TTC Wilson Station (GO Transit terminal?)

[ShonTron]

The ghost bus station, to be precise. From May 7 to August (perhaps longer!)

The TTC, in its infinate wisdom, has decided to make repairs to the worst station in the system, Wilson. The upper deck of the two-story bus terminal will be closed for repairs, and those routes (29, 96/165 West, 120) will end up at the north terminal, which has been closed since 1996 when Downsview opened.

Here's why this is so stupid:

The bus terminal at Wilson is way overbuilt for the services that use it, though many years ago had a lot more service, and the north terminal was actually needed because of all the service that ran into there. Budget cuts (ie the elimination of routes like 3 Ancaster Park and 163 Rustic) and the opening of Downsview have reduced the need requirements drastically. Both levels have 10 bays each, for a total of 20 bays, minus the closed north terminal. But this is the layout:

Lower Level – West side (from south to north)
- Vacant
- 104 Faywood
- 96/165 Eastbound (all branches)
- Vacant
- Vacant
Lower Level – East side (from north to south)
- Vacant
- Vacant
- 7A Bathurst (Rush hours only)
- 160 Bathurst North
- Vacant

Upper Level – West side (from south to north)
- Vacant
- Vacant
- 29 Dufferin
- 120 Calvington (rush hours only, every 60 min)
- Vacant
Upper Level – East side (from north to south)
- Vacant
- 96 Westbound (all local branches)
- 165 Westbound
- 96E
- Vacant

Therefore 9 out of 20 potential spaces are wasted, but does a bus every 60 minutes at rush hours need its own bay either?

The TTC probably could fit all the routes on one level on a temporary basis, at least in deference to the elderly or those with mobility issues (not those requiring walkers or wheelchairs, as Wilson is a maze of stairs and escalators, and no elevators!). Even worse, the TTC is going to maintain a terribly overbuilt station (and I am sure expensive to maintain) that will eventually have to be made accessible (all but the 104 and 160 are accessible routes with no access to the subway at Wilson). Why not just build a modern one-floor, 10-12 bay terminal? There's plenty of room on the sprawling lands. They could even just expand the current lower level and demolish the upper section and north terminal.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

The mezzanines and hallways of some outer stations are truly gargantuan and Wilson's the worst of the bunch. Then there's the endless concrete and grass around the station itself, a slightly obscene place to put a subway station...thank god for feeder bus routes.

 

[Dan416]

I thought this thread would be about Lower Bay. I was severely disappointed!

 

[Hydrogen]

I thought this thread was about haunted stations.

 

[Prometheus The Supremo]

i think i'm gonna call james randi and collect the million dollar prize.

 

[fiendishlibrarian]

Sean, the reason, as far as I know, that the northern terminal was never demolished after the opening of Downsview was that for years there was talk of that terminal being used as a GO terminal. That obviously never happened, and as even I will admit, inertia and the TTC go together like scotch and soda.

 

[interchange42]

It would appear that Wilson station would be a good candidate for redevelopment - there should be a full-blown multi-use complex here.

If 11 bays out of 20 are vacant currently, but there are no current redevelopment plans, what's stopping the TTC from moving all of the buses into the lower 10 bays and just shuttering the upper terminal?

42

 

[ShonTron]

I think part of the problem is the Downsview Airport. The big-box centre is there because it is in the direct flight path - really can't do much with that parcel, or the west side of Allen, especially the southwest side. The east side is ripe for redevelopment, though.

Exactly, 42, why not just shutter the upper terminal? That's part of the point I was trying to make, but the TTC is letting an opportunity to save some money pass it by.

 

[adma]

Well, remember how Wilson embodies inertia in other ways, esp. those 1978-era Toronto photo displays...

 

[Dan416]

Some pictures of this subway station would be helpful. Anyone care to take a trip there? Maybe in a few years, Wilson will become the centre of Toronto and the TTC will be seen as visionary for keeping all those extra bus bays until that day! Yeah, okay, not happening. It does strike me as odd that each bus would have it's own bus bay, even when it only comes like a few times an hour.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

There's only a small number of shared bus bays around the city...I'm pretty sure it only happens today when a new route is added. When you have the room and money necessary to overbuild a station like Wilson, why not give each route its own little concrete niche? I wonder what the frequency would have been like on some of these routes 30 years ago.

 

[samsonyuen]

I remember going a few years ago and think how tragic it was for Wilson. I guess the same thing happened to Warden in the 1980s to a lesser extent.

 

[interchange42]

At least Warden is to be entirely redeveloped.

42

 

[Andrew3D]

Built back when this song was written.

http://archives.cbc.ca/med/en/subways_history/subways_21_hr_en.jpg

 

[dowlingm]

Somewhat off topic but - although there are good reasons to see Downsview Airport stay (Avro Arrow, etc) on balance I think it should perhaps go. A redevelopment of the airport in conjunction with a proper development of Downsview Park and a Sheppard subway extension to and through Downsview/Spadina could create a huge new district with nearby University, GO Transit, two subway lines, Jane LRT and Finch West LRT, highways etc. etc.

I would have given Bombardier incentives to move the Q400 assembly to the former Douglas facility at Pearson once Boeing B717 wing production closed and moved the museum aircraft to the Island Airport and thus made CYTZ part of the downtown cultural fabric.

Problem was that I think Air Canada snapped up the Douglas building once Boeing got out of town, and Toronto City Council would probably have opposed losing even more manufacturing out of Toronto (to Mississauga).