From the PDF on Spadina extension names, for the commissioners' meeting on November 23rd:

Approve the station names DOWNSVIEW PARK, FINCH WEST, YORK UNIVERSITY, STEELES WEST, and HIGHWAY 407 for intermediate stations on the Toronto-York Spadina Subway extension, noting that these names were the ones most preferred by people who participated in the public consultation, in most cases by a wide margin
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Approve renaming the existing DOWNSVIEW station to SHEPPARD WEST, as described in this report, in order to provide more-effective and useful travel information to passengers, noting that this name change was supported by 71% of the people who participated in the public consultation
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Note that, for the subway extension’s terminal station located in Vaughan’s new city centre, the name VAUGHAN METROPOLITAN CENTRE has been formally endorsed by Vaughan City Council in support of their initiative to brand, and build the profile of the area as a regional urban growth centre; was selected by a committee which reviewed entries from a separate station-naming contest held by Vaughan City Council; has been formally endorsed by the York Region Rapid Transit Development Corporation; and has recently again been endorsed by Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua;
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Approve, for the subway extension’s terminal station located in Vaughan’s new city centre, the station name VAUGHAN CENTRE because:
  • it effectively describes the general station location as a major regional hub;
  • 80% of respondents to the TTC’s public consultation preferred this name;
  • as stated by the TTC’s Advisory Committee on Accessible Transportation, shorter and simpler names are more easily communicated to, and understood by people with visual, hearing, and cognitive impairments;
  • the travelling public will invariably use only the shorter two-word name when giving directions or making reference to this station;
  • the name VAUGHAN CENTRE is consistent with the names of other regional centres served by the subway, notably SCARBOROUGH CENTRE and NORTH YORK CENTRE;
  • in an effort to make sure that station names are selected primarily to help people navigate their way through the transit system, the TTC does not select names to promote or advertise nearby developments, or corporate or commercial enterprises
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gweed123 said:
Agreed on all accounts. Well done TTC! Vaughan Metropolitan Centre was a dumb name anyway.
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Hell ya!

For once I can honestly say, well done TTC! All the names I voted for won! (they also happened to be the ones preferred by the TTC itself. Maybe I'm just a yes man lol).
 
Juan_Lennon416 said:
Will they rename Downsview Station to Sheppard West Station as early as next year or will they wait just before the extension is finished?
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That's a good question. My guess is that it would be changed either:

a) when the subway extension opens, or
b) when the Downsview GO Station opens, whichever comes first.

I say this simply because they're going to have to replace all the maps when the extension opens anyway, and the TTC is pretty stingy with stuff like that (just look at how long it takes them to replace missing/stolen maps). I say they'll keep it the same until new stations (either TTC or GO) open that will cause confusion. Don't fix it until it's broken (or in this case, confusing).
 
gweed123 said:
That's a good question. My guess is that it would be changed either:

a) when the subway extension opens, or
b) when the Downsview GO Station opens, whichever comes first.
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I was under the impression that the GO station would open at the roughly same time as the subway station. The two halves are quite interconnected, so I'm not sure it would be possible to open one while the other is under construction.
 
reaperexpress said:
I was under the impression that the GO station would open at the roughly same time as the subway station. The two halves are quite interconnected, so I'm not sure it would be possible to open one while the other is under construction.
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That is in fact what is happening.

In an older report the TTC had suggested changing Downsview to Sheppard West sooner rather than later, to get people acquainted with the new name. Makes a lot of sense to me...

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
Great news for the station names (those were my picks as well). I doubt anyone besides civic boosters and some developers would use the pretentious "Metropolitan" name in reference to the Jane/Highway 7 area in any case.

I was never a big fan of Downsview as that station name anyway, as the actual historic settlement of Downsview is at Keele and Wilson, the old GTR/CN Downsview Station was actually further south than that, at Lawrence. Clanton Park and Wilson Heights are the names of the surrounding residential areas. Though Downsview Park is appropriate for the new station.
 
ShonTron said:
I was never a big fan of Downsview as that station name anyway, as the actual historic settlement of Downsview is at Keele and Wilson, the old GTR/CN Downsview Station was actually further south than that, at Lawrence.
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I don't think the name was stupid because of the historic community not being exactly there, as "Downsview" is also a large suburban geographical area which which the station was indeed in, but more because the name was out of sync with the Spadina Line's naming convention of putting "WEST" after the major cross street name.

Frankly, I don't know why the TTC even bothers with these station-naming public consultations/contests, as that is where these stupid station names (which they may later change anyways for rationalization reasons) come from.
 
Transportfan said:
Frankly, I don't know why the TTC even bothers with these station-naming public consultations/contests, as that is where these stupid station names (which they may later change anyways for rationalization reasons) come from.
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Oh yeah, didn't "Downsview" come out of one of these public naming projects in the first place? The TTC were originally going to call it Sheppard West. Well now, I guess it's come full circle, with the public deciding to rename it from Sheppard West to Downsview, then deciding to rename it from Downsview to Sheppard West 15 years later.
 
very few of the subway stations make any sense. King/St Andrew, Queen/Osgood, Dundas/St Patrick are all on the same street, respectively. Some new names I can think of

Dundas - Dundas Square (or Eaton Center North)
College - College Park
Queen - Eaton Center South
Yonge/Bloor on both line should be named "Yonge/Bloor Station"
St Andrew as lost its meaning entirely. Maybe King West is more appropriate, or something more meaningful.
St Patrick st actually crosses both Dundas and Queen. The name probably comes from the church, but the St Patrick church is 5 minutes walking distance away.
 
kkgg7 said:
very few of the subway stations make any sense.
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I wouldn't say very few. Every Station on the Yonge Line and Bloor Danforth Line represents the street that it crosses (with the exception of a few cases or places where the street names change (i.e. Carlton/College, York Mills/Wilson, or a mall like Yorkdale).

Yes we could have different names on the University Line (akin to the Spadina portion of the line), but its really not that confusing. Also, other than possible revenue for naming rights, why would we change Queen to Eaton Centre South? Or Dundas to Dundas Square or College to College Park? I agree with the change to Downsview for many of the reasons people have noted, but not with these changes.
 
TransitPolicyChanger said:
I wouldn't say very few. Every Station on the Yonge Line and Bloor Danforth Line represents the street that it crosses (with the exception of a few cases or places where the street names change (i.e. Carlton/College, York Mills/Wilson, or a mall like Yorkdale).

Yes we could have different names on the University Line (akin to the Spadina portion of the line), but its really not that confusing. Also, other than possible revenue for naming rights, why would we change Queen to Eaton Centre South? Or Dundas to Dundas Square or College to College Park? I agree with the change to Downsview for many of the reasons people have noted, but not with these changes.
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I agree that most TTC station names are quite all right.

However, I do agree with Dundas->Dundas Sq. and College->College Pk. The reason the latter names are superior is that rather than identifying a corridor, they identify a specific location. "College Station" could be at any location along College, but "College Park" is specifically Yonge and College.
 
reaperexpress said:
I agree that most TTC station names are quite all right.

However, I do agree with Dundas->Dundas Sq. and College->College Pk. The reason the latter names are superior is that rather than identifying a corridor, they identify a specific location. "College Station" could be at any location along College, but "College Park" is specifically Yonge and College.
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Although presumably you would know you're on the Yonge line, and I'd imagine more people would know where Yonge and Dundas (the intersection) is then Dundas Square. I think sticking to street names as much as possible is the best way of naming stations.
 
brainfreezed said:
Although presumably you would know you're on the Yonge line, and I'd imagine more people would know where Yonge and Dundas (the intersection) is then Dundas Square. I think sticking to street names as much as possible is the best way of naming stations.
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What would you propose to call a hypothetical station on the DRL at Lawrence and Don Mills? We already have Lawrence, Lawrence West and Lawrence East.

As well consider Dundas West station on the Bloor line. Dundas intersects Bloor twice, and both places have a subway station (the other one's called Kipling).
 
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