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Bloor-Yonge (TTC)
Encyclopedia
Bloor-Yonge is a station on the Yonge–University–Spadina and the Bloor–Danforth subway lines
operated by the Toronto Transit Commission
(TTC) in Toronto
, Ontario
, Canada
. It is located at 733 Yonge Street
at Bloor Street
West/East. Due to its key location as a subway transfer point below a very high-density area, Bloor-Yonge is by far the busiest subway station in Toronto, serving a combined total of approximately people a day, making it the busiest rapid transit station in Canada.
s within the fare-paid zone. When the streetcars were replaced with the Bloor-Danforth subway in 1966, the station began to be shown on maps as "Bloor-Yonge", but actual platform signs still show "Bloor" on the Yonge-University-Spadina line and "Yonge" on the Bloor-Danforth Line, following the style common in the New York subway
. (Some maps over the years also showed the station with two names "Bloor" and "Yonge", although the style "Bloor-Yonge" is now in use again; both are retronym
s of Bloor Station.) Similarly, the automated station announcement system installed in 2007–08 refers to the station as "Bloor" on the one line and "Yonge" on the other. It is the only TTC station named in this way; all other interchanges share the same name for both lines, including Sheppard-Yonge.
The station originally featured a small retail concourse along the corridor leading from the entrance at the south side of Bloor Street. This concourse was closed and disappeared during the construction of the office building at 33 Bloor Street East in the late 1980s.
Due to its congestion, the TTC has been motivated to expand the station. In 1992, it took advantage of building construction over the station to open it out and widen the platforms on the Yonge-University-Spadina portion of the station. This was the first stage of a plan to enable trains to open their doors on both sides: the tracks would next have been slewed outwards within the widened station, and a central platform built between them.
This type of construction, known as the Spanish solution
, is employed in the Barcelona Metro
and has expanded to other subway systems, such as the Singapore MRT
, the MTR Hong Kong
, the Shenzhen Metro
, the Guangzhou Metro
, the Shanghai Metro
, the London Underground
, the Toulouse Metro
, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
in Boston, the New York subway, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority
in Atlanta, and a variant of this in the TTC's own Kennedy Station
on the Scarborough RT.
The TTC does not intend to proceed with this, as it would require closing the station for many months. The Bloor-Danforth platform was not been widened, because of the extra complication of construction and disruption in service stemming from it being an island platform, and so it remains heavily congested during peak times. However, the TTC included a roughed-in Spanish solution station platform on the Sheppard line level of Sheppard-Yonge Station.
The TTC experimented with crowd control measures on the southbound platform of the Yonge-University-Spadina level on November 24, 2009, and made it permanent since, given that it allowed for passenger flow to improve by discouraging them from crowding near the stairs leading to the Bloor-Danforth level. These measures also reduced dwell times by a few seconds, such that a few more trains can enter the station during rush hour without building additional capacity.
.
Immediately west of the station on the Bloor-Danforth Line, the second pair of connecting tracks from the University section of the Yonge-University Spadina line join onto the running lines from the inside. Within the station, the Yonge section of the Yonge-University-Spadina line crosses above the Bloor-Danforth line.
East of the station, the Bloor-Danforth line goes into bored tunnel to cross to the south side of Bloor Street, and arrives at Sherbourne Station
.
, the Hudson's Bay Company
's The Bay
Uptown department store
located in the Hudson Bay Centre
at 2 Bloor Street East, and 2 Bloor Street West
.
Toronto subway and RT
The Toronto subway and RT is a rapid transit system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, consisting of both underground and elevated railway lines, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission . It was Canada's first completed subway system, with the first line being built under Yonge Street, which opened in...
operated by the Toronto Transit Commission
Toronto Transit Commission
-Island Ferry:The ferry service to the Toronto Islands was operated by the TTC from 1927 until 1962, when it was transferred to the Metro Parks and Culture department. Since 1998, the ferry service is run by Toronto Parks and Recreation.-Gray Coach:...
(TTC) in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It is located at 733 Yonge Street
Yonge Street
Yonge Street is a major arterial route connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. It was formerly listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world at , and the construction of Yonge Street is designated an "Event of...
at Bloor Street
Bloor Street
Bloor Street is a major east–west residential and commercial thoroughfare in Toronto, in the Canadian province of Ontario. Bloor Street runs from the Prince Edward Viaduct westward into Mississauga, where it ends at Central Parkway. East of the viaduct, Danforth Avenue continues along the same...
West/East. Due to its key location as a subway transfer point below a very high-density area, Bloor-Yonge is by far the busiest subway station in Toronto, serving a combined total of approximately people a day, making it the busiest rapid transit station in Canada.
History
The station was opened in 1954. It was originally named "Bloor", and connected with a pair of enclosed platforms in the centre of Bloor Street to allow interchange with Bloor streetcarToronto streetcar system
The Toronto streetcar system comprises eleven streetcar routes in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission , and is the largest such system in the Americas in terms of ridership, number of cars, and track length. The network is concentrated primarily in downtown and in...
s within the fare-paid zone. When the streetcars were replaced with the Bloor-Danforth subway in 1966, the station began to be shown on maps as "Bloor-Yonge", but actual platform signs still show "Bloor" on the Yonge-University-Spadina line and "Yonge" on the Bloor-Danforth Line, following the style common in the New York subway
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
. (Some maps over the years also showed the station with two names "Bloor" and "Yonge", although the style "Bloor-Yonge" is now in use again; both are retronym
Retronym
A retronym is a type of neologism that provides a new name for an object or concept to differentiate the original form or version of it from a more recent form or version. The original name is most often augmented with an adjective to account for later developments of the object or concept itself...
s of Bloor Station.) Similarly, the automated station announcement system installed in 2007–08 refers to the station as "Bloor" on the one line and "Yonge" on the other. It is the only TTC station named in this way; all other interchanges share the same name for both lines, including Sheppard-Yonge.
The station originally featured a small retail concourse along the corridor leading from the entrance at the south side of Bloor Street. This concourse was closed and disappeared during the construction of the office building at 33 Bloor Street East in the late 1980s.
Due to its congestion, the TTC has been motivated to expand the station. In 1992, it took advantage of building construction over the station to open it out and widen the platforms on the Yonge-University-Spadina portion of the station. This was the first stage of a plan to enable trains to open their doors on both sides: the tracks would next have been slewed outwards within the widened station, and a central platform built between them.
This type of construction, known as the Spanish solution
Spanish solution
The Spanish solution is a method of using two railway platforms, one on each side of the track, in order to speed up boarding and alighting from trains. Alighting passengers get off the train on one side and boarding passengers get on from the other...
, is employed in the Barcelona Metro
Barcelona Metro
The Barcelona Metro , part of the public transportation system of Barcelona, Catalonia, is an extensive network of electrified railways that run underground in central Barcelona and above ground into the city's suburbs. Since July 31, 2010, Barcelona Metro system consists of 11 lines with 165...
and has expanded to other subway systems, such as the Singapore MRT
Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore)
The Mass Rapid Transit or MRT is a rapid transit system that forms the backbone of the railway system in Singapore, spanning the entire city-state. The initial section of the MRT, between Yio Chu Kang Station and Toa Payoh Station, opened in 1987 establishing itself as the second-oldest metro...
, the MTR Hong Kong
MTR
Mass Transit Railway is the rapid transit railway system in Hong Kong. Originally opened in 1979, the system now includes 211.6 km of rail with 155 stations, including 86 railway stations and 69 light rail stops...
, the Shenzhen Metro
Shenzhen Metro
The Shenzhen Metro is the subway or underground system for the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province, China. The system opened on 28 December 2004, making Shenzhen the seventh city in mainland China to have a subway after Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Dalian, and Wuhan. The Shenzhen...
, the Guangzhou Metro
Guangzhou Metro
Guangzhou Metro is the metro system of the city of Guangzhou in Guangdong Province of China. It is operated by the state-owned Guangzhou Metro Corporation and was the fourth metro system to be built in mainland China, after those of Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai.The earliest effort of preparation...
, the Shanghai Metro
Shanghai Metro
The Shanghai Metro is the urban rapid transit system of China's largest city, Shanghai. The system incorporates both subway and light rail lines. It opened in 1995, making Shanghai the third city in Mainland China, after Beijing and Tianjin, to have a rapid transit system...
, the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...
, the Toulouse Metro
Toulouse Metro
The Toulouse metro serves the city of Toulouse, France, and some of the surrounding area. The city's public transport system was initially managed by Société d'économie mixte des voyageurs de l'agglomération toulousaine , which was a company that was 80% owned by local government bodies and 20%...
, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, often referred to as the MBTA or simply The T, is the public operator of most bus, subway, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, area. Officially a "body politic and corporate, and a political subdivision" of the...
in Boston, the New York subway, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority
The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority or MARTA is the principal rapid-transit system in the Atlanta metropolitan area and the ninth-largest in the United States. Formed in 1971 as strictly a bus system, MARTA operates a network of bus routes linked to a rapid transit system consisting...
in Atlanta, and a variant of this in the TTC's own Kennedy Station
Kennedy (TTC)
Kennedy is the terminal subway station of the Bloor-Danforth and Scarborough RT lines of the Toronto subway and RT. It is located at 2455 Eglinton Avenue East, just east of Kennedy Road. The station opened in 1980 in what was then the Borough of Scarborough with the Bloor-Danforth platform, and the...
on the Scarborough RT.
The TTC does not intend to proceed with this, as it would require closing the station for many months. The Bloor-Danforth platform was not been widened, because of the extra complication of construction and disruption in service stemming from it being an island platform, and so it remains heavily congested during peak times. However, the TTC included a roughed-in Spanish solution station platform on the Sheppard line level of Sheppard-Yonge Station.
The TTC experimented with crowd control measures on the southbound platform of the Yonge-University-Spadina level on November 24, 2009, and made it permanent since, given that it allowed for passenger flow to improve by discouraging them from crowding near the stairs leading to the Bloor-Danforth level. These measures also reduced dwell times by a few seconds, such that a few more trains can enter the station during rush hour without building additional capacity.
Subway infrastructure in the vicinity
After leaving the station northbound on the Yonge-University-Spadina line and crossing under Church Street in a tunnel, the line emerges to the surface at the Ellis Portal, mostly in an open cut, for some 800 metres going through Rosedale StationRosedale (TTC)
Rosedale is a station on the Yonge–University–Spadina line of the subway system of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at 1009 Yonge Street at Crescent Road....
.
Immediately west of the station on the Bloor-Danforth Line, the second pair of connecting tracks from the University section of the Yonge-University Spadina line join onto the running lines from the inside. Within the station, the Yonge section of the Yonge-University-Spadina line crosses above the Bloor-Danforth line.
East of the station, the Bloor-Danforth line goes into bored tunnel to cross to the south side of Bloor Street, and arrives at Sherbourne Station
Sherbourne (TTC)
Sherbourne is a station on the Bloor–Danforth line of the Toronto subway and RT. It was opened in 1966 and is located at 420 Bloor Street East at Sherbourne Street. The station primarily serves the St...
.
Nearby landmarks
Nearby landmarks include the Toronto Reference LibraryToronto Reference Library
The Toronto Reference Library is located at 789 Yonge Street, one block north of Bloor Street, in Toronto, Ontario. Formerly the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library, the name was changed in 1998 when it was incorporated into the Toronto Public Library system..The 38,691 m² The Toronto Reference...
, the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
's The Bay
The Bay
The Bay is a chain of 91 department stores that operate across parts of Canada. It is the main brand of Hudson's Bay Company , North America's oldest company. It has its headquarters in the Simpson Tower in Toronto. In French, the chain is known as la Baie, short for "Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson"...
Uptown department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
located in the Hudson Bay Centre
Hudson Bay Centre
Hudson's Bay Centre is an International style office skyscraper in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.-History:Completed in 1974, it stands at 35 floors at 135 metres in height. The Bay department store still anchors the site...
at 2 Bloor Street East, and 2 Bloor Street West
2 Bloor Street West
Two Bloor West, is an office building at the intersection of Yonge Street and Bloor Street in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is sometimes referred to as Toronto's CIBC building, but that name can also refer to Commerce Court....
.