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From: msb@sq.uucp (Mark Brader)
Date: Fri, 25-Nov-88 23:39:34 EST
Message-ID: <1988Nov25.233934.12136@sq.uucp>
Newsgroups: tor.general
Subject: Re: Phantom subway station?
References: <1636@maccs.McMaster.CA> <8811250104.AA16480@esplanade.csri.toronto.edu>
Reply-To: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader)
Distribution: tor
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto

Well, as John Hofbauer was kind enough to correct part of my posting,
I will add a bit of information to his.  (And also a further correction--
the Wilson-St.George opening date was in fact 1978.)

> 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.

Although that bridge is commonly referred to as the Prince Edward Viaduct,
it's actually only part of it.  There's a second bridge a bit west of there,
carrying Bloor St. across the Rosedale Ravine (just east of Parliament St.),
and most of the street in between is on embankment.  The P.E.V. really
refers to the whole project.  Now, in fact, *both* bridges were built with
provision for a subway, but only that under the longer bridge was actually
used.  Possibly because Bloor makes a sharp curve at Parliament, the
subway was routed farther north and a new bridge was built across the
Rosedale Ravine.  This is of course the concrete covered bridge between
Sherbourne and Castle Frank stations -- the roof having been added in
deference to the protests of the rich residents of Rosedale.

> The University line was so underused that for many
> years it was shut down after 8pm.

Actually 9:45 pm (it always struck me as a horribly un-round number)
and all day Sundays.  When it was closed, passengers entering the system
at St. George station had to walk along part of the unused N-S platform
to reach the operating E-W platform; and trains reversed at Union station
using only one of the two platforms there.  (The crossover that would
have allowed them to reverse using both platforms was, I've heard, taken
up when the University line was opened; because of the curve it had to
use a special piece of track called a "switch diamond", and this was
moved to St.George where the reversing crossover is also on a curve.)

> I'm convinced they built the Spadina
> line just to retroactively justify the University line.

Well, they certainly built it where they did because the University line
was where it was.

> Donlands has a roughed-in station in anticipation of a subway running
> north up the Don Valley.

Can you tell us more about this, such as how it is oriented?

Mark Brader					"Domine, defende nos
SoftQuad Inc., Toronto				 Contra hos motores bos!"
utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com				    -- A. D. Godley