[URBAN NOTE] "Forgotten TTC architecture a reminder of nixed transit plans"

[rfmcdonald]

Spacing Toronto's Chris Bateman writes about the various architectural cul-de-sacs on TTC routes which reveal planned constructions which never took place.

The earliest and best-known rough-in project among Toronto transit watchers is the unfinished streetcar stop beneath Queen subway station. In the 1940s, before Bloor St. and Danforth Ave. were selected as the route of the city’s east-west subway, the TTC planned to bury the Queen streetcar line in the downtown core.

The Queen subway would have resembled Boston’s subterranean streetcar lines, likely running in an open trench west of University with stops at Trinity-Bellwoods, Bathurst, Spadina, and John, before dipping underground to connect with Osgoode and Queen subway stations. East of Church, the line would re-surface and continue in an open cut to Logan Ave.

During construction of the Yonge line, the TTC actually built the basic shell of the underground streetcar station beneath the subway tracks at Queen. The platforms and track beds were installed at a cost of about $500,000, but little other work was done. No rails were laid and no tiles were grouted to the walls.

Eventually, the city and the TTC’s focus shifted north and the Bloor-Danforth line was built instead. The shell of Lower Queen (it was sometimes called “City Hall” on planning documents) is now only accessible via an anonymous door off the underpass beneath the northbound and southbound platforms at Queen.