TTC | as I walk Toronto

Posts Tagged ‘TTC’

a tale of two bridges

Posted: September 15, 2023 in construction, locations, old buildings, transportation
Tags: Canadian National Railway, CNR, construction, dump truck, Eastern Ave., GO Transit, Leslieville, Metrolinx, Ontario line, Queen St. East, Riverdale, Riverside, street, traffic, train, trucks, TTC

Traffic on Eastern Avenue near Broadview has faced construction and traffic delays over the past few months. The slow downs are ongoing as work on the railway bridge progresses. This work is because Metrolinx is adding tracks to make room for the new Ontario Line. Like many parts of the city, there are many changes occurring in the area.

Demolition on the north side of Eastern, and poof, gone, one large 5 storey Self Storage facility at 356 Eastern. Removed to make way for new tracks. The beige house faces Lewis Street.

… and now sitting gutted on the south side is another not old building (South side of Eastern Ave between Broadview and the railway tracks).

South side of Eastern, from another angle.

West side approach to the Canadian National Railway bridge

Along with the new railway line, Metrolinx is building what they are calling the East Harbour transit hub. This involves a new Ontario Line station as well as a new GO station on the Lakeshore East and Stouffville GO lines. Eventually, plans are to have TTC streetcars or LRT link here (it is directly south of Broadview and there is a plan to extend Broadview).

below: Construction along the railway line, south of Eastern Ave

below: One side (the east side) of the railway tracks has been demolished. Ultimately the whole bridge will be replaced but it is being done in stages to allow GO trains and VIA rail trains to continue running throughout the process.

A constant flow of dump trucks back and forth, in and out, of the construction site south of Eastern (on both sides of the railway tracks). The 38 acre site that includes the old Lever Bros (Ponds, Sunlight etc) soap factory is being redeveloped at the same time – it extends south to Lakeshore and west to the Don River.

Looking west on Eastern Ave, back towards downtown.

405 Eastern Ave, immediately east of the railway bridge, is also under construction. It has nothing to do with transportation as it is a new Enbridge building. A large 3 storey building with both offices and industrial (computers?) will probably be built here.

Makes sense, gas pipelines on site.

Just north of Eastern Ave, the railway tracks cross Queen St East., crossing over a bridge of the same style and vintage. Once upon a time this was a level crossing with a railway station on the northwest corner, the Riverdale station on the Grand Trunk Railway. This is soon to be the location of the Riverside Leslieville station on the not yet built Ontario Line.

So far the bridge is still intact but it too will be completely changed by the time Metrolinx is finished. The station itself will be on the bridge (if their drawings & plans are to be believed).

Here there will be 6 tracks – 4 for GO Transit and 2 for the Ontario Line.

Finch West

Posted: July 21, 2023 in construction, public art, transportation
Tags: Brandon Vickerd, construction, Duke Heights, Finch Ave., Finch West station, LRT, Metrolinx, Norfinch, people, reflections, sidewalk, stations, transit, transportation, TTC

I have blogged a few times about the new Eglinton LRT/subway line that may or may not ever get finished in our life time. As well, I have shared some pictures of the construction that is the beginning of the work on the Ontario line through downtown. But apparently, that’s not all that Metrolinx is up to – I have heard rumours of another LRT line under construction in Toronto, the Finch West line. So I went to investigate.

below: Waiting on the platform at Finch West subway station.

Like so many transit projects in the city, the history of the Finch LRT has not followed a straight path. In 2009 the provincial government announced a new subway/LRT line along Finch from Don Mills to Humber College. But that promise was shortlived – the eastern end was removed a year later. Next, mayor Rob Ford cancelled the whole project after taking office at the end of 2010. City Council reinstated it (the western portion) in 2012 and construction was to begin in 2015 for a 2020 completion date. Work began a little later than planned but at least it actually started. The new LRT line goes from Finch West station at Keele to Humber College, 10.3 kilometres in total. It’s behind schedule but I don’t think that that surprises anyone.

My walking plan was to take a Finch bus westward along the new route and then walk back…. Traffic, of course, was horrible and by the time we got to hwy 400 I was ready to get off the bus. It didn’t help that they were repaving parts of Finch Avenue.

below: Like many plans, changes had to be made along the way since the sidewalk kept coming to an abrupt end….

below: .. and intersections weren’t always easy to navigate.

below: At the eastern end of the new LRT, on the east side of the intersection of Keele and Finch is a new public art installation. This steel structure is 40 feet high and represents Elia Public School which once stood at this intersection. It was designed by Brandon Vickerd. In the photo below, the building behind seems to be another Metrolinx building – that T symbol is on the new LRT stations as well.

below: Also at Keele and Finch – there are already two buildings to access the subway. It seems to suggest that TTC and Metrolinx have structures on three of the four corners of that intersection. Finch West station is on the section of Line 1 (Yonge-University) that opened late in 2017. Pictures from those days can be found at “to the end of the line”

below: Most of the LRT runs above ground. In order to provide easy access with the existing subway line, the LRT goes underground just west of Keele.

below: New LRT trains parked at the new Finch West Maintenance and Storage Facility just west of Jane and Finch.

below: No one will be able to say that they can’t find the stations along Finch. This is Driftwood station.

below: Walking past Norfinch Oakdale station.

below: Track work at Tobermory station.

below: Looking west from Romfield

Dupont Street scenes

Posted: June 10, 2023 in construction, graffiti and street art, locations, old buildings
Tags: altered sign, Ave Rage, Average Art, basketball, boom lift, construction, Dupont station, graffiti, guns, houses, Joe's convenience, lovebot, Megan Oldhues, murals, redevelopment, reflections, rose, signs, stores, T-bonez, TTC, urban ninja squardon, windows, workmen

Another sunny spring day and another walk in the city. This time we walked along Dupont with the occasional diversion to an alley or side street. First stop? First Last Coffee. Always start with coffee! In general, this blog covers Dupont between Spadina and Ossington and as usual, there may not be much order to the photos!

below: The transparent domed Dupont subway station at the northwest corner of Spadina and Dupont

below: Because of the redevelopment along Dupont (some buildings have been demolished but their replacements are still holes in the ground), Casa Loma can now be seen from the street.

below: Northwest corner of Dupont and Shaw

below: Someone’s comment on the construction….

below: … And another comment – he’s so happy to have a gun that he’s drooling.

There are quite a few construction photos, maybe more than you’d like, but construction plays a large role in the scenery along Dupont these days.

below: Joe’s Convenience chaos.

below: Reflections in a restaurant window

below: Dispensary of a different kind

below: Cyclists waiting for the lights to change.

below: No energy today (all sold out?)

below: Looking at the northeast corner of Dupont and Dovercourt. The interior of this old industrial building has been renovated and part of it is now a basketball school.

below: View through the window

below: The billboard at Dupont and Dovercourt features an image by Maggie Groat and was part of the CONTACT Photography Festival. More of her work is on display at Ontario Square (on the waterfront) and can be seen in a blog post, Double Pendulum, from a few weeks ago.

below: Silver Star Car Wash – I could say that it’s all washed up but considering the time that it takes for the development process – especially in a case like this where the application involves an amendment to the Official Plan and the Zoning By-law.

below: Although it looks like a gathering of praying mantises, it’s really a symbol of a booming construction industry, boom lifts for rent.

below: 888 Dupont (at Ossington) is one of the next buildings to be redeveloped but that is for another story on another blog post.

below: An old rusty sign on the side of a building in an alley just off of Dupont tells us that J.F. Spencer, Sheet Metal Worker, once worked there.

below: Looking along Dupont from Delaware Ave

below: Probably the most affordable house on the street!

below: Some people have rose bushes in their front yard…

below: … and some people have horses.

below: A seaside Nova Scotia scene by Megan Oldhues.

I’ll end this post with a few photos of the graffiti that I saw starting with this old Lovebot.

below: A pinkish red portrait of a young woman.

below: Voodoo Ninja, brought to you by Urban Ninja Squadron along with Ave Rage (or maybe it’s Average) who gets to play the victim.

until next time…. stay focused! … if possible….

Moving Toronto

Posted: May 12, 2023 in history, public art, transportation
Tags: 100 years, history, old buses, old streetcars, Pape station, people, photographs, platform, posters, Pride bus, subway, subway train, TTC

…for 100 years. At the moment there is a selection of old TTC photos on display at Pape subway station in celebration of 100 years of Toronto Transit.

below: Already lining the walls at Pape Station are images of Pape station itself and the surrounding neighbourhood. This is ‘Sources/Derivations’ by Allan Harding MacKay. You can see the reflections of one of the old TTC photos in this section of MacKay’s artwork.

The TTC posters are at platform level between the westbound and eastbound trains so you can look at them while waiting for a train.

below: First Pride bus, 2008

below: People waiting for the North Yonge bus at Eglinton station, 1950s

below: Waiting for the subway. “Line 1 customers ride the higher capacity Toronto Rocket (TR) subway train on its 2011 launch. By 2017, Line 1 had grown by 8.6 km.”

below: Two posters, two eras. On the left: “A chartered TTC bus circles outside Rosedale station in 1961 as it awaits passengers. Only one other station, Davisville, from the original 12 was a surface station.” On the right: “Rushing to catch a Peter Witt streetcar along its Yonge Street route on a summer day in 1930.

below: “A TTC car picks up scholars with disabilities outside their school in the 1920s.” A couple with their COVID masks on sit in front of more images from ‘Sources/Derivations’ by artist Allan Harding MacKay.

below: “On a warm day in 1994, customers eagerly wait to board an Articulated Light Rail Vehicle streetcar along Queen Street at University Avenue.

prospects on Lawrence East

Posted: April 28, 2023 in intersections, locations, stores, transportation
Tags: Ammis restaurant, car sales, Ghadir, Halal, Ian Leventhal, Mayfair Drapery, Modernnisa, Moon Lounge, multicultural, murals, parking lot, Precious Blood, restaurant, Scarborough, signs, stores, Tony, Tru Belle, TTC, used car sales, Wexford Heights

Lawrence Avenue East between Victoria Park and Warden Avenues is a fairly typical Scarborough “thoroughfare” street, or arterial road. It has seven lanes of traffic and is lined mostly by strip malls set back from the street to accommodate parking lots in front. It is designed for cars. Also typical of Scarborough are the many different ethnic restaurants and shops. I decided to walk these few blocks after I heard about The Lawrence Prospect which is a group advocating changes to this stretch of Lawrence Avenue… Changes like dedicated bus lanes and bike lanes as well as sidewalk improvements to increase pedestrian safety. They are promoting the idea of a “complete street” which simply means that the street works for all users, not just for cars.

below: This stretch of Lawrence lies in the Wexford Heights neighbourhood

below: The wavy roof over the entrance is a throwback to the late 1960s and 1970s when there was a lot of development in the area. It was an era when the car ruled. Land was cheaper and more abundant. Strip malls and ‘plazas’ were popular.

Like many areas of Scarborough (and Toronto for that matter), it is very multicultural. You can find a cast array of different ethnic restaurants and stores here.

below: Weekend breakfast, Halwa Puri, Butter Chucken, Lunch Special, and Family Deal with tandoori chicken!

below: Ibrahim BBQ Shawarma, halal, with Iraqi kabab and Shawarma wraps, 2 for 1!

below: Very few remnants of a much slower and sleepier past remain. Little white picket fences are rare!

below: Part of the impetus for the Prospect project was the fact that some street work was going to be completed here this spring/summer. Why do a partial job only to have to redo it a year or two in the future? As of today (28April) there is no construction happening here. The only sign of work is at the corner of Lawrence and Warden where the sidewalk was widened.

Bike lanes on Lawrence Avenue from Victoria Park all the way to Rouge Hill (16.2km) were approved in 2008 but were never built.

below: The Moon Lounge with its neighbours – Mayfair Drapery & Rug below with Tru Belle on top – skincare, hair care (pink!), and body sculpting advertised.

below: Unloading can, bags, and boxes

below: Window of Top Gun Burger

below: Lawrence East is served by TTC route 54. It runs east from Eglinton station (at Yonge) to Leslie Street, north on Leslie, then east on Lawrence. The route ends at Starspray Blvd – you’ve probably never heard of it but it’s on the waterfront just before the Rouge River. That’s a distance of almost 28 km.

below: Greetings for Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, during which Muslims fast during daylight hours (among other things). This year it was observed between 22 March and 20 April.

below: The planet is in our hands

below: Precious Blood Roman Catholic Church

below: Looking west at Pharmacy with a Seniors crossing sign.

below: Do any drivers notice these signs? What are they supposed to mean?

below: Wedged between the UPS store and Tim Hortons drive thru are these murals by Ian Leventhal. (NW corner Warden & Lawrence)

below: Moovattuphuza is a town in Kerala India.

below: Diana is holding a large fish and is pictured beside a fishing village in Greece.

below: Nearby (SE corner of Warden & Lawrence) is Tony’s portrait.

below: Modernnisa women’s clothing store – evening gowns, kaftans, abaya, and hijabs

below: “Dear Toronto, We’re just getting started, Love Scarborough”. It’s an ad campaign for Scarborough Hospitals that is appearing in bus shelters. Along with the play on the “Love Scarborough” phrase there is a sense that maybe Scarborough’s time has come. In 2017 Catherine Hernandez’s novel “Scarborough was published; it has since been adapted into a movie. The movie was shot primarily in Scarborough and premiered at TIFF in Sept 2021.

below: Multicultural yet very Canadian.

below: Nigeria Palace, Bamar Biryani and Kabob, Luxmy Restaurant

below: Northwest corner of Warden & Lawrence

There was one thing missing here – I didn’t see one single blue and white City of Toronto development notice sign! Nada!

below: There is no construction happening here – left over from a previous job?

Little India again

Posted: January 16, 2023 in locations, stores, windows and walls
Tags: alley, book store, Canadian flags, Coxwell, Gerrard India Bazaar, Gerrard St., graffiti, Islamic, laneway, laundromat, mannequins, mural, paan, reflections, sari, stores, streetcar, TTC, window, windows

Little India, also known as the Gerrard India Bazaar, is a section of Gerrard Street to the west of Coxwell Ave. I have walked around, and blogged about, Little India before. Some of these images may resemble those that I have posted in the past,

below: TTC 506 streetcar southbound on Coxwell stops before it turns right onto Gerrard.

In the windows of the Islamic bookstore….

On the street outside Lahore BBQ and Paan Center. …

below: Three storeys of saris and South Asian fashion. Bright pink!

Mannequins in the windows of other clothing stores ….

And mannequins where you don’t expect them….

Windows from the outside

below: A boy and his robot?

below: Drumsticks, masala chai and Amma

And windows to look in

below: Carpets and patterns on pattern.

below: Christmas poinstettia in the quiet before opening time.

below: Canadian flags for the world’s best butcher

below: The missing letters make the sign

below: Waiting for the streetcar

below: “You Are Here” This painting is still on the wall but it is no longer The Flying Pony coffee shop, now it’s The Black Pony.

below: The old Belfast Tavern building remains, boarded up, neglected, and only a shell of what it once was.

below: Parked.

below: Large mural on a fence in the lane behind Gerrard Street, north side.

below: Cat on the wall

below: Rowell Soller mural

below: For whatever reason, Gerrard makes a jog at Coxwell.

below: Gerrard India Bazaar banner and street sign.

Osgoode trees

Posted: December 1, 2022 in construction, nature, old buildings, transportation
Tags: Canada Trust, conservation, controversy, development, downtown, historic, Ontario line, Osgoode, station, subway, transit, transportation, trees, TTC, University Ave.

Welcome to Osgoode subway station.

It’s not the busiest station on the University Line but changes are in the works. It is going to become one of the transfer stations with the new Ontario Line. This line will cross downtown underground with stations at: Corktown, Moss Park, Queen, Osgoode, Queen/Spadina, and King/Bathurst.

When the University Line was built in 1966, Osgoode station was yellow with greenish accents.

Like other University Line station, it is nondescript and built with the minimum of fuss.

One could say the bare minimum

One of the only extras that have been added to the station recently is direct access to the Four Seasons Centre on the southeast corner.

The other three corners of the University and Queen West intersection have stairwells on the sidewalks that connect to Osgoode station. But…. I didn’t really mean to dwell on the station itself….

below: Canada Trust building on University Avenue

I came here to document the intersection as it is now, pre-Ontario Line construction (and years of disruption!)

below: Looking north up University Avenue from Queen, east side of University (including the present subway entrance on the sidewalk – close to where the pedestrians are in the photo).

Behind the black wrought iron fence is the former Osgoode Law School (for which the subway is named). There is public access to the grounds and it is an oasis of green and shade in the summer time. Green ribbons have been tied around the large trees.

… and at least one tree has been tagged as an historic tree.

Metrolinx wants to build another subway entrance here. Apparently a third-party independent review of alternative station designs is in the process but hasn’t been completed yet. Metrolinx decided that in the meantime they’d cut down the trees on the 5th of December (this coming week) anyhow. If you want to see one of the ideas for the plan, there are artist’s renderings on their website: The Ontario Line – Neighbourhood Updates – Downtown – Osgoode Station. As usual, what is pictured now is never guaranteed to be the end product!

The Law Society of Ontario is the custodian of this greenspace and they have formally objected to Metrolinx trying to short-circuit the process.

Yet another location to keep an eye on!

Annex alleys

Posted: October 26, 2022 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: alley, Annex, backyards, Bagpipe Lane, Barbara Barrett Lane, bus, C Mazzulla, Christina Mazzulla, David French Lane, dog, dudeman, Elicser Elliott, emily may rose, faces, fence, garage, Harbord village, houses, lane, Leslie Phelan, magnolia, murals, raccoons, spray paint, tomo, TTC, you are here

This past Saturday’s walk started on a familiar corner, Bloor and Bathurst, but at a new place, Mallo Coffee. I don’t always mention my coffee starts and stops but not all of them have wonderfully eccentric washrooms! The wiggly strands of light were blue which gave the room an eerie blue glow.

Pre-COVID there was a proliferation of small independent coffee shops in the city. It’s nice to see that many have survived and many new ones are opening up. It’s not so nice to see the remains of those that didn’t make it.

From Bloor and Bathurst I walked generally east with a little south thrown in. Is this The Annex? or Harbord Village? Technically the quadrant to the southeast of Bloor and Bathurst is Harbord Village but I kept seeing street art referencing The Annex.

When you’ve been taking pictures in a city for more than 10 years, you end up walking the same streets and alleys. Sometimes you find yourself with identical pictures. Other times things have changed and there’s a new story to present. For this blog post there is a bit of both. Some of the murals that I saw in the lanes behind Bloor were new to me but there were many that I have blogged before. Rather than show all of the previous murals, I have linked to older posts.

below: Part of “Meet me at the Magnolias” by Leslie Phelan

below: The back part of a larger Elicser Elliott mural on the side of Dirty Bird Chicken and Waffle restaurant on Bloor Street. The full mural is featured in the blog post “feeling hungry?” from early in 2017.

Bagpipe Lane runs behind the south side of Bloor for less than a block

below: A few simple designs

below: Boris Badenov from the “Rocky and Bullwinkle Show” – who is he trying to blow up now?!

Barbara Barrett Lane is the eastern continuation of Bagpipe Lane. This is what you see when you first enter the lane from Borden Ave.

below: Nine years ago this was part of a mural that covered the back of buildings on Bloor Street. You can see it, and other murals that were in Barbara Barrett Lane at the time, in a blog post from 2013.

There is a large mural by Elicser Elliott on Barbara Barrett Lane. I have already posted quite a few pictures of it so rather than show more of the same, here is the link to the “elicser paints people” post.

David French Lane runs south from Barbara Barrett Lane.

below: Near the north end of David French Lane is this black and white garage. It is now partially covered with ivy and vines but it too also been around since 2013. At that time many of the garages were already covered with street art but they have all been re-painted (see 2013 blog post, ‘graffiti on garages’)

below: This mural on David French is very similar to the “street scene” mural on Barbara Barrett shown above. I wish there was a signature of some sort on them!

In 2017 there was a laneway paint project, “You Are Here” on David French Lane. Once again, you can see images of most of the garages in a previous blog post.

below: Dudeman’s skulls and old TTC bus were part of that project. Route 77B was a combination of the 77 Spadina bus and the 510 Spadina streetcar; it runs from Spadina station (on Bloor) south to Queens Quay before looping and returning north.

below: A dog with a spiked collar by Christina Mazzulla.

below: A blue eyed, black haired person with a tiger and a bluebird, all at 263.

below: Emily May Rose’s now iconic raccoons. They hang out all over the city!

below: “Fat bottomed girls … You make the rocking world go ’round” Name that tune!

Farther east there is another lane but with no name (Toronto is full of nameless lanes!).

below: Glorious old textures

below: This may or not be something called Tomo

… and back to Mallo. Until next time!

Roncy old and new

Posted: October 21, 2022 in graffiti and street art, locations
Tags: Algonquin, alley, autumn, Eighth Fire, garages, graffiti, grominator, indigenous stories, Jim Thierry Bravo, lane, murals, Ojibwe, Philip Cote, pumpkins, recover, relax, Roncesvalles, streetcar, thunderbird, TTC, welcome, White corner variety, wolf

Walking an old favorite, the upper section of Roncesvalles.

below: The old Roncesvalles Village mural with the 504 streetcar is still looking good…. Jac’s Milk convenience store at Wright.

below: There is now a bright new mural for Roncesvalles. It was painted by Philip Cote and Jim Thierry Bravo. It’s title is: “The Original People Leading to the Eighth Fire”.

There are many symbols that have been incorporated into the mural. The large brown animal at the top (over the window) is a wolf who was the companion of the first humans. There is an article on the Roncesvalles BIA website that provides more information and insights into the mural’s stories and symbols. Also, what used to be a pharmacy is now Early Bird & Worm – but the painting of the interior of an old pharmacy is still there, under the new black and white sign.

below: On the far right is a thunderbird, a co-creator of the world.

below: It’s pumpkin season!

below: Relax and Recover

below: An oldie – a grominator on a concrete wall in an alley

below: Bike parked in front of a painted door.

below: A defaced 33wallflower33 slap on the back of the traffic sign.

below: Opossums eat about 5000 ticks per season – now you know!

a little bit of Yonge

Posted: September 28, 2022 in history, locations, old buildings, people
Tags: ads, billboards, Dineen Coffee, Eaton Centre, history, people, rain, reflections, stores, streetcar, Temperance St., tourist, TTC, umbrellas, Yonge Dundas Square, Yonge St.

Walking up Yonge Street on a grey damp September day – from Adelaide to Dundas

below: Southeast corner of Adelaide & Yonge: the (sort of) dome shaped entrance way with the stained glass roof is under renovation.

below: Walking his bike up Yonge Street

below: Looking north up Yonge Street from Richmond

below: Looking west on Temperance Street towards a wall of glass

below: Dineen Coffee on the ground floor the old building on the northwest corner of Yonge and Temperance streets. The coffee company took its name from the building – the Dineen Building, once home to furriers W. and D. Dineen Co. (until the 1930s). The building was built in 1897 and was added to the City of Toronto Heritage list in 1973. Ceilings in it were made of bronze and aluminum plates; this was the first time that aluminum was used as a building material in Canada.

below: Dineen Building, 1927. The 2012 restoration was very faithful to the original facade.

vintage 1927 black and white photo of the Dineen Building in Toronto, source, TPL, Toronto Public Library

Source: Online, Toronto Public Library Archives. Unknown photographer for the Toronto Star newspaper.

below: Streetcars on Queen West under the redesigned pedestrian walkway.

below: Looking north from Shuter Street. Since the late 1970s, the west side of this block has been dominated by the Eaton Centre. When the mall was first completed, it destroyed any street scene that had existed there. Subsequent alterations have improved this block at street level a bit.

below: Looking north up Yonge Street from Queen back at a time when the new Eatons store at the north end of the Eaton Centre was built (at Dundas, completed 1977) but the old stores on the west side of Yonge hadn’t been completely demolished. This photo was found online on blogTO – here’s the link to their site if you are interested in the history of the Eaton Centre construction.