Toronto TYSSE: Downsview Park Station | ?m | ?s | TTC | AECOM

sheppardweststation.jpg
 
From that document, Sheppard West looks like it'll be massively overbuilt. I'm glad that they'll be trying to integrate the GO Train into the subway, but there is such a thing as too much.
 
Here is the info on the cost of the Sheppard West Station


Cost and Schedule

The budget for construction of Sheppard West Station is $59.2 million. The estimated
final cost of construction costs for Sheppard West Station, including costs recoverable
from GO Transit is $102 million.

The main impacts to the original estimate and current budget are:
Escalation of construction cost during the period 2006-2008 higher than budgeted:
• High water table;
• Toronto Green Standard;
• GO Transit integration.

To mitigate the cost, savings are identified by reducing the curvature of the alignment
west of the station toward Finch West Station; tunneling instead of cut-and-cover
construction east of the station towards Downsview tailtrack; and the deletion of an
Emergency Exit Building (EEB) for an estimated saving of $12 million.

In addition, a request was made to GO Transit for funding, which remains to
be finalized.

As design progresses, additional value engineering studies will be undertaken to reduce
station costs. If the project remains over budget as design develops, additional funds will
be provided from budget contingencies.

The proposed project schedule reflects completion of preliminary design to 30% in
September 2009, with completion of design development to 100% in May 2010.

Sheppard West Station is scheduled for Substantial Completion in May 2014.
 
Thanks for the link to the plans for the Sheppard West Station. The link didn't include the plans for the bus platforms or even which routes are going to use this station. I imagine that this Subway Station will make the TTC reroute a lot of buses in this area of Toronto.

I read in the Toronto Star last year an article about TTC's subway stations. The article was about the head of London's Piccadily Line who came to Toronto to inspect our system. He was really amazed at the design of our bus/subway stations where the buses enter right into the station allowing barrier-free and all door loading of the buses.

I was born and raised in Montreal, lived most of my life in Vancouver- where I fell in love with transit- and now live in Toronto for the last 5 years. I too am amazed at the design of our bus/subway stations, a lot of them really make it relatively comfortable to make a transfer from bus-subway or vise-versa. I live near Warden Station- it is a not so well designed, but, my wife and I used to live near Victoria Park Station. VP station used to be poorly designed with seperate bus platforms but they are in the middle of redesigning it so that all the buses share a common platform with their own docking space, like Kennedy or STC or countless other well designed stations.

I hope that Sheppard West is designed with these common type bus platforms. It will make commuting a little more comfortable and might convince a few people who are fence sitters to finally get on the TTC. I have lived in a few cities with good transit systems and visited quite a few others and I really like the way the TTC designs most of its stations.
 
Thanks for the link to the plans for the Sheppard West Station. The link didn't include the plans for the bus platforms or even which routes are going to use this station. I imagine that this Subway Station will make the TTC reroute a lot of buses in this area of Toronto.
As there are no bus plans, or place left for them; yet GO platforms are clearly shown, presumably the intention is that there will be no bus service directly from this station, and all services will continue to Downsview. which is only another couple of minutes down the road; terminating the buses at Sheppard West would inconvenience those that are connecting to other buses at Downsview.

Though it does seem unfortunate that GO passengers won't be able to connect to bus services, without hiking down Sheppard, or taking the subway; also unfortunate that there doesn't seem to be a staircase from where the GO platform is sitting on the north side of Sheppard to Sheppard itself.

And I'm surprised that they are still relying on a single elevator in stations; surely they should be moving to a dual elevator to provide the necessary redundancy.
 
In Sheppard West we thankfully have evidence that we're getting our first designed-from-scratch intermodal station and, miracle of miracles, we may well dodge the typical shortsighted screwups that seem to have been par for the TTC course in the past. Interesting how the artist's depictions show it in an idyllic parkland setting when, by design, the greenspace to its north is not expected to last too long. On the section diagram, the artists seem to have dropped in the fascia of some sexy-Euro EMU as the placeholder graphic for GO Trains, which merits at least a grin.

This might be as good as place as any to air how much I loathe the name "Sheppard West." Downsview has just as much right to the Sheppard West title as it has, if not moreso because it actually aligns with the E-W main survey line of the street, and abuts it perpendicularly rather than being aligned parallel and set back 30 m south. There'll also be potential confusion arising from how the Sheppard line won't be available from this Sheppard station. Finally, it irks me to have consecutive "X West" stations--yeah, I know St Clair West and Eglinton West are already on the map, but it seems like something to avoid in future, if only to reduce the possibility of confusion. One assumes that related to TOD at that end of Downsview Park there'll be another E-W roadway going in ~30 m south of the station---maybe the station could get its name instead?
 
It is strange how there is no TTC plan to increase concourse and platform space at Dundas, Queen, and King but somehow a large Sheppard West station is required. They are going to need to plan a yearly major rock concert to make use of it because the rest of the time nobody will be there. How successful could the retail there possibly be unless they are planning some major attraction in the area. I also wonder what happened to the street grid originally planned around the west end of the Sheppard West station.
 
I would imagine Finch West will be a far more important station then Sheppard West.


A ton of Traffic from North and Northwest Toronto will come in from the Finch Bus...
 
It doesn't look like they've made any attempt to integrate the station better with Downsview Park... this is surprising given that there's supposed to be all kinds of development there eventually. A bus loop for the 101 bus would have been a good idea. I play soccer there regularly and getting to the fields without a car is not easy.
 
So is the impitus for Sheppard West that it will connect with the Go Line? Otherwise What's the reason for a station in Downsview a few clicks from Downsview.
 
This would probably be why Sheppard West station is being built the size that it is: http://www.toronto.ca/planning/downsview.htm

The City clearly has big plans for the Downsview lands. Also, I think it is a bit unfair to call this a waste of money, considering the amount of people that live and could potentially move there (according to the new Downsview Secondary plan, it could be a minimum of 20,000). If we want to talk about a waste of money, I'd probably single out the Hwy 7 subway stop, especially since that is in the middle of nowhere. And remember: it isn't always about south of Bloor.
 
With the large setback from Sheppard and the lack of any commerce at the station, doesn't it seem likely that Sheppard West will be underused become unsafe rather quickly? Why not turn those walkways into small streets and encourage some mixed commerical-residential along them? Or is that the plan for the area?
 

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