[ViveleCanada]

I walked further from the subway to U of T but I think the point of the complaint is that there is a subway station right in the middle of the campus that they are not allowed to access.

It doesn't matter if it's "only 15 minutes to walk" (which, sure, is easy enough if you're an able bodied person, which is also an assumption) but it's 15 minutes further than they should have to walk.

Everyone involved with this farce should be publicly shamed. I haven't been to Pioneer Village Station either but it sounds pretty clear: it wasn't designed to make things easier for riders or students. It was designed to make sure the transit agencies keep their little fiefdoms in order. I don't expect them to have designed a separate non-fare tunnel for people to cross the street - or maybe they should have a guarded checkpoint where have to show your papers? I do expect that anyone traveling through that station should be entirely unaware there is any border at all, and be able to go where they need to go.
It's an embarrassment.

Fair enough point. With the way things are turning out in Queen's Park, I would suspect fare integration is somewhat in the works given that York Region is a conservative stronghold. But given fare integration was supposed to be in place by the time this extension were open, I wouldn't hold my breath until a solid timetable is released. Although YRT, MiWay, Brampton Transit and DRT all accept one another's transfer (I can even use a YRT Monthly pass on Zum) so I'm scratching my head on why a 5 year timeline for fare integration is even necessary for the TTC.

 

[Fritter]

Although YRT, MiWay, Brampton Transit and DRT all accept one another's transfer (I can even use a YRT Monthly pass on Zum) so I'm scratching my head on why a 5 year timeline for fare integration is even necessary for the TTC.

Might it be more the TTC/City fiefdom than Queen's Park?

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

http://www.infiltration.org/utility-tentanda.html

OT - It's kind of shocking how Ninjalicious has been gone for more than a decade.

AoD

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

The one tunnel I have accessed leads from Central Square to the Lassonde engineering building and it is usually completely abandoned, even when foot traffic just one floor above it is high. I believe there are some steam tunnels east of the campus near the Chimneystack maintenance building. If I recall correctly, those were the tunnels canvassed by the aforementioned urban explorers. But they are nowhere near Pioneer Village Station and from the photos I've seen, are purely maintenance related, not at all suited for normal pedestrian traffic.

As you say, the tunnels are more around the central park of campus. They were actually designed for pedestrian access during the winter etc. but were closed due to sexual assaults and such rather due to being sites of civil protests.

 

[ShonTron]

Interesting. Laval University in Ste-Foy has a huge tunnel network that has remained accessible. Many of the tunnel walls are painted, many with Quebec nationalist themes. I think Carleton has an active tunnel network. It makes sense that York tried one as well, but totally understandable that it was closed off.

 

[nfitz]

The lack of a walkway is due to the high water table.

It most certainly isn't! It's because of the design criteria. There's nothing unusual about the water table there - the TTC and city routinely roll out "high water table" to blame for all sorts of issues. In this kind of northern temperate climate, the water table is exactly where we'd expect.

They could have designed a station that had a continuous mezzanine.

 

[Transportfan]

^^ The utilities thing certainly sounded bogus to me.

 

[facepalming_brooklynite]

The people who have been poo-pooing Downsview Park station as a "white elephant" should take note of what happened today in the morning rush:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/go-train-barrie-line-fatal-1.5138163

A fatal collision involving a freight train at Old Weston/Davenport caused an interruption of the Barrie GO service for several hours because the stalled freight train blocked the Davenport Diamond. I traveled on Caledonia this morning and counted at least three empty GO trains that were waitinig for the diamond to clear.

Fortunately GO train passengers were able to transfer to the subway at Downsview Park:

Delays remain on GO Barrie line after woman struck and killed by train

A woman has been struck and killed by a CP Rail train in Toronto’s Carleton Village neighbourhood this morning.

toronto.ctvnews.ca

This shows how important it is to have transfer points and redundancy in the system. Imagine having all these people stranded somewhere else and waiting for shuttle buses.

 

[salsa]

The people who have been poo-pooing Downsview Park station as a "white elephant" should take note of what happened today in the morning rush:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/go-train-barrie-line-fatal-1.5138163

A fatal collision involving a freight train at Old Weston/Davenport caused an interruption of the Barrie GO service for several hours because the stalled freight train blocked the Davenport Diamond. I traveled on Caledonia this morning and counted at least three empty GO trains that were waitinig for the diamond to clear.

Fortunately GO train passengers were able to transfer to the subway at Downsview Park:

Delays remain on GO Barrie line after woman struck and killed by train

A woman has been struck and killed by a CP Rail train in Toronto’s Carleton Village neighbourhood this morning.

toronto.ctvnews.ca

This shows how important it is to have transfer points and redundancy in the system. Imagine having all these people stranded somewhere else and waiting for shuttle buses.

The other takeaway here is that the Davenport Diamond grade separation would have prevented this delay entirely.

 

[micheal_can]

The people who have been poo-pooing Downsview Park station as a "white elephant" should take note of what happened today in the morning rush:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/go-train-barrie-line-fatal-1.5138163

A fatal collision involving a freight train at Old Weston/Davenport caused an interruption of the Barrie GO service for several hours because the stalled freight train blocked the Davenport Diamond. I traveled on Caledonia this morning and counted at least three empty GO trains that were waitinig for the diamond to clear.

Fortunately GO train passengers were able to transfer to the subway at Downsview Park:

Delays remain on GO Barrie line after woman struck and killed by train

A woman has been struck and killed by a CP Rail train in Toronto’s Carleton Village neighbourhood this morning.

toronto.ctvnews.ca

This shows how important it is to have transfer points and redundancy in the system. Imagine having all these people stranded somewhere else and waiting for shuttle buses.

I have always thought that where a GO line touches a Subway or Streetcar line, there should be a transfer station.

 

[ViveleCanada]

It most certainly isn't! It's because of the design criteria. There's nothing unusual about the water table there - the TTC and city routinely roll out "high water table" to blame for all sorts of issues. In this kind of northern temperate climate, the water table is exactly where we'd expect.

They could have designed a station that had a continuous mezzanine.

I can't remember the source, but when the extension opened an engineer on the project went on the record to say that the design of Pioneer Village included a possibility of a seamless connection with the Steeles BRT (if it ever gets built). I had always assumed the "dip" above the station platform was to possibly accommodate for an underground BRT station as is proposed at Yonge/Steeles for the Richmond Hill extension. I would also assume that the lack of a walkway was also probably due to the result of a fatal assumption that fare integration would be in full force by the time the subway opened. "Nothing is as permanent as a temporary solution."

 

[ViveleCanada]

https://www.concreteawards.ca/wp-co...ctural-Merit-TTC-Pioneer-Village-Subway-1.pdf

THE SADDLE SLAB is a mass concrete curved ceiling that spans between both station entrances under Steeles Avenue West, up to 8 metres below finish grade.The curve was designed to accommodate underground utilities and potential future projects such as an LRT on the road above.

On page 2

 

[Hopkins123]

I walked further from the subway to U of T but I think the point of the complaint is that there is a subway station right in the middle of the campus that they are not allowed to access.

It doesn't matter if it's "only 15 minutes to walk" (which, sure, is easy enough if you're an able bodied person, which is also an assumption) but it's 15 minutes further than they should have to walk.

Everyone involved with this farce should be publicly shamed. I haven't been to Pioneer Village Station either but it sounds pretty clear: it wasn't designed to make things easier for riders or students. It was designed to make sure the transit agencies keep their little fiefdoms in order. I don't expect them to have designed a separate non-fare tunnel for people to cross the street - or maybe they should have a guarded checkpoint where have to show your papers? I do expect that anyone traveling through that station should be entirely unaware there is any border at all, and be able to go where they need to go.
It's an embarrassment.

I still can't get over the fact that you have to actually exit York University Station at the surface to get into York Lanes. A direct underground access point should have been a no-brainer. Given the proximity, it's like they had a connection in mind but cheapened out on it at the last minute for some unexplained reason.

 

[Hopkins123]

Mississaugas downtown is hardly an employment downdown. In terms of jobs it is the #5 zone in Mississauga, airport, medowvale, heartland, the Oakville/Mississauga QEW zone are all larger and higher paying employment zones vs Square one. Real downtown's are the biggest zone for employment, that is far from the case in Mississauga.

That wasn't my point. In 1973, the greater Burnhamthorpe/Hurontario area was still open fields and pasture. The construction of Square One shopping centre that year was the catalyst for everything that followed (the alignment/routing of Hwy 403, the office towers, the residential towers, the municipal buildings, the City Centre Transit Terminal, second largest GO Terminal in the Province, the Transitway and now the Hurontario LRT).

Malls are a great source of trip generation, which is why they typically double as transit hubs all over the province.

 

[yrt+viva=1system]

I never noticed this feature at the north end of Pioneer Village until today. Probably a combination of timing and weather but it’s such an ingenious way of bringing some natural light down to a level that is usually dark and illuminated by lights. Took a few quick pics to illustrate what a difference some natural light can do. Have to say that Pioneer Village is quickly becoming my favourite station in terms of design and art (minus the wasted scrolling type art installation). Now if only we could continue to incorporate this sort of thinking into future underground station building.