St. George (TTC)
St. George   | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||||||||||||
| Location |
139 St. George Street Toronto, Ontario Canada | |||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 43°40′05″N 79°23′59″W / 43.66806°N 79.39972°WCoordinates: 43°40′05″N 79°23′59″W / 43.66806°N 79.39972°W | |||||||||||||||
| Platforms | 2 centre platforms (1 on each line) | |||||||||||||||
| Tracks | 4 (2 per line) | |||||||||||||||
| Connections |
 TTC buses | |||||||||||||||
| Construction | ||||||||||||||||
| Structure type | underground | |||||||||||||||
| Platform levels | 2 | |||||||||||||||
| Disabled access | Yes | |||||||||||||||
| History | ||||||||||||||||
| Opened |
28 February 1963 (YU line) 26 February 1966 (BD line) | |||||||||||||||
| Traffic | ||||||||||||||||
| Passengers (2013[1]) |
126,000 (YU line) 128,940 (BD line) 254,940 Total Ranked 2nd of 69 | |||||||||||||||
| Services | ||||||||||||||||
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St. George is a station on the Yonge-University and Bloor-Danforth lines in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located north of Bloor Street West between St. George Street and Bedford Road. This is the second-busiest station, after Bloor-Yonge Station, serving a combined total of approximately 254,940 people a day. Wi-fi service is available at this station.[2]
Entrances
- St. George Street entrance is automatic and staffed during rush hours. It is located on the east side of St. George Street just north of Bloor Street West at 43°40′05.75″N 79°23′59.6″W / 43.6682639°N 79.399889°W
- Bedford entrance is located on the west side of Bedford Road just north of Bloor Street West at 43°40′07.25″N 79°23′52.4″W / 43.6686806°N 79.397889°W. Patrons board the 26 Dupont bus from a platform within the station boundaries at this entrance without the need for a paper transfer.[3]
History
The station was first opened on February 28, 1963 for the University section of the Yonge-University line, followed by the Bloor-Danforth line on February 26, 1966, and finally on January 28, 1978 for the Spadina section of the former line.
Between 1963 and 1966, there was a direct surface connection at the Bedford Road subway entrance to Bloor and Danforth streetcars. The Bedford Loop was immediately south of the station structure and had opened in 1954 to provide a short turn facility for westbound streetcars serving Bloor station on the new Yonge Subway. Streetcars entered from Bedford Road, turned west into the loop beside the station, and exited south on to Bloor Street. The platform was on the east side of what is now the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, with a TTC transformer station constructed at the former entrance and the exit where the Bloor - Bedford Parkette is situated. This loop gave passengers travelling in peak hours a more direct connection between the subway and eastbound and westbound streetcars than walking to/from the curbside stops. The loop closed in February 1966 when streetcar routes were replaced by the Bloor-Danforth Subway.[4]
In 1999, this station became accessible with elevators.
Interlining
Bay and St. George stations each have four parallel tracks, two above two. Between these stations and Museum is a full double-track, grade-separated wye junction. The tracks to and from Museum connect to the upper St. George and Lower Bay stations, while the tracks along Bloor use lower St. George and upper Bay. From February to September 1966 all three sides of the wye were used in regular service: from each of three terminals — Eglinton, Keele, and Woodbine — trains ran alternately to the other two (between Eglinton and Museum they went via Union).
After the six months of interlining, the Bloor-Danforth Line became a separate route and lower Bay was closed. Upper St. George would become the terminus of the Yonge-University line until 1978, when the extension to Wilson was opened. Lower Bay is sometimes used as a movie or TV set, and has been used for platform-surface experiments.
Paul Arthur signage
Some areas of the station contain wayfinding signage with the image of a crest with a dragon, referencing the Christian legend of St. George. However, St. George Street is actually named for Quetton St. George, a French-born British citizen who lived in Toronto in the 19th century. The signs were designed by Paul Arthur and installed in 1993 as part of a new system of wayfinding signage, which was to be implemented in the entire subway system.[5] Ultimately, the TTC did not go through with the project but did not remove the prototypes either, preserving some of Arthur's designs.
A further wayfinding project began implementation in 2014: using circles with the colour and number of each line to identify them more easily. Signage for that project rolled out at Bloor-Yonge station in March of that year, with St. George set to be the next to follow.[6][7]
Subway infrastructure in the vicinity
Upon leaving the station, the line curves south by 90 degrees to run under Queen’s Park (the street). The two tracks split into separate tunnels in this area, briefly running at different levels to form a grade-separated junction with the second pair of link tracks from the Bloor-Danforth line, which curves in from the east.
Tenants
- Gateway Newstands (there are two: one at the St. George exit and another at the Bedford exit)
Nearby landmarks
Nearby landmarks include the Bata Shoe Museum, University of Toronto Schools, the north side of the University of Toronto, the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Chinese Consul General, and the York Club.
Surface connections
- 26 Dupont to Jane Station
References
- ↑ "Subway ridership, 2013" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. Retrieved September 12, 2015.
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.
- ↑ "Wi-fi Now Available At". TCONNECT. Retrieved January 2015.
Each of the 65 underground stations will have wireless and Wi-Fi service by 2017
- ↑ TTC Ride Guide retrieved 2007-10-23 from http://www.toronto.ca/ttc/pdf/rideguide.pdf
- ↑ James Bow. "The Bloor Streetcar (Deceased)". Transit Toronto. Retrieved March 2014.
- ↑ http://joeclark.org/design/signage/TTC/docs/PaulArthurTTC.html
- ↑ "New Wayfinding Standards" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. October 2013. Retrieved March 2014.
Pilot study – Bloor-Yonge & St. George Stations
- ↑ Toronto Transit Commission. "New Subway Station Signage on the TTC". YouTube. Retrieved 16 March 2014.
External links
Media related to St. George Station at Wikimedia Commons
