York University is a
subway station
A metro station or subway station is a station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a "metro" or "subway". A station provides a means for passengers to purchase tickets, board trains, and evacuate the system in the ...
on
Line 1 Yonge–University
Line 1 Yonge–University is a rapid transit line on the Toronto subway. It serves Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada. It is operated by the Toronto Transit Commission, has 38 stations and is in length, making it th ...
of the
Toronto subway
The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It is a multimodal transport, multimodal rail network consisting of three Pa ...
. It is located on the main
Keele Campus
The Keele Campus is the main campus of York University in the North York district of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It occupies roughly 1 square kilometre of land and is situated between Jane Street to the west, Keele Street to the east, Steeles Aven ...
of
York University
York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...
, near Ian Macdonald and York Boulevards in the former city of
North York
North York is one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located directly north of York, Old Toronto and East York, between Etobicoke to the west and Scarborough to the east. As of the 2016 Census, it had a popu ...
.
History
![Q4132759_York_University_Subway_Station_A01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Q4132759_York_University_Subway_Station_A01.jpg)
The official groundbreaking ceremony for the
Toronto–York Spadina Subway Extension (TYSSE) was held on November 27, 2009; however, tunnelling operations did not commence until June 2011.
The project, including York University station, was initially expected to be completed by the second quarter of 2015 but was delayed to the fourth quarter of 2016;
ultimately, the station opened on December 17, 2017.
The first stage of construction for the station began in May 2011. On October 11, 2011, one of the geostructural drilling rigs on site collapsed and killed Kyle Knox, an operator working for a contractor on the project, Anchor Shoring. The incident injured five other workers.
Before the extension opened, more than 1,400
Toronto Transit Commission
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...
(TTC) buses served the campus every weekday at the York University Bus Loop, in addition to hundreds more from regional services:
GO Transit
GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven millio ...
,
York Region Transit
York Region Transit (YRT) is the public transit operator in York Region, Ontario, Canada. Its headquarters are in Richmond Hill, at 50 High Tech Road.
YRT operates 65 full-time, rush hour and limited routes, 35 school services, and six Viva bus ...
(YRT),
Brampton Transit
Brampton Transit (BT) is a public transport bus operator for the City of Brampton in the Regional Municipality of Peel, and within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Ontario, Canada. Brampton Transit began operations in 1974. In , the system had a ...
's
Züm
Züm (pronounced Zoom, IPA: /zuːm/) is a bus rapid transit system for the suburban city of Brampton, Ontario, Canada, northwest of Toronto owned and operated by Brampton Transit. There are connections to the City of Mississauga, York Region, a ...
, and
Greyhound
The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurge ...
. The opening of the subway resulted in a greatly reduced number of buses entering campus as the 196 York University Rocket bus route was eliminated and other routes such as the 195 Jane Rocket (now 935 Jane Express) and 199B Finch Rocket (now 939B Finch Express) were altered to terminate at and stations instead, leaving only the 41 Keele and 106 Sentinel routes servicing the university grounds directly. Züm buses are the only regional buses still serving the campus today.
This station, along with the five other TYSSE stations, were the first to be opened without collectors, although booths were installed as per original station plans. It was also among the first eight stations to discontinue sales of legacy TTC fare media (tokens and tickets). Presto vending machines were available at its opening to sell
Presto card
The Presto card (stylized as PRESTO) is a contactless smart card automated fare collection system used on participating public transit systems in the province of Ontario, Canada, specifically in Greater Toronto, Hamilton, and Ottawa. Presto car ...
s and to load funds or monthly passes onto them.
On May 3, 2019, this station became one of the first ten stations to sell Presto tickets via Presto vending machines.
Description
![York University Station - Piston Effect - Concourse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/York_University_Station_-_Piston_Effect_-_Concourse.jpg)
The station lies at the east end the Harry W. Arthurs Common on the west side of Ian MacDonald Boulevard.
[ The university's main buildings lie to the west; ]Seneca College
Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology is a multiple-campus public college in the Greater Toronto Area, and Peterborough, Ontario, Canada regions. It offers full-time and part-time programs at the baccalaureate, diploma, certificate and ...
's York campus is found to the south, and the Aviva Centre
Sobeys Stadium, formerly Aviva Centre and Rexall Centre, is a tennis stadium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 12,500-capacity Stadium Court is the largest stadium at the tennis complex. Sobeys Stadium is the venue for the National Bank Open pres ...
to the west. The station was built underground, lying on a northwest–southeast axis. The line approaches from Finch West station
Finch West is a subway station on the Line 1 Yonge–University of the Toronto subway. It is located under Keele Street, north of Finch Avenue West. When Line 6 Finch West opens in 2023, it will serve as the eastern terminus of that line.
Descri ...
along Keele Street
Keele Street is a north–south road in Toronto, Vaughan and King in Ontario, Canada. It stretches , running from Bloor Street in Toronto to the Holland Marsh. South of Bloor Street, the roadway is today known as Parkside Drive, but was originally ...
, then bends towards the northwest to meet the station.
Engineering consultants Arup and architecture firm Foster and Partners
Foster + Partners is a British architectural, engineering, and integrated design practice founded in 1967 as Foster Associates by Norman Foster. It is the largest architectural firm in the UK with over 1,500 employees in 13 studios worldwide.
...
designed the station, which has a boomerang shape with entrances at the north and south ends of the structure. The station incorporates themes first explored in underground stations for Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central Lo ...
in London and the Bilbao Metro
The Bilbao metro ( es, Metro de Bilbao, eu, Bilboko metroa) is a rapid transit system serving the city of Bilbao and the region of Greater Bilbao. Lines 1 and 2 have a "Y" shape, as they transit both banks of the river Ibaizabal and then combi ...
in Spain, which were also designed by Foster and Partners. Its design considers the surrounding public space and uses natural light to intuitively guide passengers from the entrance down to the platforms.
The north entrance contains stairs and escalators down to the concourse level and then more stairs to the fare gates. Besides stairs, the south entrance provides a barrier-free route consisting of an elevator to the concourse level plus a ramp to the fare gates. Natural light flows through the concourse down to the platform level. The station has a metal cool roof to reflect heat from sun rays. The fare-paid area features a Gateway Newstands
Gateway Newstands is a chain of convenience stores and kiosks in large office buildings, shopping centres, public places, and transit stations in the United States and Canada. Established in 1983, Vaughan, Ontario-based Tobmar Investments Interna ...
kiosk.
Artwork
"Piston Effect" consists of a series of glass panels on the west walls at concourse level and above the northbound track. Behind the panels are liquid crystal displays (LCDs) that detect the passage of a train and then produce a lighting display in various tones of black and white. It was designed by British-based Jason Bruges Studio, who specialize in kinetic and light art
Light art or The Art of Light is generally referring to a visual art form in which (physical) light is the main, if not sole medium of creation. Uses of the term differ drastically in incongruence; definitions, if existing, vary in several asp ...
.
Surface connections
Toronto Transit Commission
To reduce bus traffic on campus, the station has no attached bus terminal and routes still serving the campus make direct connections to the subway at Pioneer Village station on Steeles Avenue
Steeles Avenue is an east–west street that forms the northern city limit of Toronto and the southern limit of Regional Municipality of York, York Region in Ontario, Canada. It stretches across the western and central Greater Toronto Area from ...
at the north end of the university grounds, after being moved from the campus TTC bus loop when the subway opened. Transfers are required to connect to surface routes on-street:
Regional transit
In 2018, all YRT bus services were moved to Pioneer Village station; in 2019, GO Transit
GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven millio ...
relocated its services to Highway 407 station
Highway 407 is a Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) subway station on Line 1 Yonge–University of the Toronto subway. It is located at the southwest quadrant of the Jane Street and Highway 407 interchange, in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. It is one o ...
, leaving Brampton Transit
Brampton Transit (BT) is a public transport bus operator for the City of Brampton in the Regional Municipality of Peel, and within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) in Ontario, Canada. Brampton Transit began operations in 1974. In , the system had a ...
's route 501 Züm Queen
501 Züm Queen is a bus rapid transit route in Brampton, Ontario that is part of the Züm network. The route first began service on September 20, 2010, and currently has three branches running between either the Downtown Brampton Terminal or B ...
as the last non-TTC service serving the campus. The main branch of the route was cut back to Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station
Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (also known as Vaughan, Vaughan Metro Centre or VMC) is a rapid transit station in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. Opened on December 17, 2017, it is the north terminus of the western section of the Toronto subway's Line 1 Y ...
in September 2018, leaving only the express A/C branches to serve the campus. These express branches were later discontinued indefinitely in March and April 2020, coinciding with service reductions in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, resulting in no regional buses operating to and from the campus for the next two and a half years, until the 501C branch was restored with limited weekday service on September 6, 2022.
There is an inactive proposal to eliminate the double (YRT plus TTC) fare for passengers arriving at the York University campus from Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, Highway 407, or Pioneer Village stations in (or bordering) York Region who transferred from connecting YRT buses. A memorandum of understanding between the TTC and YRT stated: "Upon commencement of revenue services operations of the YSSE/nowiki>, York Region agrees not to operate or permit the operation of public transit services directly onto the York University campus." This assumed the elimination of the double fare for those riding a YRT bus to the stations in York Region and continuing by subway to the campus. The plan was to use a third party technology system to reimburse one of the two fares, though such a solution has not yet been implemented.[ Despite the continuing lack of fare integration, YRT stopped serving the campus after September 1, 2018, forcing passengers to walk from the Pioneer Village Terminal or pay a TTC fare to take the subway one stop to reach it.
On January 7, 2019, GO Transit also ended service to the campus and station, with buses connecting to the more distant Highway 407 station. Between January 2018 and March 2020, there was a $1.50 fare discount for GO Transit riders paying with Presto, transferring to or from the subway (a TTC system-wide policy with GO).][https://www.prestocard.ca/en/about/discounted-double-fare]
Brampton Transit (Züm)
A branch of the Züm Queen bus route serves the station and university campus from the mostly vacant regional bus loading area on Ian Macdonald Boulevard, about north of the station entrance. It is now the sole non-TTC route to do so:
See also
*York University
York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...
*York University Busway
The York University Busway is a bus-only roadway in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which stretches from Finch West subway station to Dufferin Street. It is used by the Toronto Transit Commission's 939B Finch Express bus route.
The busway was constr ...
References
External links
York University station
at the Toronto Transit Commission
The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is the public transport agency that operates bus, subway, streetcar, and paratransit services in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, some of which run into the Peel Region and York Region. It is the oldest and largest ...
Map indicating alignment of extension and location of stations
{{Authority control
Line 1 Yonge–University stations
Railway stations in Canada opened in 2017
Railway stations in Canada at university and college campuses
Toronto subway stations located underground
North York
York University
2017 establishments in Ontario