{"id":52553,"date":"2015-09-02T13:00:14","date_gmt":"2015-09-02T17:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=52553"},"modified":"2015-08-31T17:42:13","modified_gmt":"2015-08-31T21:42:13","slug":"forgotten-ttc-architecture-reminder-nixed-transit-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/09\/02\/forgotten-ttc-architecture-reminder-nixed-transit-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgotten TTC architecture a reminder of nixed transit plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Toronto is building the East Bayfront LRT. Well, sort of.<\/p>\n

This week, Metro News reported<\/a> that the City of Toronto\u00a0has set aside\u00a0$2 million to “rough in” an light rail\u00a0station in the basement of\u00a0a\u00a0proposed 45-storey tower near\u00a0Union Station.\u00a0The basic structure, which will be located in the parking garage of the new building, may\u00a0become part of the East Bayfront LRT, if the long-anticipated line is ever funded.<\/p>\n

It’s not the first time the city and the TTC has\u00a0made an allowance for unfunded future transit lines. In fact, since construction of the Yonge Street subway in the 1950s, there have been at least three\u00a0such projects. So far, none have ever subsequently proved useful.<\/p>\n

\"toronto<\/a>
Looking west through the shell of Lower Queen station in March 2014. The vertical columns would have separated the east and westbound tracks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The earliest\u00a0and best-known rough-in project among Toronto transit watchers\u00a0is the unfinished\u00a0streetcar stop\u00a0beneath Queen subway station. In the 1940s, before Bloor St. and Danforth Ave.\u00a0were\u00a0selected as the route of the city’s east-west subway, the TTC planned to bury the Queen streetcar line in\u00a0the downtown core.<\/p>\n

The Queen subway\u00a0would have resembled Boston’s subterranean\u00a0streetcar lines, likely running\u00a0in an open trench west of University with stops at Trinity-Bellwoods, Bathurst, Spadina, and John,\u00a0before\u00a0dipping\u00a0underground to connect with Osgoode and Queen subway stations. East of Church, the line would re-surface and continue in an open cut to\u00a0Logan Ave.<\/p>\n

During construction of the Yonge line, the TTC actually built the basic shell of the underground streetcar\u00a0station beneath the subway tracks at Queen. The platforms\u00a0and track beds were installed at a cost of about $500,000, but little other work was done. No rails were laid and no tiles were grouted to the walls.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the city and the TTC’s focus shifted north and the Bloor-Danforth line was built\u00a0instead. The shell of Lower Queen (it was sometimes called “City Hall”\u00a0on planning documents) is now only accessible via an anonymous door off the underpass beneath the northbound and southbound platforms at Queen.<\/p>\n

\"ttc<\/a>
Diagram showing how the upper level of Kipling station was designed to handle buses and light rail.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another conspicuous TTC rough-in is easy\u00a0to spot\u00a0at Kipling station. On the upper\u00a0level, directly opposite the bus bays, there’s an area designed to carry\u00a0a streetcar or light rail track. It was built in the late 1970s in anticipation of a light rail line to\u00a0the airport that never arrived.<\/p>\n

A decade earlier, in 1969, the TTC envisioned bookending its east-west subway line with two light rail lines. In Etobicoke, streetcars would have run along north along a hydro corridor to the Highway 427 and 401 interchange in a dedicated right of way before turning west into Pearson.<\/p>\n

If it had been built, it might have ended up looking like the Scarborough RT, which was conceived at the same time and likewise initially designed to use streetcars. (The province convinced the TTC to ditch the\u00a0streetcars for its own\u00a0high-tech ICTS trains. Before that decision was made, the RT was being built to run the same surface rail vehicles used elsewhere in the city tethered together in a train.)<\/p>\n

For more unused TTC architecture, one must head back underground and travel to Sheppard-Yonge station. Between the two tracks on the upper level, there’s an unfinished concrete structure designed to be used as\u00a0a boarding area should the number of riders at the station ever outstrip the existing platform space.<\/p>\n

\"toronto<\/a>
The roughed-in centre platform at Sheppard-Yonge station. The TTC says it won’t see use unless passenger numbers drastically increase.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Right now, that’s unlikely. Sheppard-Yonge might be the third busiest stop on the Toronto subway, but it’s still some way from needing additional platform space. When the platform was built, it was still possible the Sheppard line would be extended west to meet the Spadina line. Shifting transit priorities have, for now, put paid to that idea.<\/p>\n

Ironically, one place where the city\u00a0declined to rough in a station was precisely where it ended up having to build one in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

In 1970,\u00a0when the city was busily extending the Yonge line north to Finch, the sprawling borough of North York was planning to build itself a “downtown” at Yonge and Park Home Avenue. Metro council was told for an additional $850,000, subway builders\u00a0could leave\u00a0left\u00a0a bulge in the tunnel at North York Centre\u00a0that could later be turned into a station.<\/p>\n

Despite the potential for future savings, Metro balked at the idea.\u00a0An attempt to have the decision revisited in 1971\u00a0also fell flat. “North York has been tripped up again by our own double talk,” the borough’s controller Paul Hunt told the Globe and Mail<\/em>. “On one hand we say we don’t want redevelopment and on the other we say to make provisions for redevelopment.”<\/p>\n

\"ttc<\/a>
The walls between the tracks at North York Centre are especially thick because the station was excavated out of an existing tunnel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Construction on North York Centre station began 14 years later, minus any of the help roughing in\u00a0would have provided. Cutting the station into a section of tunnel posed\u00a0a unique engineering challenge, and as such the platform area looks decidedly different to others on the\u00a0Toronto subway.<\/p>\n

Most conspicuously, the central structural supports that separate the north and southbound tracks are unusually thick and wide at North York Centre, making it hard to peek at passengers on the opposite side.<\/p>\n

The final cost of retrofitting the station was $25 million in 1987.<\/p>\n

It’s not clear what the Bay Street East Bayfront LRT platform box will look like, or whether it will ever see use.<\/p>\n

If history is any guide, chances are it won’t.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto is building the East Bayfront LRT. Well, sort of. This week, Metro News reported that the City of Toronto\u00a0has set aside\u00a0$2 million to “rough in” an light rail\u00a0station in the basement of\u00a0a\u00a0proposed 45-storey tower near\u00a0Union Station.\u00a0The basic structure, which will be located in the parking garage of the new building, may\u00a0become part of theContinue reading “Forgotten TTC architecture a reminder of nixed transit plans”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8234,"featured_media":52568,"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":[24,14,32,8,20],"tags":[20886,22103,22102,2479,22101,13001,3030,4814,19,22090,889],"class_list":["post-52553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-spacing","category-streetscape","category-transit","category-urban-design","tag-kennedy","tag-kipling","tag-lower-queen","tag-north-york-centre","tag-roughed-in","tag-sheppard","tag-streetcar","tag-subway","tag-toronto","tag-transit","tag-ttc"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nForgotten TTC architecture a reminder of nixed transit plans - 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\/2015\/09\/02\/forgotten-ttc-architecture-reminder-nixed-transit-plans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Forgotten TTC architecture a reminder of nixed transit plans - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Toronto is building the East Bayfront LRT. Well, sort of. This week, Metro News reported that the City of Toronto\u00a0has set aside\u00a0$2 million to “rough in” an light rail\u00a0station in the basement of\u00a0a\u00a0proposed 45-storey tower near\u00a0Union Station.\u00a0The basic structure, which will be located in the parking garage of the new building, may\u00a0become part of theContinue reading "Forgotten TTC architecture a reminder of nixed transit plans"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/09\/02\/forgotten-ttc-architecture-reminder-nixed-transit-plans\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-09-02T17:00:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2015\/08\/20150830-RoughedIn-QueenPortal.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"525\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Bateman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spacing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Bateman\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/09\/02\/forgotten-ttc-architecture-reminder-nixed-transit-plans\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2015\/09\/02\/forgotten-ttc-architecture-reminder-nixed-transit-plans\/\",\"name\":\"Forgotten TTC architecture a reminder of nixed transit plans - 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