The platform level of York Mills station. Photo by David Cavlovic.
Not long after the TTC opened its first subway between Union and Eglinton, Metropolitan Toronto and its member municipalities began clamouring for more subways.
(As a side note: Politicians today are still clamouring for more “subways, folks, subways, subways, subways!”)
In the early 1960s, Metro approved extending the Bloor-Danforth subway, then under construction further east to Warden in Scarborough and further west to Islington in Etobicoke. Ongoing development in North York made extending the Yonge line further north beyond Eglinton the logical next step.
But building a line northward faced several challenges. First, was the problem of money.
In Transit Toronto’s detailed history of the North Yonge subway extension, James Bow writes:
“In the 1960s, the Toronto Transit Commission had fallen on hard times. Just ten years earlier, the TTC was paying for its operating costs and capital expenses (including the original Yonge subway) entirely from farebox revenues. However, the costs of serving the rapid low-density growth throughout Metropolitan Toronto and the loss of the TTC’s passenger base to the automobile was putting the commission further and further into deficit. The TTC required provincial and municipal subsidy in order to open the Bloor-Danforth subway in 1966…
“In 1967, Metro council agreed to abolish municipal taxes on rapid transit property, which saved the TTC an additional $1.7 million per year. This money was applied towards the cost of construction. The final plan was approved by the Ontario Municipal Board in 1967 and construction began on October 3, 1968. The cost of the 4.02-mile route was assessed at $79.6 million, with an opening date tentatively set as sometime in 1972…
“On October 17, 1969, Metro Council agreed to a further extension of the Yonge subway, from Sheppard to Finch Avenue. The extension was sparked by the presence of the Ontario Hydro right-of-way lands two blocks to the north of Finch Avenue, and the potential placement of large commuter parking lots on these lands. The Ontario Municipal Board approved this extension in 1970 and construction began in 1971, adding $37.5 million to the project…
“Of the $140,000,000 cost of the extension, $11,000,000 was paid for by the TTC out of its farebox revenues.”
The second problem was geography. To reach North York the subway would have to cross the west branch of the Don River. Early plans proposed building a bridge to cross the river, but protests from nearby homeowners squelched that plan. The only alternative was to tunnel under the river.
James Bow writes:
“North of Lawrence station, the line continues in tunnel for almost 4000 feet to Mill Street, at the southern edge of Hogg’s Hollow. Hogg’s Hollow and the presence of the Don River west branch near the Yonge / Wilson / York Mills intersection provided a number of challenges for the subway designers to overcome. Construction proceeded after TTC engineers temporarily redirected the Don River through a ‘box-flume’ and drained the surrounding land. Construction here was through the cut-and-cover technique (after the line has angled east of Yonge Street). The walls of the structure had to be made 1.2 metres thick (four feet) while the floors were made 2.4 metres thick (7.2 feet). By comparison, the standard underground station structure’s walls are 0.5 metres thick while the floors are 0.6 metres thick. The TTC describes York Mills station as “a concrete island that ‘floats’ below the Don River West Branch.” (Specifically, it is actually the exit off the southern end of the platform that extends beneath the river.)
Construction of the Yonge subway immediately north of Eglinton station (on the site of today’s Yonge - Eglinton Centre). Note the trolley bus on Yonge Street. Photo courtesy of the TTC.
The project engineers and workers also met other geographical challenges including quicksand at Teddington Park Avenue and wet soil conditions in Hogg’s Hollow. (The Hollow’s soil conditions had already resulted in an underground catastrophe as five workers on an earlier project to build a sewer in the area died when the tunnel collapsed upon them. A mural in York Mills Station commemorates those workers and all men and women who work in dangerous conditions, and on dangerous jobs such as tunneling.)
The third problem, unexpectedly, turned out to be labour. A lengthy strike delayed the subway’s opening by months, so the TTC decided to open the subway in March 1973, but only to York Mills instead of to Sheppard as it originally planned. In fact, it opened Lawrence and York Mills stations — the two deepest stations in the entire system — without many of the escalators they required, making access to the subway difficult at least until June 1973 when the escalators finally arrived. This may have delayed the rerouting of the 11 BAYVIEW bus into the underground bus terminal at Lawrence until October.
A long way down at Lawrence. The North Yonge stations featured almost as many escalators as the original Yonge subway. Photo by David Cavlovic.
The first part of the extension to York Mills opened Saturday, March 31, 1973, nineteen days and one day after the TTC opened the original Yonge subway. Meanwhile construction continued on the rest of the line, with the remainder opening almost exactly a year later, Saturday, March 30, 1974 — the twentieth anniversary of subways in Toronto. But, that’s another story.
As well as opening the subway, two other significant and related transportation events took place. First, Metropolitan Toronto extended Wilson Avenue into the Don River Valley to link with York Mills Road at Yonge Street. This allowed for better flow of traffic east and west through the central northern part of Metro and reduced traffic on residential Yonge Boulevard, which is was the route that Wilson Avenue motorists previously used to reach Yonge Street.
The Wilson extension gave direct access for TTC buses on Wilson Avenue to reach the new York Mills Station bus terminal, instead of ending their trips at the end of Yonge Boulevard in the old Glen Echo terminal.
New subway stations at Lawrence and York Mills allowed the TTC to close its historical terminal at the northeast corner of Yonge Street and Glen Echo Road. (A supermarket now stands on its site.) Glen Echo was for many years the end of City streetcar service on the Yonge route, but also the terminal for the radial cars that the TTC operated to Richmond Hill, Aurora, Newmarket and communities on Lake Simcoe including Keswick, Jackson’s Point and Sutton. And, as North York continued to develop, it also became the terminal for other suburban TTC bus services. It’s interurban subsidiary company, Gray Coach Lines also maintained a terminal at Glen Echo for buses on its northern routes to Barrie, North Bay and Sudbury.
Glen Echo loop in its heyday, when it was referred to as North Toronto Terminal. Photo courtesy of the TTC.
The TTC relocated all those services to York Mills Station, when the subway opened. And, extending the subway to York Mills had other effects on the TTC’s network of bus and trolley bus routes.
First, it eliminated trolley bus service along the 97 Yonge route. Since it needed to extend the route further north than the trolley bus overhead wiring reached, and would likely need to continually extend the route as North York continued to grow, it decided end electric bus service on Yonge and reallocate the buses to another routes. Although at one time it proposed converting the 32 Eglinton West route to trolley service it finally settled on a downtown route, 6 Bay, to receive the extra trolley buses after they no longer operated on Yonge Street.
With the closure of Glen Echo Terminal and opening of two new bus terminals at Lawrence and York Mills Stations, it also revised these routes:
- 11 Bayview (but not until October, 1973, when Lawrence Station had more escalators and its bus terminal could finally open.);
- 28 Davisville (also in October);
- 52 Lawrence;
- 59 North Yonge;
- 95 York Mills;
- 96 Wilson.
It also introduced two new routes, serving former branches of the 59 North Yonge route.
- 55 Senlac; and
- 98 Willowdale.
Archives
From the Transit Toronto archives:
- “The North Yonge extensions” by James Bow, here;
- “A history of the original Yonge subway” by James Bow, here;
- “The unsung changes to the Yonge subway” by James Bow, here.
Related articles:
- “A history of the 6 Bay trolley bus” by James Bow, here.
- “A history of the 97 Yonge trolley bus” by James Bow, here.
- “A history of the 32 Eglinton West trolley bus (proposed)” by James Bow, here.
- “New artwork in York Mills Station commemorates tragedy” by Robert Mackenzie, here.
From our collection of bus route histories:
- 11 Bayview by Pete Coulman, here;
- 28 Davisville by Jeffrey Kay, here;
- 52 Lawrence / 52 Lawrence West by Jeffrey Kay with D.C. Bardeau, Pete Coulman and Alan Gryfe, here;
- 96 Wilson by Pete Coulman, here;
- 97 Yonge by Jeffrey Kay, here.
Maps
- TTC Ride Guide, February 2, 1970, before the subway extension to York Mills opened (scan from Mike’s Transit Stop), here.
- TTC Ride Guide, 1973, after York Mills opened, but before the TTC revised bus routes to serve Lawrence Station, here.
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