Yorkdale station

Yorkdale is a station on the Yonge–University line in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the median of the William R. Allen Road just south of Highway 401. Opened in 1978, it is named after the nearby Yorkdale Shopping Centre to which it connects by an enclosed walkway.[3]

Yorkdale
LocationYorkdale Road at Yorkdale Service Road, Yorkdale Shopping Centre,
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
Coordinates43°43′29″N 79°26′51″W
PlatformsCentre platform
Tracks2
Connections Yorkdale Bus Terminal
Construction
Structure typeAt grade
Parking1010 spaces, reopened February 2017[1]
Disabled accessNo
ArchitectArthur Erickson
History
Opened28 January 1978
Traffic
Passengers (2018[2])22,860
Rank41 of 75
Services
Preceding station   TTC   Following station
toward Vaughan
 Yonge–University
toward Finch
Escalators to the platform from Ranee Ave entrance

Connections to GO Transit commuter and Greyhound intercity buses are available at Yorkdale Bus Terminal, immediately west of the station.

Entrances
  • Yorkdale Mall west entrance, next to Yorkdale Bus Terminal
  • Ranee Avenue and Allen Road, south entrance (accessible only by Presto card)
  • Onramp to Highway 401 and Allen Road, north entrance

Architecture and art

Yorkdale was designed by Arthur Erickson.[4] The station is above ground, and also above street level. It has two tracks: northbound and southbound, and has a centre platform. A dramatic vaulted glass roof spans the length of the single centre platform. It terminates symmetrically at escalators and stairs at both ends of the platform, creating the appearance of a glass dome. The interior walls of the station at platform level are unfinished concrete, but artistically cast, and curve over the tracks to form the ceiling. The shape of the windows on these walls recalls the oval windows of subway trains. On the exterior, these concrete walls are clad with stainless steel.

Handrails on stairs leading to the platform are backlit. Platform shelters are unique to the station, designed in the oval shape which dominates many features in the station, with large windows. Like the centre pillars which hold X-shaped structural supports—distinctive in Toronto's rapid transit system to the station—they are clad in unpainted metal panels.

Yorkdale station won a Governor General's Award for Architecture in 1982,[5] and is listed as a heritage structure in Toronto's inventory of heritage properties.[6]

The station's glass roof originally featured an artwork by Michael Hayden—also responsible for the Sky's the Limit installation at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport—called Arc en ciel (French for "rainbow"). This piece consisted of a large number of mercury-vapour lamps painted in various colours that would light in a pattern, running along the station in the appropriate direction whenever a train went through. In the mid-1990s, it stopped working because of damaged transformers caused by water leakage.[7] Each transformer would have cost just $28 to repair at the time; however, because the TTC had not budgeted for its continued maintenance,[7] it was removed at the artist's request.

At a TTC meeting in September 2010, a deal was made for Oxford Properties, owner of Yorkdale Mall which connects to the station, to pay for the restoration of the installation.[7] The plan calls for the rebuilt piece to use LED lights, allowing for a broader range and customization of colours and patterns. Hayden requested that a maintenance contract be included, and for the piece installed by a Toronto-based company.[7] The cost of such a reinstallation was not known (the original installation cost $100,000)[8] until July 13, 2016, when it was revealed that the Oxford Properties would pay for much of the $500,000 cost to re-install the art installation, with some of the funds being from a pool dedicated to community improvements.[9]

History

In late 2013, the entrance at Ranee Avenue was altered: the south and north driveways were removed, and curb was added to run parallel with the support pillars. Buses no longer drop passengers off directly at the doors. This project was completed in conjunction with resurfacing of Ranee to remove asbestos and the future construction of residential buildings along Allen Road on the south side of Ranee.[10]

In January 2014, the parking structure connected to the subway, which could accommodate 1144 cars, was demolished for mall expansion.[11] Construction of a new parking structure was delayed to coincide with the opening of Nordstrom and eventually opened in February 2017.[1][12]

On January 6, 2019, the fare collectors booth at this station was permanently closed. Instead, the station is staffed by roaming customer service agents, who have been in place at Line 1 stations between Wilson and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre since the Toronto–York Spadina subway extension opened on December 17, 2017. While customers are still able to pay their fares by tokens and tickets, they can no longer purchase these at the station, and customers paying by cash require exact change.[13][14] As with all TTC subway stations, Presto cards are also accepted as fare payment and can be purchased and loaded with funds or an unlimited monthly TTC pass at the Presto fare vending machines located in the station.

On April 5, 2019, Lawrence West and Yorkdale stations became the first two locations to sell single-use Presto tickets, which are sold from the stations' Presto fare vending machines.[15]

Subway infrastructure in the vicinity

South of Yorkdale station, Allen Road descends into a shallow open cut below the surrounding ground level, and the subway descends with it until Eglinton West station. North of Yorkdale, the tracks remain elevated and cross Highway 401 to Wilson station.

Surface connections

Toronto Transit Commission
Main article: List of Toronto Transit Commission bus routes

A transfer is required to connect between the subway and surface bus routes.

TTC routes serving the station include:

Route Name Additional Information
47B Lansdowne Southbound to Queen Street West via Bridgeland Avenue and Caledonia Road
47C Southbound to Queen Street West via Orfus Road and Caledonia Road
109B Ranee Northbound to Neptune Drive and southbound to Eglinton West station via Flemington Road and Marlee Avenue

Yorkdale station was used as the Transit Hub station in the film The Last Chase (1981) because of its futuristic look. It also appears in Scanners (1981) and Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (1983).

gollark: Praise the market!!!!!!!¡!!!??!!nnnn!!¡1
gollark: Possibly, why?
gollark: Communism.
gollark: Soviet national anthem?
gollark: I'm not actually on.

References
  1. "TTC Yorkdale Station". TTC. February 1, 2017. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  2. "Subway ridership, 2018" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. Retrieved February 5, 2019. This table shows the typical number of customer-trips made on each subway on an average weekday and the typical number of customers travelling to and from each station platform on an average weekday.
  3. Bradburn, Jamie (November 29, 2011). "Vintage Toronto Ads: Yorkdale… Another Toronto Attraction". Torontoist. Retrieved January 21, 2017. ride the new Spadina Subway line right into Yorkdale's ultra-modern station. Descend the glass-domed escalator or stairs... and you've arrived!
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2008-11-16.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. Arthur Erickson - awards
  6. http://app.toronto.ca/heritage/property.do?pid=10221%5B%5D
  7. Derek Flack (4 November 2010). "Michael Hayden's Arc en ciel might return to Yorkdale Station". blogTO. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  8. Derek Flack (7 November 2010). "Sunday Supplement: Was John Tory conned out of the mayoral race?, pedestrian safety meets fashion disaster, Bloor Street open for business and memories of a Toronto igloo". blogTO. Retrieved 19 September 2011.
  9. http://www.metronews.ca/news/toronto/2016/07/13/yorkdale-arc-en-ciel-to-shine-again.html
  10. http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2012/ny/bgrd/backgroundfile-51338.pdf
  11. "TTC Yorkdale Commuter Parking Lot To Close Temporarily". TTC. November 5, 2013.
  12. "TTC parking lot at Yorkdale open for business after extensive renovations". Global News. February 1, 2017. Retrieved April 9, 2017.
  13. "New Customer Service Agents at Yorkdale and Lawrence West stations". ttc.ca. Toronto Transit Commission. Archived from the original on January 3, 2019. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  14. "Collector booths to close in favour of Customer Service Agents at TTC's Yorkdale and Lawrence West stations". ttc.ca. Toronto Transit Commission. Archived from the original on January 3, 2019. Retrieved January 3, 2019.
  15. "TTC extends sales of Presto Tickets to 10 stations". Toronto Transit Commission. May 6, 2019. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.