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BRAD: Hi I'm Brad Ross, Head of Corporate Communications for the TTC and with me is
the CEO of the TTC Andy Byford, and Andy we're here at Bay Station, a very familiar station
to those who use the Bloor/Danforth line but we're going to be going on a bit of a behind
the scenes tour here at Bay.
ANDY: Well that's right Brad. This station was opened in 1966 it's one of our busiest stations,
but what many customers don't realize is that there is another station below this one,
it's called Bay Lower so that's what we're going to have a look at today. Once
we're done there's one other place we'd like to take our viewers to, but that's a surprise
at the end of the film.
BRAD: So Andy we're here at Bay Lower, not Lower Bay, that opened in 1966
and it was used for what exactly?
ANDY: Well back in 1966 the Bloor/Danforth line terminated at Woodbine and at Keele and
some of the trains didn't go just end to end some of them went via Bay Lower, around the
U of the University line and then up to Eglinton, so that was a quite a different service from
that which we operate today.
BRAD: But it became very confusing for customers, many delays and so it was abandoned after
how long?
ANDY: After six months, some customer did find it was confusing, it did introduce delays
into the service so after six months we went back to the normal pattern that we got to
today, which is keeping the two lines separate.
BRAD: Now this station is a live station, the track, the power rail, the switches the
signals are all live and active, what do we use Bay Lower for today?
ANDY: Well there's a number of uses and one of its main uses is as a film set, so there
have been a number of Hollywood movies filmed here including some famous people such as
Colin Farrell, Michael Douglas, Michael Cain, Bruce Willis.
We've also used it for TV commercialsand that kind of thing.
BRAD: Now for our own uses what does the TTC specifically use Bay Lower for today?
ANDY: Well a number of things, we test new products down here so for example ceiling
tiles, if we want to change the ceiling tiles we test them down here in this non-public
environment and the tactile strips that you see along the side of the side of platform
we can test them down here to make sure they work properly and we also do a lot of training
down here, we work with the emergency services so that they can become familiar with the
emergency equipment and the railway environment.
BRAD: And finally Andy I know that we do need to move trains from line to line and workcars
coming in from our Greenwood Yard that have to get out to our Yonge/University/Spadina
line. In fact some of our customers have had to come through Bay Lower when we've had to
do some work at St. George for example so we can move trains between lines.
ANDY: Yeah it's a really useful facility because those connections are still there, the signaling
is still there, the track connections still there and it is a very useful way of moving
trains from the Bloor/Danforth onto the University/Spadina line.
BRAD: Great Andy, thank you very much. We're now going to leave Bay Lower
and we're going to head to Queen Station.
BRAD: So Andy we're now here at Queen Lower, people are familiar with Bay Lower where we just were,
but very few are familiar with this space which is below Queen Station.
What was it originally constructed to do?
ANDY: Well it was originally going to be an underground section of the Queen streetcar
line, so the plan was originally to put a part of the streetcar underground through
the central core to directly connect with the subway that was being built in the early 1950s.
unloaded, we're standing on the trackbed, the original trackbed, there's no rail but
it was ultimately abandoned because of costs.
ANDY: That's right, it was felt that it would just be too expensive. Now in later years
when the Metropolitan Council was looking to expand the subway system there was some
talk about putting a subway underneath Queen, but the greater need was felt to be along
Bloor and Danforth Avenues, so that's what led to the existing Bloor/Danforth subway
that we know and use today.
BRAD: So this of course is nothing like Bay Lower, it's not as functional as Bay Lower
but there are some uses that we've found for Queen Lower.
ANDY: That's right. I mean it's pretty much an empty shell. But as you can see there is
a lot of conduit, there's a lot of pipe work and this is connected to the various systems
that you need to have on a modern subway. There's also new walls and we've put in the
elevator shafts to provide easy access to customers.
It's all a part of modernizing the TTC.
BRAD: Excellent, thank you Andy. We have one more space here at Queen we'd like to show you now.
BRAD: So Andy this is an entrance, and old entrance to Queen Station and when did it close?
ANDY: 2003, and it closed because a new office tower was constructed above Queen Station
and part of that construction involved a new entrance,
so once that new entrance was ready this was then abandoned.
BRAD: And now it acts as ventilation for the station.
ANDY: That's right, so you've got the grill upstairs. So what customers would have done
would be to come from the street upstairs maybe from the streetcar connection, down
these stairs and into the station that way, but effectively now it's a ventilation shaft,
we've got grills at both ends.
BRAD: We hope you've enjoyed this behind the scenes tour both at Bay Lower and here at
Queen. For more information about the TTC please visit our website at TTC.ca