Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. So today, we’re gonna be doing a tour of Leslie
and Oriole stations on the TTC and GO systems respectively.
They are quite close to each other, but are not actually properly integrated together,
but it’s still quite an interesting transportation node here in North York.
As you can see, I’m currently at Oriole GO station where a lot of work is being done
on upgrading the south platform.
Now, Oriole GO station only see a few trains per day, and there’s only weekday service
on the Richmond Hill line, however it’s still a nice connection, and allows people
to potentially get off the subway at Leslie station, and hop on the train to get to work
downtown, or vice versa.
Now, we’re on the pedestrian bridge, and you’ll be able to see the Highway 401, which
is just North of my current location.
Highway 401 actually straddles Oriole station, and the station parking lot is located directly
underneath it.
For this reason, Oriole is also super accessible for people coming off the highway from the
east or west, and allows people to park here and get on a train south to Union Station.
As you can see here, despite only getting a few trains per weekday, Oriole station actually
has quite a few amenities.
We have some bicycle parking, a waiting area, and even public washrooms to my right. This
kind of mobile home converted type washroom system is something interesting that the TTC
could perhaps consider.
There’s also a temporary ticket office, as well as some presto vending machines, readers,
and reload stations.
Here you can see the actual platform, which is fairly decent by GO standards, but it doesn’t
have the tactile tiles at the edge of the platform which would be nice to see.
Again, here are the public washrooms we had a look at before, which is indeed an interesting
feature to have at this station.
Just east of Leslie street is North York General Hospital. As you can see, Leslie is quite
a busy street with the highway ramp just down the road, and there’s actually an overpass
allowing hospital traffic to get across much easier.
Here a bus is actually passing over it right there.
Buses travelling northbound on Leslie
can make use of this overpass to turn around, as well as to serve the general hospital public.
Here we are, at our first station entrance of Leslie station.
This entrance is the one to the furthest east side of the station. Since Leslie is one of
the newest stations in the system, it offers a lot more modern design features than the
older ones, including accessible ramps into the station.
Also take note of the new Presto vending machines available at each entrance of the station.
You will also notice that the station is relatively quiet, but this is just a fact about the entire
Sheppard line.
Here you can see a few maps of the system as well as the station surroundings.
Now, let's head into the station itself.
We’ve got some new presto fare gates, which almost every other station on the TTC has
at this point, apart from Yorkdale station on Line 1.
Note on the walls we have these tiles: this is part of the public art of this station,
and each tile is the words Sheppard and Leslie written by a person in the community.
Really interesting in my opinion.
Let’s head down to the train platforms now.
As you can see, these nicely designed skylights allow some natural light into the station.
You may have noticed that this corridor is extremely long, and that is because the platform
can actually be extended to this part of the corridor to allow for 6 car trains on the
Sheppard line.
That is one thing I do like about the Sheppard line relative to other TTC and Metrolinx projects,
it has been nicely planned for the future.
Even though it hasn’t seen that much ridership, it’ll be easier to upgrade to higher capacities
in the future, especially when the line eventually gets extended west.
As you can see, we have the Toronto Rocket coming in now.
These trains are all operated by a single operator, versus two on the other subway lines,
due to the automatic train control-esque system we have running here.
Also notice the more modern wayfinding system, with the wayfinding bars above the platforms,
telling people which direction the train goes, and the current station name.
These are the nice touches I would like to see in the older stations as well. You can
also see a lot of vertical egress in the entry points in each section of the platform.
There’s actually signs pointing to the GO station, even though there’s no formal connection
between the two.
You need to go out on the street and walk a few blocks to get there, despite the tracks
passing literally right next to the station parallel to Leslie street.
As you can see, the amount of fare gates and the size of the station is absolutely massive,
especially considering that none of the stations on the Sheppard line get that significant
of ridership.
We also still have fully-manned collector's booths,
which surprises me given how low the ridership is.
Now, this is the main entrance of Leslie station, which
is a pretty cool entrance since it’s on the side and then drops down onto the subway platform.
You also can see part of the traction power substation right here, which is blocked in
with these nice glass tiles.
I’m gonna walk over so you can see these skylights I pointed out earlier.
A lot of people probably see these structures and wonder what they’re for, so it’s nice
to inform you that these are actually what allows the nice natural light to come into the station.
Now we’re actually gonna look at something a lot of people aren’t aware of. The Sheppard
line actually has a bridge on it which is enclosed in a tunnel, where the line passes
over the Don river just East of Leslie station.
The bridge actually has a park on it, so perhaps this is technically the first rail deck park
in Toronto. It’s just one of those cool elements that you might not have known about
the Sheppard line, and one that a lot of people don’t have the ability to see, so I hope
you’ve enjoyed seeing this.
You can see that the Don River just flows right underneath here.
And here’s the name of the park, Betty Sutherland Trail Park,
and a plaque that commemorates some details about the park.
Here's a view of the trail leading into the Don Valley, and here's a final view of that tunnel/bridge.
Another very interesting element of the Sheppard line.
Let’s head back into the station now so we can check out the last exit on the far western edge.
Look, this is a bus terminal attached to the station!
However, it’s really under-served.
Currently, only the 51 Leslie route serves this bus terminal, and it’s relatively infrequent,
so there’s not that much service. However again, there is a lot of capacity for
future expansions as services demands it.
One thing I would like to see reintroduced on some subway routes is perhaps some supplementary
bus service for local passengers. This does exist but is not currently servicing this
bus terminal on Sheppard.
Another bus that could come in here once fare integration happens is GO buses, which would
be servicing Oriole station regularly. These are just some thoughts on how we can better
utilize the infrastructure we already have, something the city is frankly not very good at.
Look, here's that 51 pulling into the station.
Let's head outside the station to take a look at what's out there.
Here’s a closer look at the new presto vending machines. I quite like these machines, they
can do basically everything we want them to do, and they can be expanded in the future
for other purposes as well.
Another interesting feature of Leslie station is the fact that it actually has a shuttle
bus provided by IKEA to its location nearby. This is probably the most accessible IKEA
on the TTC system.
Let's look at the surroundings of the station, we have a firehouse here,
as well as the IKEA that I mentioned. There’s also a ton of development going on by Concord pacific
near the station, which you can see right pass the IKEA.
Well, that’s it guys, thanks for watching the first episode of our new Station Focus
series. If you have a station you want to know more about, just leave a comment down
below. Videos will probably come a little slower in the next couple weeks, but we’ll
be returning full steam in the new year. See you in the next one!