These two TTC subway stations are not like the others

Two of Toronto's subway stations aren't like the others. Both Queen's Park and St. Patrick stations are immediately recognizable for their tubular shape, which many have remarked gives them a look that's similar to the London Underground. I've often wondered why it is that these stations are shaped this way, but never really looked into it.

The answer is in some sense straightforward, though it does shed fascinating light on the manner in which the majority of the existing subway lines were constructed in Toronto. Take a look at photos of the Yonge Line being built in the early 1950s and you'll notice that the street was ripped to shreds when construction began.

The vast majority of Toronto's subway system was built using what's known as the cut and cover technique, which has significant impact on above ground traffic. When it came time to build the University Line in the early 1960s, the TTC decided to lessen the construction impact by tunnelling between Museum and Osgoode stations.

At each end of this tunnel, the stations were built using cut and cover, but the two in the middle - Queen's Park and St. Patrick - were tunneled out at platform level. If you dig for construction photos in the Archives, you can see evidence of their circular shape before the false ceiling was installed.

One might have thought that the TTC would stick to the use of tunneling to build the Bloor-Danforth Line a few years later, but instead it used (mostly) cut and cover. To diminish the effect on street level traffic, most of the line runs just north of Bloor St. where construction would be less disruptive.

It's cheaper than the tunnelling method, and the major transit expansion that was underway in the 1960s had stretched the TTC to its limits (it needed provincial subsidies to complete Line 2). Even when the Yonge Line was expanded north, the TTC used a combination of cut and cover and tunneling techniques (the stations are all cut and cover).

It's actually quite easy to tell which method was used when riding the subway, though only if you can snag a front window seat,which is now impossible on the Toronto Rocket trains. This timelapse video shot before the new subways were put into service is probably one of the best examples out there. You can easily distinguish between the construction methods based on the shape of the tunnel.

What many might find surprising is that so few sections of the existing lines were built by tunnelling.

Photos by k-beer and via Toronto Archives.

by Derek Flack via blogTO