Second Exits, Second Entrances

In response to modern fire safety codes, the TTC has an ongoing program to add secondary exits at many subway stations.  Note that these must be completely separate paths out of the station.  Two stairways leading to a common mezzanine count as one exit because a fire in the common area could block access to the surface from platform level.

As an example, the new exits at Broadview take a path up to the bus and streetcar loop that is not connected to the original path up to the main entrance.

Planning for most of the new exits had assumed that they would be “exit only” facilities as this makes them cheaper to build.  However, access to stations is improved if these exits can also be entrances.  To that end, changes are proposed for five stations.

  • College Station’s original proposed second exit was at Granby Street, one south of Carlton, east of Yonge.  The primary entrance for the station is constrained by existing buildings and cannot be made accessible with elevators.  Therefore, the second exit will be converted to a full entrance including elevators.  An alternative scheme involving connection to College Park is also under study.
  • Museum Station’s original proposal would have surfaced in Queen’s Park, but there is now a proposal for a connection to a new UofT Faculty of Law campus on the northwest corner of Queen’s Park.
  • Dundas Station will have an automatic entrance connection to the new Ryerson University development.
  • Dundas West Station has a rather odd history.  There has been a design for a full connection to GO Transit at this location for years, but for some reason, the TTC had scaled this back to an exit only arrangement.  Given the service GO (and the Air Rail Link) will run in this corridor, it deserves a proper subway connection.  The project is now in Metrolinx’ hands.
  • Wellesley Station will get a new entrance at Dundonald Street (one north of Wellesley).  The population density here is high enough to support two entrances, and this configuration will avoid passengers having to walk through a laneway to reach Wellesley’s main entrance from Dundonald Street and areas to the north.

Frankly, I can’t see why the TTC wouldn’t design second entrances (not just exits) right from the outset, and I hope that this will be the standard from now on.

24 thoughts on “Second Exits, Second Entrances

  1. Perhaps I’ve missed it, being out of the city now for 5 years, but what plans for a secondary exit are there for Summerhill, or for Rosedale even?

    Steve: There have been long-standing plans for a second exit from Summerhill through the old railway station, but they are entangled with whatever development might happen on that property.


  2. Are there any plans for a second exit/entrance at Summerhill station? If so, it should connect with the LCBO flagship store that’s there! That would be most excellent!

    Steve: Yes, there is provision from a connection from the southern end of Summerhill into the railway station / liquor store. When it will be built is another matter.


  3. That’s the first TTC document I’ve ever seen that acknowledges that GO users might want to use TTC’s services…


  4. Roughly when will construction start on these new entrances/exits?

    Steve: Don’t know. No dates are mentioned in the report, and some locations depend on the timing of other nearby redevelopment.


  5. It appears that the exit under construction at Castle Frank will not become a secondary entrance. That’s a bit of a shame since the main entrance is located very inconveniently for someone coming from Bloor and Parliament.

    Steve: Yes, this is a good example of how the TTC spends a lot of money to build something that’s not quite as good as it could have been. The big expense is to dig the hole and create the stairways. All they need is entry gates.


  6. So at Summerhill are they going to use the roughed in connection to the LCBO.. I believe provision for such a connection was made when the station was built in 1954.


  7. Is there any list of stations without existing second exists? And what of stations like St.George? IIRC the “lobby” area is the length of the entire subway station.

    Steve: This is a trivia question fo those who know the subway well, but there are a lot of stations that use a common single exit path.


  8. Well that explains the mess making a second exit at Castlefrank. Thanks. I just thought they were stupid to build two exits on the same block on the north side of Bloor, where they really need on on the south for all the people in St. Jamestown and Cabbagetown. Figures it’s the firecode again: just like the idiocy on the St. Clair ROW.

    Steve: A south side exit would have required a tunnel across Bloor Street and much greater expense.


  9. When I went to Ryerson, I longed for secondary exits at Dundas and at College, these are long overdue. The crowding that Dundas has of the masses headed to the south exit (and the loads from Ryerson/Eaton Centre/AMC/streetcars) all crowd the south end. This is excellent news.

    College could be integrated with that proposed new Condo extension to College Park towards Gerrard.

    Dundas West is also badly needed, though the plans I saw for that new Bloor GO/(ugh) Blue22 station, was to build a new station across from the current entrance to the subway, directly north of Crossways. I hope we will see a more sensible plan.

    Steve: The south end of College Station is too far north to connect with the new condo. That’s why they are looking at College Park.


  10. The new exit for Spadina Station is at Walmer Road. Unfortunately there is little if anything in the way of escalators or elevators at this exit.

    These secondary exits are not just good for emergencies. Subways by their nature have much fewer connetions to the street and the extra exits go a little way towards mitigating this.


  11. I just thought of something.. Don’t all stations have emergency exit shafts at the end of the platforms? I mean this plus the tunnels could be construed as a second exit (in the event of the emergency).. This way the existing stations could be grandfathered in terms of fire coding, since they were built prior to existing fire code. I know people are going to mention this, so I will.. yes I know that the fire at Old Mill station that lead to the abandonment of the garbage train proved that evacuating a station via the end of the platform (in this case along a open air bridge), does not always work given that smoke will be billowing out of the stations.

    Steve: Those are ventillation shafts and they do not have stair towers in them. Indeed they are too small for retrofitting something like that.


  12. Steve, of course that’s true, but it’s still a damn shame at Castlefrank: “A south side exit would have required a tunnel across Bloor Street and much greater expense.” Crossing the Bloor Expressway at that point is so bad, that though coming from Cabbagetown I will walk five more minutes to Sherbourne, and guess most of the rest do too. Of course, I do take the Wellington or Parliament buses, if one comes!


  13. It does seem asinine that they are spending millions on that secondary exit on Castle Frank, and aren’t spending the extra few $ necessary for an automatic entrance, that makes everyone walking to the station from Parliament. I’d think that would lead to locals who have a Metrocard simply walking around the end of the bus platform once the new entrance is open.


  14. So, the theory is that a person in a wheelchair wanting to take the subway to college and connect to a streetcar will go to the end of the platform, exit at Granby, and then wheel back uphill to college to connect to the streetcar (should the accessible cars ever arrive)?

    There’s no way to put an elevator into College Park or 2 Carlton?

    Steve: That’s why they are talking to College Park now. The Granby proposal was just plain dumb. I’m not sure what the constraint is at 2 Carlton.


  15. What about Eglinton West? It’s been a while since I’ve been there, but does the open air design mean that there is no need for a secondary exit?

    Steve: I think so.


  16. “Wellesley Station will get a new entrance at Dundonald Street …. this configuration will avoid passengers having to walk through a laneway to reach Wellesley’s main entrance from Dundonald Street and areas to the north. ”

    People don’t have to use the lane. There’s a sidewalk running along the east side of the station between Dundonald and Wellesley.

    Steve: Ah yes. For some reason, I and many others use the lane.

    It is high time they put an entrance at the north end of Dundas Station. I sent in that suggestion to Ryerson when they started talking about making Gould a pedestrian mall about five years ago. It surprised me that they didn’t incorporate a northern entrance through the Toronto Life Building that went up since then, either by making a north entrance to that “mall” enabling people to stream through to the existing Dundas Station turnstiles or by constructing a seperate entrance at the NW corner of that building. Talk about a missed opportunity. It would also have connected Ryerson to the PATH walkways and its new building to the east of the Eaton Center.

    Overall, more entrances is good news. It will increase convenience – like in NYC where there are subway entrances everywhere.


  17. Regarding Pape Station, which is already on the plans, is the entrance to Lipton still on the books or are they looking at placing the entrance at Eaton. one block east? Placing the entrance at Eaton would make more sense as the one at Lipton is like 10 seconds away from Pape’s main entrance.

    Steve: My understanding is that the second exit opens out to Eaton, east of Pape Avenue, rather than north to Lipton.

    As for College, I know that it is rather difficult for wheelchair access due to the way the station is set up. However, I think the best solution to that problem is to make that short stairwell to College Park a Ramp (or construct a new one). There are elevators at College Park that should do the job.

    And will the entrances at Dundas serve both Northbound and Southbound platforms? I believe that the subway is not deep to permit some form of “mezzanine” between street level and the Subway. They would have to either construct two entrances on either side of Yonge Street, or make a connecting path underneath the subway line (which would likely be very expensive).

    Steve: The apparent intent is to serve both platforms. We await detailed designs.


  18. “It would also have connected Ryerson to the PATH walkways and its new building to the east of the Eaton Center.”

    West, dammit, not east – that Canadian Tire/Best Buy building on Dundas.

    Steve: The Ryerson building in question is the new structure to be built east of Yonge and north of Gould, nowhere near the Canadian Tire, etc. That’s the one to be served by the second Dundas exit.


  19. My reference was to the School of Management which occupies the floors above Best Buy/Cdn Tire. A north end Dundas station entrance would connect it underground to the main campus, as would a north entrance to the Toronto Life Building – but the top priority apparently was preserving the old parkade as if it was a UNESCO heritage site.

    Steve: Actually, this connection would only work if you walked through the paid area of Dundas Station. Shall we buy every Ryerson student a Metropass?


  20. On the subject of accessibility and secondary entrance/exits (they seem to come together to some extent)

    Dufferin Station (elevatorless) and Queen’s Park Station (with a pair of elevators) are something of an immense nuisance. I have some difficulty with stairs, and (like several other locations in the system) would much prefer walking down a consistent number of stairs to a given mezzanine level.

    At Dufferin Station, the east-side entrance goes down one flight of stairs, down a small flight under the actual street, up that same distance to the mezzanine on the other side of the street. Similar situation at Queen’s Park Stn from the southwest (Tim Horton’s) entrance. Why is it necessary to have multiple stair cases when going from street-level to mezzanine level could be simplified immensely just by having a ‘level’ mezzanine-to-street ratio?

    If the goal were to get under some utilities, then the stairs/escalator should go below the utilities and the mezzanine should be built at that same below-utility depth. Is this due to the apparent “standard sizes” escalator system?

    Steve: Dufferin will gain elevators as part of its coming renovation. Queen’s Park was supposed to gain a new accessible path to the southeast corner via the MARS development that is now on hold. Both stations are a nuisance because of its ups and downs that exist to get around various utilities underground. The problem with the utilities is that they are not at a consistent depth. A passage goes down to get under one, and then has to go up again to get over another.

    ie: At Broadview, there is no escalator system to bring it all the way from the surface to the bridge above the centre-platform, thus requiring the mysterious three-stairs at it’s base?

    Steve: The Broadview escalator (in common with a few others on the system) was a retrofit added years after the station was built. The problem is that the escalator is on top of the platform (and the columns that hold up the mezzanine), but the space between the roof of track level and the floor of the mezzanine won’t hold the escalator machinery. The three steps provide the extra clearance. If the station had been designed accessibly from day one, a completely different design would have been used. Indeed, centre platform stations seem to be fairly standard now as they greatly simplify vertical access between station levels.

    As per Nick’s comment/question:
    St. George (like Bay) have completely separate exits:
    St. George Street and Bedford Avenue, they do not share common paths.

    Steve: I have clipped a long list of stations and their status here because it contains many errors both of inclusion (stations that really do have two exits) and exclusion (stations that only have one, but are not in the list), and I don’t want to spend my time fixing all of them.

    On a personal note, adding secondary exits at Donlands and Greenwood will greatly increase the “neighbourhood” feel of this already neighbourhood-friendly section of the Bloor-Danforth line (and possibly make “Greenwood” station have an exit on Greenwood Avenue!

    Steve: You may have noticed that the exit from Greenwood is toward the west end of the station. The reason the exit is on Linsmore is that Greenwood Avenue is over the wye structure for the yard south of Danforth.


  21. About the new Dundas exit, it doesn’t make any sense that a new exit would require travel through the paid area to get from the Business building to whereever it exits. Dundas still has two seperate and unconnected fare zones for each platform, unless a really big reworking of the Eaton’s Centre entrance is in the works you only enter the fare zone on the platform itself. Am I missing something here?

    Actually, I just realized what I’m missing, if this new entrance is going to be for fire code compliance it has to be all new, and will mean at minimum a new underpass.

    Steve: Yes, you are missing something. The new entrance will be at the NORTH end of Dundas Station, and the connection will be above track level rather than under it, although that’s tricky given that the tunnel is fairly shallow at this point. The Ryerson Business School connects in via the SOUTH entrance, and the new building (and main campus) will connect to the NORTH entrance. There is no way to get from one to the other except via the platform.

    As for the Metropass idea, it would definitely save me something. It is (or was) a distinct possibility last year actually; we were offered discounted Metropasses (60 or 70 dollars if I recall) if they were required of all students, but our wonderful student government wouldn’t allow the needed referendum after U of T Scarborough voted the deal down 😦


  22. At the risk of piling on to the Dundas thing: anything’s possible, but I’m guessing Ryerson’s pockets aren’t nearly deep enough to make a north subway entrance also connect to the PATH. Connecting the Sam’s site to the north end of Toronto Life Square means somehow tunnelling under HMV, at the risk of popping out in the store room at Shopper’s Drug Mart. And a cross-Yonge PATH connection to the Atrium on Bay is too messy to contemplate.

    Those of us who walked to our university classes through five-foot snowdrifts, uphill both ways, would never stand for such an expensive little shortcut.


  23. Steve,
    Why would it take so long to put 2nd exits in if this is a fire code violation which is not being presently met today? Shouldn’t this be a first on the list priority?

    Is it true this was uncovered by a private individual by the name of P.W. (you probably know the name)?

    How long was the study for? and When was it finished?
    Is it similair to the new Life Safety Plan consultant study they are doing now for a 3 year term?
    Thanks for you answers.

    Steve: Stations only have to be brought to code re second exits when there is a significant change in the use of the station. The case you refer to (with “PW”) was at Union and involved the addition of the new Harbourfront streetcar loop. Spadina Station is another example. The TTC is now pro-actively adding exits at stations, but they are not bound to do so.


  24. Residents near Donlands and Greenwood stations were informed this week of plans to expropriate neighbourhood homes to construct second exits for these stations. Local residents near both stations are organizing to ensure we have an effective voice in this planning process.

    Are there other stations at which local residents are similarly affected? It may be helpful for us all to coordinate our response to the TTC.

    Steve: I have replied at length to the author of this comment privately. For further info about the proposed second exit at Greenwood (the info about Donlands isn’t up yet), please visit the community’s second exit site.


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