Hey guys, welcome back to the channel! Today, we’re visiting Pioneer Village station,
one of the newest stations in the Toronto subway system, and a unique station that has
a part of its footprint outside of the city of Toronto. We’ve already briefly visited
the station as part of the Vaughan subway extension back when it opened in 2017, but
today we’ll take a look at this station in more detail, and tell you the things you
might not know about Pioneer Village station. Let’s get started!
[Intro]
We arrive at Pioneer Village station on a 60 Steeles West bus and are immediately dazzled
by the massive structure that is the TTC bus terminal connected to the station. The bus
terminal is reminiscent of the one at Sheppard West, with the beautifully designed elongated
space containing 12 bus bays, serving bus routes such as the 35 Jane, the 41 Keele,
the 60 Steeles West, the 84 Sheppard West, the 108 Driftwood, and others.
Inside the terminal building, you can find digital screens that show the arrival times
for upcoming buses, a few designated waiting areas spread out along the corridor, as well
as little feathery friends also waiting for buses here.
Stepping outside, you can see the serene surroundings of the station, as well as several commuter
parking lots on each side of the building. The roof overhead is covered in copper and
grey coloured plates, which is a colour scheme that will be revisited as we move through
the station, inspired by Black Creek Pioneer Village, the station’s namesake and a heritage
museum nearby that recreates life in 19th-century Ontario. It was a Sunday when we visited the
station and the bus terminal was not terribly busy, so, unfortunately, we weren’t able
to catch any of the precious electric buses running on the Jane route but enjoy some wonderful
bus footage anyway.
Walking towards the east end of the terminal, and we find ourselves at the first entrance
of the station, taking up this end of the building. A long overhang protrudes out of
the building, decorated with red and grey triangles, and the support beams reflect this
colour scheme as well. This is where you’ll find a few sports fields and stadiums that
belong to York University’s Keele Campus, and if you head further east, you’ll enter
the campus proper, and find yourself at York University station.
Let’s now head across the commuter parking lot now, and check out the primary entrance
of the station. This entrance building is perhaps the most iconic part of the station,
being a big red structure with the station name on top and looking quite similar to a
sandcastle. This is one of two primary entrances to the station, an automated entrance still
located in Toronto proper, being on the south side of Steeles Avenue. The building itself
is grand with very high ceilings, and right outside of the doors are some bike racks and
seating. Notably, even though we can’t see it from here, all the station buildings have
green roofs and cool roofs, which are pretty cool additions to a TTC station for the environment.
We’re now gonna tap into the station and descend down this grand staircase in the middle
of the structure, arriving at one of the intermediate mezzanines of the station. There are two separate
mezzanines in the station, with the one we are on connecting with the TTC bus terminal,
and another one at the west end of the station connecting with the other primary entrance
and the YRT bus terminal, which we’ll check out later in the video. The space is quite
large with lots of space for a potential interchange LRT station in the future if that happens.
This is also where you’ll be able to find the start of the central art piece of the
station, LightSpell. Created by Tim Edler and Jan Edler of the Berlin-based art studio
Realities-United, LightSpell is an interactive art piece made up of 40 light fixtures in
a 16-segment-display format that displays messages customized by the public, controlled
by consoles at the platform. Unfortunately, though, you can see that the art piece is
currently not in operation, and no messages are being displayed on it right now. The art
piece was not activated after the extension opened, as the TTC failed to find a way to
keep profanity out of the messages shown, but we did get to try it on opening day, which
was quite a joyous experience.
Heading down another flight of stairs, we finally arrive at the platform. Separated
in the middle by large leaning pillars, the wide platform is well lit, and the earthy
colour scheme and wooden finishings again call back to Black Creek Pioneer Village.
Here you’ll find Designated Waiting Areas that look similar to the ones in the TTC bus
terminal, TVs that display the arrival times for the next few trains, as well as deactivated
consoles for LightSpell. On the pillars are ads advertising the Rogers Cup, which is a
tennis tournament that is held every year in Montreal and at nearby Aviva Centre, and
the third oldest tournament in all of tennis. This year the women’s tournament is held
here, and if you are interested in tennis, you should definitely come check out a match
or two.
Let’s walk down to the west end of the platform, and head up to the other mezzanine on this
side. Here we are immediately greeted by a row of fare gates and the collector’s booth,
which is what you would expect from a normal concourse level of a subway station.
Taking this set of very long escalators up, and we arrive at the second primary entrance
of Pioneer Village station, another red sandcastle structure, this time on the other side of
Steeles Avenue and in the city of Vaughan. One set of doors here will take you to the
street, while the other set of doors leads to a long corridor, at the end of which you’ll
find a York Region Transit bus terminal.
There are 5 bus stands spread out along the boomerang-shaped bus terminal, serving the
routes 3 Thornhill, 20 Jane, 96 Keele-Yonge, 107 Keele, and 165 Weston. In the centre of
the boomerang is a passenger drop off station complete with crosswalks to the buses and
the street. This bus terminal, while not as huge and impressive as the TTC one, is still
nicely detailed, with wooden roofs and minimalist design that is very reminiscent of the Skytrain
stations in Vancouver. It even features a terminal building that has washrooms, fare
vending, and seating. At the north end of the bus terminal, you can spot the gigantic
commuter parking lot, which has almost 2000 spots and is plenty for both subway riders
and bus riders.
So this is about it for our tour of Pioneer Village, one of the newest subway stations
on the TTC, with beautiful architecture and interesting landmarks to check out. Like,
subscribe, and leave a comment down below to tell us what you like the most about Pioneer
Village station, and what your favourite station on the Vaughan subway extension is. Follow
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if you want to help us make more videos. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you in the next one!