St. George (TTC)

St. George
Location	139 St. George Street Toronto, Ontario Canada
Coordinates	43°40′05″N 79°23′59″W / 43.66806°N 79.39972°W / 43.66806; -79.39972Coordinates: 43°40′05″N 79°23′59″W / 43.66806°N 79.39972°W / 43.66806; -79.39972
Platforms	2 centre platforms (1 on each line)
Tracks	4 (2 per line)
Connections	TTC buses  26  Dupont  300   Bloor - Danforth
Construction
Structure type	underground
Platform levels	2
Disabled access	Yes
History
Opened	28 February 1963 (YU line) 26 February 1966 (BD line)
Traffic
Passengers (2014[1])	134,890 (YU line) 141,370 (BD line) 276,260 Total Ranked 2nd of 69
Services
Preceding station   TTC   Following station Spadina toward Downsview Yonge–University Museum toward Finch Spadina toward Kipling Bloor–Danforth Bay toward Kennedy

St. George is a station on the Yonge-University and Bloor-Danforth lines in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located north of Bloor Street West between St. George Street and Bedford Road. This is the second-busiest station, after Bloor-Yonge Station, serving a combined total of approximately 276,260 people a day. Wi-fi service is available at this station.^[2]

Entrances

St. George Street entrance

Bedford Road bus platform

• St. George Street entrance is automatic and staffed during rush hours. It is located on the east side of St. George Street just north of Bloor Street West at 43°40′05.75″N 79°23′59.6″W / 43.6682639°N 79.399889°W / 43.6682639; -79.399889
• Bedford entrance is located on the west side of Bedford Road just north of Bloor Street West at 43°40′07.25″N 79°23′52.4″W / 43.6686806°N 79.397889°W / 43.6686806; -79.397889. Patrons board the 26 Dupont bus from a platform within the station boundaries at this entrance without the need for a paper transfer.^[3] The Bedford entrance has two turnstiles with Presto card access.^[4]

History

The station was first opened on February 28, 1963 for the University section of the Yonge-University line, followed by the Bloor-Danforth line on February 26, 1966, and finally on January 28, 1978 for the Spadina section of the former line.

Between 1963 and 1966, there was a direct surface connection at the Bedford Road subway entrance to Bloor and Danforth streetcars. The Bedford Loop was immediately south of the station structure and had opened in 1954 to provide a short turn facility for westbound streetcars serving Bloor station on the new Yonge Subway. Streetcars entered from Bedford Road, turned west into the loop beside the station, and exited south on to Bloor Street. The platform was on the east side of what is now the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, with a TTC transformer station constructed at the former entrance and the exit where the Bloor - Bedford Parkette is situated. This loop gave passengers travelling in peak hours a more direct connection between the subway and eastbound and westbound streetcars than walking to/from the curbside stops. The loop closed in February 1966 when streetcar routes were replaced by the Bloor-Danforth Subway.^[5]

In 1999, this station became accessible with elevators.

Interlining

Yonge-University subway line platform

Bay and St. George stations each have four parallel tracks, two above two. Between these stations and Museum is a full double-track, grade-separated wye junction. The tracks to and from Museum connect to the upper St. George and Lower Bay stations, while the tracks along Bloor use lower St. George and upper Bay. From February to September 1966 all three sides of the wye were used in regular service: from each of three terminals — Eglinton, Keele, and Woodbine — trains ran alternately to the other two (between Eglinton and Museum they went via Union).

After the six months of interlining, the Bloor-Danforth Line became a separate route and lower Bay was closed. Upper St. George would become the terminus of the Yonge-University line until 1978, when the extension to Wilson was opened. Lower Bay is sometimes used as a movie or TV set, and has been used for platform-surface experiments.

Paul Arthur signage

An exterior sign on the station featuring Arthur's experimental designs

Some areas of the station contain wayfinding signage with the image of a crest with a dragon, referencing the Christian legend of St. George. However, St. George Street is actually named for Quetton St. George, a French-born British citizen who lived in Toronto in the 19th century. The signs were designed by Paul Arthur and installed in 1993 as part of a new system of wayfinding signage, which was to be implemented in the entire subway system.^[6] Ultimately, the TTC did not go through with the project but did not remove the prototypes either, preserving some of Arthur's designs.

A further wayfinding project began implementation in 2014: using circles with the colour and number of each line to identify them more easily. Signage for that project rolled out at Bloor-Yonge station in March of that year, with St. George set to be the next to follow.^[7][8]

Subway infrastructure in the vicinity

Upon leaving the station, the line curves south by 90 degrees to run under Queen’s Park (the street). The two tracks split into separate tunnels in this area, briefly running at different levels to form a grade-separated junction with the second pair of link tracks from the Bloor-Danforth line, which curves in from the east.

Tenants

• Gateway Newstands (there are two: one at the St. George exit and another at the Bedford exit)

Nearby landmarks

Nearby landmarks include the Bata Shoe Museum, University of Toronto Schools, the north side of the University of Toronto, the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Chinese Consul General, and the York Club.

Surface connections

• 26 Dupont to Jane Station

References

External links

Media related to St. George Station at Wikimedia Commons

• St. George Station at the Toronto Transit Commission

Stations, stops and loops of the Toronto Transit Commission
Yonge–University	Finch North York Centre Sheppard–Yonge York Mills Lawrence Eglinton Davisville St. Clair Summerhill Rosedale Bloor–Yonge Wellesley College Dundas Queen King Union St. Andrew Osgoode St. Patrick Queen's Park Museum St. George Spadina Dupont St. Clair West Eglinton West (Cedarvale) Glencairn Lawrence West Yorkdale Wilson Downsview (Sheppard West) Downsview Park Finch West York University Pioneer Village Highway 407 Vaughan Metropolitan Centre
Bloor–Danforth	Kipling Islington Royal York Old Mill Jane Runnymede High Park Keele Dundas West Lansdowne Dufferin Ossington Christie Bathurst Spadina St. George Bay Bloor–Yonge Sherbourne Castle Frank Broadview Chester Pape Donlands Greenwood Coxwell Woodbine Main Street Victoria Park Warden Kennedy
Scarborough	Kennedy Lawrence East Ellesmere Midland Scarborough Centre McCowan
Sheppard	Sheppard–Yonge Bayview Bessarion Leslie Don Mills
Eglinton	Mount Dennis Keelesdale Caledonia Fairbank Oakwood Eglinton West (Cedarvale) Forest Hill Chaplin Oriole Park Eglinton Mount Pleasant Leaside Laird Sunnybrook Park Science Centre Aga Khan Park & Museum Wynford Sloane O'Connor Pharmacy Hakimi Lebovic Golden Mile Birchmount Ionview Kennedy
Streetcar system	Bingham Loop Distillery Loop Dufferin Loop Exhibition Loop Fleet Loop Gunns Loop High Park Loop Humber Loop Long Branch Loop McCaul Loop Neville Park Loop Queens Quay station
Italics indicate a project under construction