Secret
Station not so Secret Anymore!
(Globe and Mail, 24 Feb 2007)
by Liz Clayton
An otherwise frustrating
service disruption will offer an illicit thrill this weekend as Bay Lower
subway station, long shrouded in underground myth,
will become part of a detour for travelers on the Bloor-Danforth line. Passenger
trains won’t stop there, but then again, they haven’t since 1966.
Abandoned after only six months’ service in favour of simpler routing,
the platform — a carbon copy of Bay station above it — has remained
the stuff of lore for decades, seldom seen outside the gaze of TTC staffers
and the film crews of gum commercials.
Though the transit fanatical and city proud have long rallied for a peek
at Bay Lower, the TTC has guarded its mythologized “secret station” closely,
maintaining an all-business stance that’s drawn criticism from those
who’ve long wished for a kinder, more fan-friendly face to the oft-romanticized
Better Way.
But it seems the TTC has rerouted both trains and attitudes in 2007: they’ve
gone one better than the tantalizing drive-by and made moves to throw off
the veil on Bay Lower completely. This spring, due to popular demand and
not a little nudging from new TTC chair Adam Giambrone, the once-secret
station will be on view as part of Doors Open Toronto.
“
A lot happens on the TTC for a majority of Torontonians, and their lives
are in a sense intertwined with it,” said Giambrone of the system’s
almost unintentional allure.
“
There’s something special about the TTC in people’s eyes.”
To see Bay Lower weekends until March, head east from Museum station towards
Kennedy.