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Path: utzoo!sq!msb
From: msb@sq.uucp (Mark Brader)
Date: Thu, 24-Nov-88 16:18:13 EST
Message-ID: <1988Nov24.161813.11159@sq.uucp>
Newsgroups: tor.general
Subject: Re: Phantom subway station?
Summary:  Not one.  Two.
References: <1636@maccs.McMaster.CA>
Reply-To: msb@sq.com (Mark Brader)
Distribution: tor
Organization: SoftQuad Inc., Toronto

> there is a shiny new subway station somewhere below the city, with about
> 500 m of dead-end track leading from it.

Several followups have mentioned the half station under Queen station,
which has existed in its ghostly form since the line was opened in 1954.

(By the way, it's easy to see where this is: notice that the passages
to cross between north- and southbound tracks, when you enter the
station from the main entrance, pass BENEATH the tracks.  Obviously
the stairs to those passages were intended to be the NS/EW transfer
stairs as well.  The fact that there are two passages suggests that the
E-W station was going to have separate platforms for eastbound and west-
bound, but I don't know this for a fact.)

A point of interest not mentioned is that the E-W station was not originally
intended to take subway trains, but rather streetcars.  When the E-W subway
was being planned, one of the competing plans involved upgrading the station
and routing the trains in a pattern like "Bloor-Bathurst-Queen-Parliament-
Danforth".  (Sorry, I don't remember where I read this.  The information
I've seen about that period is somewhat contradictory and the route may not
be accurate.)  It was alleged that the straight Bloor-Danforth line won out
because it offered a quicker end-to-end time, even though few people do that;
however, a shorter route also meant less construction and fewer trains.

Anyway, the actual construction of the Bloor-Danforth line leads to the
*second* phantom station on the system.  Doesn't anyone remember 1966?

When the original section of the Bloor-Danforth line was opened, i.e,
from Keele to Woodbine station, it was possible to take a through train
between any two stations on the system.  Yonge trains leaving Eglinton
(then the terminus) ran south on Yonge and north on University as now,
then after Museum, alternate trains turned east and west on Bloor,
terminating at Keele and at Woodbine.  Trains leaving Keele ran to
St. George, then alternate trains proceeded straight east to Woodbine
or south on University and so north to Eglinton; and trains leaving
Woodbine ran to Bay, then alternate trains went straight west to Keele
or, again, south on University and so north to Eglinton.  It was the
possibility of doing this that led to the University line being built
in the first place (in 1963) -- the reason that Union station was
pointed west originally was not to get to University Avenue, but in
case a future line continued west from there.

(And by the way, it was as a temporary measure during construction of the
University subway that Richmond, Adelaide, Wellington, and York Streets
were converted to one-way traffic...)

The Bay/St.George/Museum Y-interchange actually reaches east to just before
Yonge(/Bloor) station, and west to just before Spadina station; you can see
the interchange switches from the platforms of those stations.  Both Bay
and St.George were built as 2-level stations.  The lower level of St.George
and the upper level of Bay handled the Keele-Woodbine trains; the upper
level of St.George took the Keele-Eglinton trains; and the lower level
of Bay took the Eglinton-Woodbine trains.

The Y-interchange was operated in regular service for 6 months.  There were
frequent backlogs of trains.  Partisans of the interchange alleged that the
system was being deliberately mis-operated; this I doubt, but I don't think
the TTC tried as hard as they might have to make it work well.  Instead
they decided to try operating the two lines separately, as they have been
worked ever since.  This meant that the lower level of Bay station was
redundant and it was closed.  For years the stairs were just boarded up
with painted plywood, but after the Spadina section was opened and
thus reopening the Y made no sense, tiled walls were finally put up.

(About 4 months after the Y was closed, the TTC conducted a poll.  About
20% of respondents favored keeping it closed, and 21% favored reopening it.
The TTC decided this was a close enough vote that they could ignore it.)

The tracks of the Y-interchange remain in place and operable to this day.
Until the Spadina section with its Wilson yard was opened, some of the
Yonge line trains used to use it to access the Bloor-Danforth line's yards
for parking.  Now I believe it only sees irregular use.

So there are two phantom stations, or half stations, on the TTC subway:
one at Queen, which was never finished and almost certainly does not have
tracks leading to it, and one at Bay, which was used for 6 months and
which is connected to the subway tracks.

Opening dates of segments of the subway, for those interested, were
as follows.  These are from memory, but should be completely accurate.

	1954	Eglinton-Union
	1963	Union-St.George
	1966	Keele-Woodbine
	1968	Islington-Keele, Woodbine-Warden
	1974	Sheppard-Eglinton
	1975	Finch-Sheppard
	1981	Wilson-St.George
	1982	Kipling-Islington, Kennedy-Warden
	1987	North York Centre (station added)

Mark Brader	"What can be more palpably absurd than the prospect held out
utzoo!sq!msb	 of locomotives travelling twice as fast as stagecoaches?"
msb@sq.com		 -- The Quarterly Review (England), March 1825
