New look for the Victoria Park subway station (Brown and Storey)

[TTC12]

Went to Victoria park today, obviously GTS beat me to the news.

It is looking great! I can't wait until it's finfihed, but now that it's open, the brand-new allure is irresistable to vandals... I hope I don't see any graffiti or anything, I've noticed a lot more appearing...

 

[wilson_wu]

Bus terminal

Wall tiling

Ceiling slats

Street entrance

 

[EnviroTO]

Wow, that station is looking so much better. The bus terminal with those high ceilings and open space look like they would be cold waiting for the bus in winter though.

 

[GTS]

EnviroTO-yeah it looks pretty open to the elements but the bus platform is near the indoor waiting area of the new station meaning it will be a relatively comfortable place to wait for most of the #24 Vic Park buses. The booklet called 'Transit City Bus Plan" had plans for an enclosed area for part of the north/south bus bays where the 12 buses, 67 bus and 404 community bus dock as well as the 24A bus. Unfortunately the funding fell through for it but hopefully it gets built for next winter, the cost for this enclosed area was $2.4 million according to the mentioned 'Transit City Bus Plan' booklet.

The above mentioned booklet also mentions another route that would travel east on Danforth Ave and serve Cliffside village and go straight to Eglinton and Markham- I notices an extra bus bay at the new station and I wonder if this mentioned route is going to become reality.

Very grateful though for all the thought and work that has gone into VP station so far, hopefully more of our stations get similar treatment.

 

[junctionist]

That new bus area looks quite good.

 

[hkric88]

Sexy

 

[wilson_wu]

What really gripes me about this project is this thing: I asked Adam Giambrone and he said most likely they won't be changing that because the project is low on money.

What I suggest they do to integrate these gates to the new design of the station is:

 

[Fresh Start]

Wow, if I ever find a need to get off the train at Victoria Park one of these days I'll definitely check this out.

 

[SimonP]

I was there yesterday and it looks great. It also is so much more functional than the older design. Those old bus bays were horrible for so many reasons. You have to wonder just what the original designers were thinking.

Same goes for the north wall. Originally this was a solid mass of tile and concrete. In the redesign they replaced much of the wall with glass and you now get a really nice view of the golf course and ravine. Why would the original designers have ever placed a completely windowless wall here when such a nice view was available?

 

[Observer Walt]

Wilson, thank you for the good pictures. I had to look twice to see that they were real and not renderings.

I don't find myself in that part of town very often, but looks like it may merit a special trip. The old station was arguably the most poorly designed in the whole system; the renovated one looks very good.

 

[drum118]

My visit today
[video=youtube;TSSdpbB-NXo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSSdpbB-NXo[/video]

 

[Inkarnate]

Not bad!

 

[GTS]

I got off work early yesterday and just spent a bit of time watching the flow of people and movement of buses when the Friday rush hour started up. The bus bays are an incredible improvement in the way they handle the commuters exiting the subways to catch their connecting bus. Their is more room on the platform now then on the old seperated platform they tore down and their is definetly more room then the temporary bus platforms on the street had. Another thing that shows its improved efficiency is that say when the #24 Victoria Park bus was at its bay near the exit of the bus loop and was waiting to load up and leave at its scheduled time the next bus was already unloaded on the same platform but further down near the entrance to the loop readfy to take the bus bay when the other #24 bus left. It is a lot more efficient at moving a lot of people in short amount of time. I was quite impressed at the way this design works at moving crowds commuting while not feeling too 'crowded' compared to the old design.

I hope more stations get the funding to get this type of treatment. I don't live in a fantasy world and think it is perfect but I don't have to cast my memory back too far and appreciate how much of an improvement it is over the old design. I hope Warden Station gets funding to get similar treatment. This design makes our transfers that much more comfortable that maybe more people will start choosing transit.

 

[nfitz]

Wonderful! Occasionally I take the 24 instead of the 25 to get to work; I'll have to go check it out one day!

 

[androiduk]

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