Hey guys, welcome back to the channel! Today, we're going up north all the way to Vaughan
Metropolitan Centre, the northernmost subway station in the TTC system, and a main regional
transit terminal with YRT and Brampton Transit services. Let's hop on a northbound Spadina
line train, cross the Toronto city border, and head there to take a look!
[Intro]
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Buying us a coffee or a transit token on Ko-fi is a great way to help support us in making
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Now, back to the scheduled content.
Located west of Highway 7 and Jane Street, Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, or VMC for short,
is the northern terminus of the University-Spadina branch of Line 1 as well as the Vaughan subway
extension that opened in late 2017.
This station is meant to be the focal point of the suburban city's future business centre,
with the subway, local YRT buses, and Viva and Zum BRT services all congregating here
to form a multimodal transit hub.
Arriving at the station via a northbound Toronto rocket, we are greeted with the shiny centre
platform with metallic finish that is common across all the new stations on the Line 1
subway extension.
The long and wide platform features the usual amenities such as a Designated Waiting Area,
lots of seating, and great vertical access including stairs, elevators, and escalators.
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For staff working here at the terminus of the subway line, there’s an authorized elevator
right beside the passenger elevator to transport staff and freight goods down to the platform.
Interestingly, there is also a phone booth right here, which is a rarity now at subway
stations, just in case you need to contact someone while you’re in the station.
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The concourse level of the station right above the platform features high ceilings, wide
hallways, and an extensive maze of tunnels connecting to the different entrances and
bus terminals of the station. Most of this concourse is actually outside of the fare
paid zone for the TTC, as there are no TTC surface connections at the station.
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At the middle of the concourse is a collector’s booth that’s currently not occupied due
to the process of slowing removing collectors and replacing them with roaming customer service
agents, and two sets of Presto fare gates.
We think this new service model is a great idea because the TTC staff can be more mobile
and help customers better throughout the station, such as at these very sleek modern sets of
fare vending machines and Presto loading machines right near here.
The concourse also features public washrooms and a few benches, but besides that the whole
area is quite blank and empty, as this is meant more as a place of transit to get to
the entrances and bus terminals above.
Speaking of bus terminals, it’s time to check out the newest addition to this station,
The SmartCentres Place bus terminal that opened very recently at the beginning of November.
After going through one very long tunnel extending from the concourse, we arrive at another tunnel,
this time more lively with the blue colour scheme of the YRT and some celebratory balloons.
Keep walking down, and we finally reach the entrance of the SmartCentres Place terminal,
a set of stairs and escalators and an elevator with lively blues and greens and wood detailing,
although the escalators were unfortunately out of service.
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A final trek up the stairs takes us finally into the wide, U-shaped terminal building.
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Bright and airy with lots of beautiful wood detailing, this is definitely one of the best
bus terminal buildings in the entire country, rivalling the equally impressive bus terminal
at Highway 407.
We’re currently standing at the centre of the U, with the 9 bus bays spread out along
the two wings, currently serving 3 YRT routes at this terminal.
The indoor section of the terminal features numerous amenities include public washrooms,
quite a few tables and benches for passengers to sit while they wait, OneRide machines for
fare payment, and even some ceiling fans for those hotter days.
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Stepping outside to the bus bays, and we take the spacious and wide surroundings into view.
There is ample space for customers to wait in, shelters to keep warm and out of the elements,
and digital screens that show the arrival for the next couple of buses.
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And since the terminal has an open design, it is easily accessible from all directions,
and you can find rows of bike racks and seating just outside of the covered area of the station.
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Another nice part about having a terminal here is that it provides a natural terminus
for the Zum Queen buses from Brampton. They don’t currently use this station, but there
is a lot of space if they decide to move the service here.
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Alright, time to check out the other parts of this station. Just south of the SmartCentres
terminal between here and the subway station is a large plaza great for chilling and resting,
and you can see lots of development right around here as the surrounding area continues
to be developed into the business centre the city hopes it’ll be.
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Our next stop is the main station entrance of the station, a dome-shaped structure situated
here between Highway 7 and SmartCentres Place.
The inside is spacious with lots of space to wait for a pickup or a friend, and you
can find a few amenities such as a system map, benches, and telephones in case you need them.
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This is also where you’ll find the artwork of the station, titled Atmospheric Lense by
Toronto based Paul Raff Studios, made up of colour-tinted mirrors on the ceiling of the building.
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And just outside of the building across the street is the large, 900 space parking lot
attached to the station, complete with a small entrance of its own. The parking lot is actually
privately owned and operated by SmartCentres, unlike any other TTC station’s parking lots,
and currently it is quite fully occupied on a workday.
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The last stop on our journey is the Viva station just to the south of the station in the median
of Highway 7.
This giant domed station is, in our opinion, one of the best BRT stations in the whole
country, with a beautiful exterior and spacious interior complete with VIVA and Presto Payment
options, shelters, and a direct connection to the TTC station below.
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This Viva station serves the Viva Orange and the Zum Queen routes, and there is another
smaller shelter right on the sidewalk for other YRT buses that run on highway 7.
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Alright guys, that was quite a long video, but a very brief tour of one of the newest
stations in the TTC system.
Like, subscribe, and leave a comment telling us what your favourite part of the station is.
We think this is one of the nicest and best planned subway stations in the whole system
and even in the whole country; let us know down in the comments whether you agree with
that or not.
We’d love to see stations like this at locations such as Don Mills, Finch, or North York Centre.
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us keep making great videos for you guys.
Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you in the next one!
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