kEiThZ
Superstar
I think we can agree that the downtown stations should have been bigger. That does not mean suburban stations (like those planned for Eglinton) need to be massive.
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I think we can agree that the downtown stations should have been bigger. That does not mean suburban stations (like those planned for Eglinton) need to be massive.
Dan416
Senior Member
I took the subway to St. George for years, and I don't think I ever felt it was dangerously overcrowded or anything. Well-used, yes. Overcrowded? No. Dufferin needs more space? Really? The only ones I can agree with you on are Dundas and Queen. Bay is so underused it definitely doesn't need to be bigger. Coxwell and Pape I've never been to, so I can't comment, but if you're saying Dufferin is too small, then I can imagine you're exaggerating on those stations as well.
Jonny5
Senior Member
I agree St. George is fine under normal circumstances, but when there is any kind of delay at rush hour for than three minutes, it starts to get chaotic. Backlogs start up and down the stairs and which is particularly dangerous.
We have years of huge crowds managing to safely navigate these stations without incident, but I am frightful of the day we actually have an incident where someone is injured or dies to to crowding. Not because of the obvious tradgedy of it, but due to the instant 1000-fold sensationalizing by every media outlet in the city that will take place. SUBWAY DEATH TRAP WAITING TO HAPPEN! will be on the cover of The Sun and CityTV will have street interviews with people in Barrie too terrified to ever visit Toronto again ("if you're not shot or taxed to death, the subway will kill you!",) etc....
nfitz
Superstar
My experience at Dufferin is limited ... it seemed very crowded when I was last there ... perhaps it was an aberration as it was when the Bathurst streetcar was shutdown.
But St. George? The platforms are way too narrow; it's a safety hazard. I'm surprised they are even have a permit to let people down there.
But St. George? The platforms are way too narrow; it's a safety hazard. I'm surprised they are even have a permit to let people down there.
Darwinkgo
Active Member
I used to get on and off at the St. George station on the way to and from work, and at no point did I ever feel like the station was over crowded. Since it is one of the busiest in the system, I don't think single stations should ever really need to be bigger than it. It has all the standard TTC bells and whistles in a well sized safe package.
kettal
Banned
The worst are subway drive-by shootings.
newuser2k9
Active Member
I don't think any of Eglinton, from west of the DVP/404 to east of Black Creek could be considered suburban. There's not even a single cul-de-sac.
Second_in_pie
Senior Member
There's a huge difference between crowded and overcrowded/underbuilt.
And I go to St. George every day at rush hour. While I can agree that sometimes the stairs get a little clogged, there's definitely nothing dangerous about the station capacity. And the stairs don't even get that bad. They could work better on stair and escalator placement, but other than that, everything moves wonderfully.
Perhaps your expectations are too high. I'll only know once you start saying that Leslie was underbuilt
kEiThZ
Superstar
Union, Yonge/Bloor, etc. is overcrowded. I dunno if St. George is on par with that....yet.
kEiThZ
Superstar
Hopefully these more spartan stations are a revelation. If more suburban subway lines are built like this we can have a lot more subway. For example, if Sheppard were built like Eglinton (subway with LRT rolling stock), it would have made the whole length more affordable as subway.
Now if only they can expand the subway portion of Eglinton a bit more...
Now if only they can expand the subway portion of Eglinton a bit more...
Fresh Start
Banned
On one occasion I had a negative experience with overcrowding at St George Stn. It was rush hour and the YUS platform on both sides was completely stocked with people. There was no way to make my way through the crowds when I got off the northbound YUS trian trying to connect to the westbound Bloor downstairs. There were stairs but everyone was heading up so there was no space with which to accomodate downwards flow. What my friend and I ultimately had to do was try to get down a escaltor shaft that only heads up. If I wasn't quick-footed I could have easily fallen and sustained injury. I'm sure that's not an everyday occurence at SG but still my incident or worse people getting shoved off onto track level is a serious enough reason for building a second platform there.
However I seriously doubt stations deep in suburbia that aren't major interchanges or nearby trip-generators requires more than a humble station design; no frills, no whistles. I really wonder just how much more kms of subways could be if elevated guideways were optimized for areas with little to none immediate density. I just can't get past the mere $1.9 billion it took to build the Canada Line with trainsets the same track width of our T1s. I really think the TTC needs to be audited. Something's just not right with the way they're spending money.
Paleo
Active Member
A lot of the busier stations on the green line could use larger mezzanine areas. The small passageways get really crowded during peak periods and passenger flow is really poor. Some of this is the product of having only one set of stairs/escalators from both platforms leading to the same area. Bad if trains from both directions arrive at the same time the buses arrive to drop people off.
EnviroTO
Senior Member
St.George is definitely overcrowded at times where you are pushed along with the flood of people using the stairs and because people wait on the platform right off of the stairs there is sometimes no way through. It usually happens if there is a delay of any sort during rush hour. They should definitely implement a program to eventually rebuild St.George, Bloor-Yonge, and at very least the entry ways to the east side platforms of King, Queen, and Dundas stations where access to the platforms is cramped. The benefits of a mezzanine above the subway platform level for fare collection is easily apparent at Queen and Dundas.
junctionist
Senior Member
Stations on this line grand or designed by international firms, but completely using some generic design and repeating it for every station or using some cheap tile scheme is a bad idea as well. Public transit infrastructure is in addition to serving a pragmatic purpose also an opportunity to express civic pride and perhaps to inspire people to do something exceptional for their city. The people who ride this will probably be the civic leaders of tomorrow.
W. K. Lis
Superstar
Toronto was the 23rd city in the world to open its first subway line in 1954. (New York City was the 10th in world, while Boston was the 6th.) It had few examples of stations to follow. There is now 175 cities.
If the stations were to be designed today, they would be more like what we would have on the Sheppard subway. Wider platforms, wider stairs, more escalators and elevators from the start. When the Yonge subway opened in 1954, escalators were considered a luxury and only a few stations had them.
With the Eglinton, each underground station platform will be wide and will have escalators & elevators from the start.
If the stations were to be designed today, they would be more like what we would have on the Sheppard subway. Wider platforms, wider stairs, more escalators and elevators from the start. When the Yonge subway opened in 1954, escalators were considered a luxury and only a few stations had them.
With the Eglinton, each underground station platform will be wide and will have escalators & elevators from the start.
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