded and should probably be replaced or removed.<\/p>\n


\nPhoto courtesy of Craig James White <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Due to the rather unusual layout of Wilson, to transfer from the subway to a westbound bus currently requires taking four sets of stairs or escalators, and is one of the longest walks to transfer from subway to bus in the system. Unlike Downsview, Lawrence West and Eglinton West, the bus terminal is not on top of the subway tracks, but is across the southbound lanes of the Allen. To make the station wheelchair accessible, a minimum of three elevators would be required unless substantial renovations were to take place, like those already underway at Victoria Park Station.<\/p>\n

As Wilson has such a long walk and a maximum of four stairs or escalators to connect to buses, one would hope that the TTC would at least minimize the difficulty for customers making the daily trek, particularly seniors and passengers with strollers. The stairs can get very slippery when it is damp outside (for some reason, the floors seem to be coated with a musty, slippery mess every damp day), and escalators, even when stopped, offer a better grip.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

But in mid-October, four escalators were blocked off with some work started, but otherwise left in suspended animation. Since then, the blocked escalators collected only dust and litter.<\/p>\n

The only visible work done in the last four months has been the addition of new stickers with updated expected dates of completion. Originally, the signs read “expected back in service November 30, 2008”. Then new stickers stuck on top read December 31, 2008, January 31, 2009; February 28, 2009 and now March 31, 2009. (An article in The Fixer column<\/a> in the Toronto Star in January covered this issue, when work was expected to be done by late February.) By late January, frustrated patrons added messages of their own blasting the TTC and the ATU.<\/p>\n

Though while I still stand by my assessment that the TTC has been a recent success story<\/a>, I still think there’s lots to be done. The TTC ought to be embarrassed and I think owes its passengers an explanation.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I currently live in the upper reaches of North York, Wilson Station is my “home” station as I use it more than any other. Built for the Spadina Subway extension in 1978, and the northern terminus until 1996, this station is a maze of corridors and driveways, and is the TTC’s best attempt atContinue reading “The sorry state of Wilson Station”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4030,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,8],"tags":[7114,147,7117,7112,7116,538,3823,7113,537,339,19,341,1318,3150,7115,496],"class_list":["post-2425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-transit","tag-7a-bathurst","tag-animation","tag-before-downsview-station","tag-craig-james-white","tag-downsview-airport","tag-downsview-station","tag-lawrence-west","tag-ted-bieler","tag-the-southbound","tag-the-toronto-star","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-star","tag-victoria-park-station","tag-wilson","tag-wilson-station","tag-york"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe sorry state of Wilson Station - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/03\/01\/the-sorry-state-of-wilson-station\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The sorry state of Wilson Station - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As I currently live in the upper reaches of North York, Wilson Station is my “home” station as I use it more than any other. 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