Toronto Spadina Subway Extension Emergency Exits | ?m | 1s | TTC | IBI Group

Vaughan has officially petitioned TTC to go with the longer name. We'll see if they care...
Whether or not we think it's "metropolitan" that's the 'brand name' they've chosen for that area and it's somewhat understandable they don't want the TTC to come up with a less-specific name.
 
Woodbridge_Heights said:
the TTC has never used any name which is intended to promote or advertise nearby developments, commercial enterprises, or attractions

WRT using lesser known side streets, the ttc set a precedent with Bessarion (sic?), and the actual street is hardly very close to the station.
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Chester is also a minor street. Old Mill and Yorkdale, depending on your perspective, are either minor streets or are "nearby developments, commercial enterprises, or attractions". Museum is clearly a "nearby attraction". Summerhill is a neighbourhood (or you could argue that it is a nearby minor street). Rosedale, Scarborough Centre, and North York Centre are all neighbourhoods/developments.

TTC makes stuff up as they go along... just as they always have.
 
I like the idea of using neighbourhood names and landmarks for station names. It keeps the culture of the city on the minds of its citizens, at least those who ride transit. Naming stations after significant people seems meaningful as well from a cultural perspective. The major street that a station is at could always be written underneath the sign for the station name and on maps (like it is now).

I'm very happy that the TTC is taking a stand against the ridiculous name that is "Vaughan Metropolitan Centre". It's just cumbersome, pretentious and it's more intuitive to follow the precedent of suburban city centres like North York and Scarborough. Also, if they rename Downsview, then I hope they'll do a good job of changing the signage. I fear they might get the cheapest permanent signage available and slap it on everywhere that it says "Downsview" at the actual station.
 
CDL.TO said:
Chester is also a minor street. Old Mill and Yorkdale, depending on your perspective, are either minor streets or are "nearby developments, commercial enterprises, or attractions". Museum is clearly a "nearby attraction". Summerhill is a neighbourhood (or you could argue that it is a nearby minor street). Rosedale, Scarborough Centre, and North York Centre are all neighbourhoods/developments.

TTC makes stuff up as they go along... just as they always have.
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Thanks for the list of other stations... I just wish the TTC weren't so rediculous with their rationalle, if it's the nearest identifiable geographical landmark than go ahead and use it; and say that's why your using it.
 
I find it very interesting that "Downsview" is being renamed to its original (planned?) name "Sheppard West". I remember seeing TTC documents referring to the station as "Sheppard West" and thinking "wait, there's no Sheppard West" and then realized it was because they decided to go with the name "Downsview" instead.

And praise Allah they've decided to call it "Vaughan Centre" and not "Vaughan Metropolitan Centre". I like that they are trying to stay consistent with "Scarborough Centre" and "North York Centre".
 
CDL.TO said:
Chester is also a minor street. Old Mill and Yorkdale, depending on your perspective, are either minor streets or are "nearby developments, commercial enterprises, or attractions". Museum is clearly a "nearby attraction". Summerhill is a neighbourhood (or you could argue that it is a nearby minor street). Rosedale, Scarborough Centre, and North York Centre are all neighbourhoods/developments.
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Chester station doesn't have a major cross street near the station and there is no other significant public space or landmark. Old Mill is a historical landmark. Yorkdale is a mall so that is a flaw in the naming convention. Museum is a landmark and is publicly owned. At Summerhill they had cross street choices of Shaftesbury or Summerhill and a landmark of the Summerhill CPR station. Scarborough Centre, North York Centre (and Vaughan Centre) are centres. Rosedale station also doesn't have a major cross street to be named after so the choices would Aylmer, Crescent, Rosedale Valley Rd, or Rosedale after the neighbourhood. Really the TTC is good at following the naming rules for most stations. Centres first choice, major cross streets second choice, landmarks third choice, and lastly neighbourhoods.
 
A cross-street is not always the best way to identify a location. Would 'Bay Street' or 'Front Street' be more meaningful than 'Union Station'? Of course not. It seems like the TTC generally understands this, and is not slavish about its naming conventions.

What I want to know is what happens when we finally have 4 subways going n-s or e-w? We can't have Lawrence West, Lawrence, Also Lawrence, and Lawrence East. But thats a few decades off...
 
jwill said:
A cross-street is not always the best way to identify a location. Would 'Bay Street' or 'Front Street' be more meaningful than 'Union Station'? Of course not. It seems like the TTC generally understands this, and is not slavish about its naming conventions.

What I want to know is what happens when we finally have 4 subways going n-s or e-w? We can't have Lawrence West, Lawrence, Also Lawrence, and Lawrence East. But thats a few decades off...
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Landmark names, hyphenated intersection names, etc.

Then again, surface transit doesn't have that problem, why would subways? People seem to do just fine knowing that 509, 504,505,506, 508, 512, 94, 26, 127, 32, plus whatever I've missed all have "spadina" stops, plus the road itself has a streetcar, 2 buses, and a 3-stop stretch of subway beneath it. People are pretty flexible and Torontonians helpful enough for tourists that I doubt it would ever be a problem.

Seeing as this won't come up in our lifetimes, don't worry about it. It's your grandkids' problem. (and there's a depressing thought, no?)
 
EnviroTO said:
Chester station doesn't have a major cross street near the station and there is no other significant public space or landmark. Old Mill is a historical landmark. Yorkdale is a mall so that is a flaw in the naming convention. Museum is a landmark and is publicly owned. At Summerhill they had cross street choices of Shaftesbury or Summerhill and a landmark of the Summerhill CPR station. Scarborough Centre, North York Centre (and Vaughan Centre) are centres. Rosedale station also doesn't have a major cross street to be named after so the choices would Aylmer, Crescent, Rosedale Valley Rd, or Rosedale after the neighbourhood. Really the TTC is good at following the naming rules for most stations. Centres first choice, major cross streets second choice, landmarks third choice, and lastly neighbourhoods.
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Exactly! The TTC's claim that "the TTC has never used any name which is intended to promote or advertise nearby developments, commercial enterprises, or attractions" isn't really true and they have used "not well-known street names throughout the Toronto region" in the past. They have done so for practical reasons and not because of some rigid application of rules.
 
New York City seems to be OK with having several stations with the same name on different lines, can't see why Toronto can't do this. After all, once Transit City is built, there will be three Bathursts, 3 Dufferins, 3 Keeles, 3 Janes, 2 Don Millses, 2 Bayviews... Neighbourhood names would just be more confusing, it would be like "St. Andrew", "Osgoode" and "St. Patrick" stations (King-University, Queen-University and Dundas-University would probably be less confusing for tourists, the churches at St. Andrew and St. Patrick especially are fairly minor landmarks).
 
andrewpmk said:
New York City seems to be OK with having several stations with the same name on different lines, can't see why Toronto can't do this. After all, once Transit City is built, there will be three Bathursts, 3 Dufferins, 3 Keeles, 3 Janes, 2 Don Millses, 2 Bayviews... Neighbourhood names would just be more confusing, it would be like "St. Andrew", "Osgoode" and "St. Patrick" stations (King-University, Queen-University and Dundas-University would probably be less confusing for tourists, the churches at St. Andrew and St. Patrick especially are fairly minor landmarks).
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I believe St. Andrew and St. Patrick, along with St. David, St. Lawrence and St.George, are the orginial parish or ward names of old Toronto. St. James and St. Paul's were added as the City grew. Therefore, those stations are most correctly named after the neighbourhood they are in, although the common neighbourhood name has since changed.

Most stations on the London underground are named after the neighbourhood/district/historic village they are serving, however in Europe long straight street that people can use for geographic reference are rare.
 
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andrewpmk said:
New York City seems to be OK with having several stations with the same name on different lines, can't see why Toronto can't do this. After all, once Transit City is built, there will be three Bathursts, 3 Dufferins, 3 Keeles, 3 Janes, 2 Don Millses, 2 Bayviews... Neighbourhood names would just be more confusing, it would be like "St. Andrew", "Osgoode" and "St. Patrick" stations (King-University, Queen-University and Dundas-University would probably be less confusing for tourists, the churches at St. Andrew and St. Patrick especially are fairly minor landmarks).
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The NYC naming system is hardly something to aspire to. 86th St. station on the 1, the C and the 4,5,6 is in upper Manhattan, but hardly any tourist would know that 86th St. on the R is in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
 
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