Newsgroups: tor.general
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!csri.toronto.edu!hofbauer
From: hofbauer@csri.toronto.edu (John Hofbauer)
Subject: Re: Phantom subway station?
Message-ID: <8811250104.AA16480@esplanade.csri.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI
References: <1636@maccs.McMaster.CA>
Distribution: tor
Date: Thu, 24 Nov 88 20:04:00 EST

>According to a story I heard the other day, there is supposedly a
>phantom subway station in Toronto.
>
>According to this story (which is thirdhand information, according to a
>friend of a friend of a friend who was a friend of a TTC inspector),
>there is a shiny new subway station somewhere below the city, with about
>500 m of dead-end track leading from it.  The funding to complete it
>supposedly ran out, but this station may yet someday come into service.
 
There are "phantom" stations under Queen, Bay and Donlands.

As has been pointed out in other articles, an east-west platform was
roughed in at Queen in anticipation of an east-west line along Queen.
Remember that this was planned in the late 1940s and, well, things
change over time and so when it came to building an east-west line
Bloor-Danforth was a more sensible choice. Some trivia: The subway
platform of the Prince Edward Viaduct (the bridge across the Don Valley
which connects Bloor to the Danforth) was included when the viaduct
was built in 1916. The architects decided that Toronto would one day
get a subway and that it might pass over the Don Valley. Fifty years
later it did.

There is a complete station under Bay, similar to St. George. This
was the result of one of the great TTC planning debacles! A bit of
history: the University extension from Union to St. George opened
in 1963. When the Bloor line opened in 1966 the two lines were
fully integrated by the great Y interchange, Museum, St. George and
Bay (think about it, they form a Y shape). Yonge-University trains
would alternately run east and west along the Bloor line, and every
other Bloor train would run downtown. That way you could travel
anywhere in the system without ever having to change trains. The
drawback was that you might have to let one train go by, and you
might have to go around the "hump" ( as I call it) -- Union Station.
For the first 6 months the TTC tested this fully integrated system,
then for the next 6 months they tried a completely disconnected system
it see which worked best. Well, except for those first 6 months the
lower Bay station has not seen a soul other than TTC employees.
The University line cost $43 million (early 1960 dollars) and the Y
cost $14 million. The University line was so underused that for many
years it was shut down after 8pm. I'm convinced they built the Spadina
line just to retroactively justify the University line. Next time you
travel westbound along Bloor look out the front window of the train
as you leave Yonge. For a moment you will see the lights from the
lower Bay station. Similarly as you travel north from Museum, look
for the tunnel that leads off to Bay. Also between St. George and
Spadina look for where the tracks merge. Great fun.

Donlands has a roughed-in station in anticipation of a subway running
north up the Don Valley. The Network 2011 plan proposes this to be
one end of the great downtown relief line to Union Station. Grrr.
The TTC is run by a bunch of idiots, but I won't launch into my
usual flamefest...

Last year the City of Toronto Archives through their Market Gallery
(at the St. Lawrence Market) had a most interesting display on the
history of the TTC. Some of the plans for subways over the years
are positively hilarious. The aforementioned subway plation on the
Bloor viaduct came about because while the TTC held a monopoly for
for surface public transit, underground was a free-for-all, sooo...
somebody got the bright idea of putting streetcars underground.
It never got anywhere.

I encourage anyone interested in Toronto history to visit the Market
Gallery. The current display is on housing in Toronto.