St. George (TTC)

St. George is a station on the Yonge-University-Spadina and Bloor-Danforth lines of the subway system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at 323 Bloor Street West at St. George Street. This is the second busiest station, after Bloor-Yonge Station, serving a combined total of approximately 239,660 people a day.

Entrances

• St. George Entrance
  • This entrance is located on the east side of St. George St. just north of Bloor St West at (these coordinates are those displayed in the title bar of this article)
• Bedford Entrance
  • This entrance is located on the west side of Bedford Rd. just north of Bloor St West at . Patrons board the 26 Dupont bus from a platform within the station boundaries at this entrance, hence no paper transfer is needed.^[1]

History

The station was first opened on February 28, 1963 for the University section of the Yonge-University-Spadina 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 entrance to BLOOR and DANFORTH streetcars, some of which used the Bedford Loop during rush hours. The Bedford Loop was immediately south of the station structure; streetcars entered from Bedford Rd., turned west into the loop beside the station, and exited south on to Bloor St. The loading platform was immediately west of the parkette on the north side of Bloor, and is now the site of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). 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 with the opening of the Bloor-Danforth Subway.

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. However, St. George Street is 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.^[2] Ultimately, the TTC did not go through with the project but did not remove the prototypes either, preserving some of Arthur's designs.

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

1. ^ TTC Ride Guide retrieved 2007-10-23 from http://www.toronto.ca/ttc/pdf/rideguide.pdf
2. ^ http://joeclark.org/design/signage/TTC/docs/PaulArthurTTC.html

External links

• St. George Station at the Toronto Transit Commission