Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station

Vaughan Metropolitan Centre (also known as Vaughan, Vaughan Metro Centre or VMC) is a rapid transit station in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. Opened on December 17, 2017,[3] it is the north terminus of the western section of the Toronto subway's Line 1 Yonge–University. It is operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) and is one of two subway stations in the system outside of Toronto's city limits. It provides connections to Viva Rapid Transit's Highway 7 Rapidway, which is also used by Brampton Transit's Züm buses, as well as local bus routes of York Region Transit (YRT).

Vaughan Metropolitan Centre
Location3150 Highway 7 West
Vaughan, Ontario
Canada
Coordinates43°47′39″N 79°31′39″W
PlatformsCentre platform
Tracks2
Connections YRT  77  Highway 7 (on-street)
SmartVMC Terminal
Highway 7 Rapidway
Construction
Structure typeUnderground
Parking900 spaces
Disabled accessYes
ArchitectGrimshaw Architects
Architectural styleContemporary architecture
History
OpenedDecember 17, 2017 (2017-12-17)[1]
Passengers
2018[2]14,790
Rank54 of 75
Services
Preceding station   TTC   Following station
Terminus Yonge–University
toward Finch

Located in Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, the suburban city's future central business district, the station is designated by Metrolinx as a mobility hub, one of several multimodal transit terminals in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.[4] The station has a 900-space park-and-ride lot, which is privately owned and operated by SmartCentres, unlike other TTC rapid transit station parking lots which are owned and operated by the TTC itself.[5][6]

Description
Main station entrance building
Station concourse
Artwork Atmospheric Lense with coloured mirrored panels on the station dome

The subway station is located on the northwest corner of Millway Avenue and Highway 7, west of Jane Street, and is one of two new stations that are outside the City of Toronto in York Region. Geographically, this is the northernmost station in the subway system.[7]

Grimshaw Architects designed the station, which has a domed ovoid entrance building just north of the Rapidway platforms on Highway 7. The building has four main entrances in an X pattern, plus an underground connection to the 100 New Park Place office tower, with knockout panels for access to additional future developments,[8] which as of May 2018 includes an under-construction second office complex that will also contain a YMCA and public library.[9] The main entrance features a cool roof, and a nearby electrical substation located on the south side of Highway 7 has a green roof.[10] Toronto-based Paul Raff Studio provided the station's artwork, titled Atmospheric Lense, consisting of coloured mirrored panels and windows located on the domed ceiling, and visible by looking up stairwells.[11][12]

Underground corridors lead both north and south from the station's concourse level to two YRT bus terminals. The north corridor leads to the SmartVMC Bus Terminal, where passengers can transfer to conventional YRT bus routes, and the south corridor leads to the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Vivastation on the Highway 7 Rapidway, where riders connect to Viva and Züm bus rapid transit routes. The fare-paid area features a Gateway Newstands kiosk.[13]

History

On November 27, 2009, the official groundbreaking ceremony was held for the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension (TYSSE), and tunnelling began in June 2011. The project was expected to be completed by the autumn of 2016,[14] but was revised to be operational by the end of 2017. On September 6, 2017, the TTC announced that the extension would open for service on December 17, and on that date, the 8.6 km (5.3 mi) extension opened, with this station replacing Sheppard West as the northwestern terminus of Line 1.

This station was, along with the five other TYSSE stations, one of the first to be opened without collector booths. It was also among the first eight stations to end the sale of legacy TTC fare media (such as tokens). Presto vending machines were available to sell Presto cards and to load funds or monthly TTC metropasses onto them..[15] On May 3, 2019, this station became one of the first ten stations to sell Presto tickets via Presto vending machines.[16]

Station name

During the initial planning stages of the TYSSE, the City of Vaughan wanted the station named "Vaughan Corporate Centre", after the name of its proposed new downtown, and later requested "Vaughan Metropolitan Centre" after it changed the name of the development. On September 30, 2010, a TTC committee recommended that the name be changed to "Vaughan Centre", despite the City's desire for the full name. However, the TTC delayed a final decision on the committee's report[17][18] until February 2012, when Vaughan's preference for the full name was adopted.[19] The TTC originally rejected the name to avoid linking the station to a specific development. The length of the name was seen as an inconvenience and "Vaughan Centre" was more consistent with other regional centre station names (i.e. North York Centre and Scarborough Centre).[20] A survey was conducted between September 23 and October 21, 2011, by the TTC to determine the preferred name. 80% supported "Vaughan Centre", 5% supported "Vaughan Corporate Centre", 9% supported "Vaughan Metropolitan Centre" and 7% supported other names. Other discussed names were "Highway 7", "Highway 7 West", "Jane North", "Edgeley", "Creditstone", and "Applewood".[20] The new Toronto Rocket subway trains' exterior front and rear destination signs display simply "Vaughan" and, on trains with side exterior destination signs, "Line 1 towards Vaughan", rather than the full station name.

Subway infrastructure in the vicinity

As this is a terminal station, there is a diamond crossover to the south of the platform for arriving trains to cross over to the southbound track, and for departing trains on the northbound track to cross to the southbound track. There are also tail tracks beyond the north end for overnight storage for two trains, with a trackless extra tunnel between them for a future potential third.[21][22]


The station crossover with a departing train crossing between the northbound platform and the southbound track
Looking north to the end of the west (southbound side) tail track
Photos taken in 2018, several months after the station opened. Note the clean tunnels still free of accumulated deposits.

Fare zones

To avoid the difficulty of implementing a payment-on-exit system, the station is part of the TTC's Toronto fare zone despite being located in York Region.[23] This is in contrast to TTC-contracted bus routes, where riders are required to pay extra fare when their bus crosses the municipal boundary at Steeles Avenue. This is analogous to the situation in 1968, when five subway stations opened outside the pre-amalgamation Toronto city limits in the TTC's "Zone 2" area at the time, yet no extra fare was required to reach those stations, although the Zone 2 fare was charged when transferring to connecting bus routes in the suburban municipalities of Metropolitan Toronto.[24] Similarly, at this (as well as at the adjacent Highway 407) station, there are no free transfers to and from regional buses, which are the only surface routes serving it.

Surface connections

No TTC buses connect to this station, but the aforementioned two bus terminals serve regional buses:

SmartVMC Bus Terminal
SmartVMC Bus Terminal
SmartVMC Bus Terminal under construction in April 2019
Location173 Millway Avenue,
Vaughan, Ontario
Canada
Coordinates43°47′47″N 79°31′41″W
Owned byRegional Municipality of York
Operated byYork Region Transit, Brampton Transit
Bus routes  501  Queen
Bus stands9
Construction
Disabled accessYes
History
OpenedNovember 3, 2019 (2019-11-03)[25]

SmartVMC Bus Terminal (previously known as SmartCentres Place Bus Terminal) is a YRT bus terminal north of the station to the west side of Millway Avenue,[26] outside the station's fare-paid area.[27][28] Diamond Schmitt Architects designed the terminal in a horseshoe shape. The building features open architecture that can be accessed from every direction. It has a passenger kiss-and-ride area on Millway Avenue and also has an underground walkway linking it with the subway station and the Vivastation on Highway 7.[26][29]

The total cost of the terminal was approximately $32 million. The terminal was named after its developer, SmartCentres REIT, who contributed $15 million in financing for an underground connection between the bus terminal and the station.[29]

The terminal was opened on November 3, 2019,[25] nearly two years after the station. It was expected to open in early 2018, shortly after the station itself, but it was delayed due to unspecified "unforeseen circumstances".[30] Prior to the opening of the terminal, buses used the current kiss-and-ride area.

The following YRT routes serve the terminal:[31]

Route Name Notes
20 Jane Northbound to Teston Road via Vaughan Mills Terminal and southbound to Pioneer Village station via Highway 407 station
26 Maple Local Northbound to America Avenue via Vaughan Mills
(Rush hour service only between Vaughan Mills and this station)
— Mobility On-Request Paratransit service transfer point—various destinations

Since August 31, 2020, it is also served by a Brampton Transit bus rapid transit route, the 501 Züm Queen (which also serves the Vivastation on Highway 7):[32]

Route Name Notes
501 Züm Queen Westbound to Brampton Downtown Terminal

The following YRT routes use an on-street stop at the station's main entrance on Highway 7 and do not stop inside the terminal or Vivastation:[33]

Route Name Notes
77 Highway 7 Westbound to The Gore Road
Eastbound to Finch Bus Terminal (Finch station)

Vivastation
Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Vivastation
Viva Orange bus at VMC Vivastation
LocationCentre of Highway 7 Rapidway
Coordinates43°47′36″N 79°31′40″W
Platforms2 (1 eastbound, 1 westbound)
Bus routes Viva Orange
 501  Queen
Construction
Structure typeCovered transfer facility within dedicated right-of-way
Disabled accessYes
History
OpenedDecember 17, 2017 (2017-12-17)

The Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Vivastation is a covered transfer facility in the centre of the Highway 7 Rapidway. It allows Viva Orange buses and Brampton Transit–operated 501 Züm Queen through-service buses[lower-alpha 1] to quickly serve the subway station without having to pull into the SmartVMC terminal, although the 501's main branch does terminate there while also serving the Vivastation. The facility is located directly above the station's concourse and connects to it via escalators and elevators.[34] It is located south of the main station building and bus terminal, both of which can be accessed from the Vivastation either underground through the concourse or at ground level via a crosswalk and sidewalks.[26]

City centre development
Main article: Vaughan Metropolitan Centre

Vaughan plans to build a transit-oriented city centre from scratch around the station in what is a low-density area featuring big-box stores and vacant land. Vaughan projects that by 2031, the new downtown will have 25,000 residents and employment for more than 11,000 people. Vaughan planning commissioner John MacKenzie said that Mississauga took 20 to 25 years to build its city centre without a subway, but hopes to accelerate the process in Vaughan with the help of the subway extension.[35]

Notes
  1. The Züm Queen through-service branch is temporarily suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

References
  1. Beattie, Samantha; Spurr, Ben (December 16, 2017). "After delays, cost overruns, and tragedy, a subway to Vaughan is complete". Toronto Star. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
  2. "Subway ridership, 2018" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. Retrieved February 5, 2019. This table shows the typical number of customer-trips made on each subway on an average weekday and the typical number of customers travelling to and from each station platform on an average weekday.
  3. "Toronto Transit Commission Board Meeting – September 5, 2017". Retrieved September 21, 2017.
  4. "Vaughan Corporate Centre" (PDF). Mextrolinx.com. September 19, 2012. Retrieved October 27, 2017. this hub is planned to integrate subway, rapid transit and local bus service
  5. "subwayparking.com". SmartCentres REIT. December 17, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
  6. "Paid parking will be available for subway riders at Vaughan station". yorkregion.com. November 29, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2018.
  7. "First Look: New TTC Map – Vaughan Metropolitan Centre". Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. November 18, 2015. Retrieved December 3, 2015.
  8. "Vaughan Corporate Centre Station – Approval of Conceptual Design" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. December 16, 2009. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  9. "Library/YMCA to Form Centrepiece of Vaughan's New Downtown". Urban Toronto. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
  10. "TTC Green Initiatives". Toronto Transit Commission. Retrieved December 2, 2018.
  11. Dixon, Guy (September 29, 2017). "A subway station worth lingering in". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved October 3, 2017.
  12. Michelle Adelman (July 7, 2014). "Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Station". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  13. transittoronto (December 19, 2017), News: Opening Day for the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension, retrieved December 20, 2017
  14. "Schedule Status Update" (PDF). Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension Project. Toronto Transit Commission. October 24, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2012.
  15. "New Customer Service Agents at TTC stations". Toronto Transit Commission. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved February 18, 2018.
  16. "TTC extends sales of Presto Tickets to 10 stations". Toronto Transit Commission. May 6, 2019. Retrieved June 2, 2019.
  17. "Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension - Station Names" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. September 30, 2010. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
  18. Fletcher, David (August 19, 2011). "Subway stops need names". YorkRegion.com. Metroland Media Group. Archived from the original on September 16, 2011.
  19. David Nickle (February 29, 2012). "TTC gives blessing to Vaughan's preference on station name". InsideToronto. Metroland Media Group.
  20. "Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension - Station Names in the City of Vaughan" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. February 28, 2011. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
  21. "TTC: A Tour of Vaughan's Metropolitan Centre Station". UrbanToronto. December 22, 2016. Retrieved October 4, 2017.
  22. "Detailed Toronto transport map: Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station trackage". cartometro.com.
  23. James Bow. "A Subway to York University and Beyond: North of Finch". Transit Toronto.
  24. James Bow. "A History of Subways on Bloor and Queen Streets: Celebrating the Subway's first stop in the suburbs". Transit Toronto.
  25. "SmartCentres Place Bus Terminal". yrt.ca. York Region Transit. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  26. "Transit Terminal Vaughan". Vivanext. Retrieved December 1, 2017.
  27. "Spadina Subway Transit Strategy" (PDF). 2015 Annual Service Plan. York Region Transit. 2015. p. 145. Retrieved April 16, 2016.
  28. "YRT/Viva Spadina Subway Transit Strategy" (PDF). York Region Transit. p. 7. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 13, 2014.
  29. Mackenzie, Robert (January 12, 2017). "Bus Terminal at Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Gets Underway". UrbanToronto. Retrieved November 18, 2017.
  30. "SmartCentre Place Bus Terminal Frequently Asked Questions". yrt.ca. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
  31. "SmartCentres Place Bus Terminal" (PDF). YRT. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
  32. https://web.archive.org/web/20201001235300/https://www.brampton.ca/EN/residents/transit/service-alerts/Pages/Transit-Updates.aspx#497
  33. "Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Station (VMC)" (PDF). YRT. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  34. "Highway 7 West / VMC". Vivanext. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
  35. Noor Javed (April 6, 2012). "Toronto's subway brings downtown vision to Vaughan". Toronto Star. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
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