Greenwood Subway Yard

The Greenwood Yard (also known as the Greenwood Complex) is a rail yard with support buildings that service subway vehicles on Line 2 Bloor–Danforth of the Toronto subway.

Greenwood is one of two subway yards on Line 2, the other being the much smaller Keele Subway Yard.

Site

Spanning , the Greenwood Yard is located at 400 Greenwood Avenue, on the west side of Greenwood south of Danforth Avenue. The site is bordered on the west, south and east sides by residential areas, and on the south side by a railway line.

The yard contains 5 buildings, two of which are the General Overhaul and Repair Shop (a.k.a. Greenwood Shop) with a floor space of , and the carhouse for inspection, minor repairs and washing. The Greenwood Shop has specialized shops for heavy overhauls of subway cars and components as well as stores. The Greenwood Shop is operationally separate from the carhouse servicing the Bloor–Danforth subway fleet.

When it opened, the yard had a storage capacity for 244 subway cars. The yard currently has a 328-car storage capacity.

The Greenwood Yard is connected to the Bloor–Danforth line by a multi-level wye between Donlands and Greenwood stations; the wye allows both east- and westbound mainline trains access to the yard. The arrangement allows for trains to be added into or taken out of service with minimum disruption to ongoing operations.

Current operations

Greenwood Yard is home to approximately half the Commission's fleet of trains and work cars. The yard regularly houses the majority of the fleet of T1 subway cars and all Line 2 trains overnight.

Greenwood Yard provides storage, inspection and running maintenance for the Line 2 revenue fleet, and contains major overhaul and repair shops for the entire subway fleet. Greenwood Yard is also a centre for the servicing and operation of workcars used by the Track and Structure Department to repair and maintain the entire subway system.

The Greenwood Yard also performs the heavy maintenance on the ICTS cars from Line 3 Scarborough, that the McCowan Yard cannot handle. Because the gauge and technology differences between lines 2 and 3, ICTS cars must be transported by truck to Greenwood for major maintenance work.

Greenwood Yard, like other active Toronto Transit Commission yards, operates 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Yard activity is minimal during the peak service periods when many trains are in revenue service. The yard is particularly busy in the evening and early morning hours to service and maintain the subway fleet after which the trains are put into position to go into service in the morning.

History

Prior to construction, most of the yard site used to be a clay quarry that later became Harper's Dump, Toronto's main landfill in the 1930s. The site also contained some residences which were demolished.

In May 1965, the Greenwood Yard was put into partial service for some repair work. Heavy maintenance of subway bogies was transferred from the Hillcrest Complex to Greenwood.

On February 26, 1966, the yard went into full service with the opening of Line 2 Bloor–Danforth.

When it opened, the yard had a railway siding and some four rail, dual gauge ( and ) track for the delivery of subway cars from the manufacturer. However, circa 2013, the TTC removed the standard gauge track to make more room for subway car storage. As of 2016, the standard gauge siding had been severed from both the yard and the railway mainline. Closeup of the former standard gauge siding between the yard and the railway mainline.

Future

Plans for the current yard to be used for the Relief Line involved T1 cars being moved to the new Kipling Yard.

References

External links

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* - 2015 video published by TTC

{{Toronto Transit Commission

Rail yards in Toronto
Transport infrastructure completed in 1965
Toronto rapid transit
1965 establishments in Canada