2.1K 
Work is progressing on the TTC’s ambitious Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension. Over the next six weeks, UrbanToronto will catch up with each of the six new subway stations under construction. Today, we start with the mostly southerly of the new stations on the extension—Downsview Park.
Located at the northern end of Downsview Park at 1212 Sheppard Ave West, the station is comprised of two main buildings, situated on opposite sides of an intersecting GO rail line. These buildings will serve as entrance pavilions, with the west pavilion having vehicular access to Sheppard Ave. West via an extension of Bakersfield St., and the east pavilion serving those coming from within the park via Carl Hall Rd.
Downsview Park Station will also be a new stop on GO Transit’s Barrie line, and is intended to replace GO Transit’s station at York University. It is planned to close once the Spadina Line extension opens. As such, Downsview Park Station will be fully integrated with both TTC and GO Transit services, with GO Transit sharing the costs of construction.
Trackwork in and around the station was completed earlier this year. Contracted work on the station itself, starting in 2010, is still progressing, and is the farthest along out of any of the stations on the extension. The station box has been fully constructed and covered over again, and both entrance pavilions can already be seen, albeit at different stages of work. The east pavilion, in its concrete shell stage, is easily visible from Sheppard Ave West.
The west pavilion has progressed further, with work currently underway to clad the southern exterior in glass, with the station beginning to resemble its design concept.
The area that will serve as the driveway to the west pavilion via Sheppard Ave. West and Bakersfield St. is currently closed off. There is no visible construction yet on the driveway, but there has been some work done on the north side of the west pavilion.
The station was originally to be called Sheppard West Station when the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension was announced. GO Transit, however, preferred the name Downsview Park instead as GO's stations tend to be named after places instead of streets, and without a Sheppard Station on the GO system, Sheppard West made little sense for them.
The current terminus of the Yonge-University-Spadina’s western branch, Downsview Station, will thus be renamed as Sheppard West Station once the subway extension opens. The TTC sees the name swap as necessary in order to prevent confusion for future riders mistaking the current Downsview Station as the best station for Downsview Park. The new station’s closer proximity to Downsview Park’s official entrance, as well as being more centrally located to the planned commercial and residential developments in the park’s area make it the more obvious choice to carry the moniker Downsview in the name.
Downsview Park Station shares the same architectural team as Highway 407 Station, with AECOM, Aedas, and Parsons Brinckerhoff all combining on the station’s engineering and design. The station’s interior will be embellished with work by local artist Panya Clark Espinal. Regular commuters on the TTC’s Sheppard Line may recognize the name from her trippy trompe-l'œil installations adorning Bayview Station.
Currently, Downsview Park Station is scheduled to open along with the rest of the new stations in Fall 2016.
Want to know more about Downsview Park Station? You will find more information and renderings in our dataBase file for the project, linked below. Want to talk about it? Choose the associated Forum thread to get in on the conversation, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
