Toronto Transit Commission Pape Station



Westbound to Kipling	Pape	Eastbound to Kennedy
Next Station: Chester		Next Station: Donlands



Pape

Rapid Transit

Bloor-Danforth

Surface Routes

25, 72, 81

Presto

No

Opening Date

February 26, 1966

Platform

Side

Ridership (2018)

MISSING

Pape Station is a rapid transit stop and bus terminal owned and operated by the TTC, located at 650 Danforth Avenue, although the on-street location of the station is really at the intersection of Pape Avenue and Lipton Street, a block north of Danforth Avenue.

Station description

The entrance is located at the south-west corner of the property, right at the intersection of Pape and Lipton. A small building hosts both the entrance to the station and a cramped Tim Hortons (accessible through the unpaid area only). The entrance consists of a collector's booth and only 4 turnstyles, while a set of stairs and a single person width escalator lead down to the concourse. A door beside the escalator leads outside to a crosswalk to the bus terminal. Pape is the only station to allow passengers to walk across a bus roadway.

The concourse is essentially a tunnel connecting the entrance, bus terminal, and two platforms. Heading north from the stairs, down from the entrance, and under the bus driveway is an escalator and stairs to the bus terminal. Heading south and down a small set of stairs, a news stand is located at the stairs to the westbound platform, while a short distance south is the set of stairs to the eastbound platform.

The bus terminal is busy, yet lack-lustre. All three routes servicing Pape Station run frequent service. The crescent shaped bus terminal has the southbound buses (72) inside the curve and the northbound routes (25 and 81) outside the curve. A small glassed in booth protects waiting passengers from the elements, and another houses the stairs/escalator to the concourse.

The westbound subway platform.

Pape has two side platforms with the track in between, typical Bloor-Danforth stations. The Bloor-Danforth line also had a wall colour scheme that cycled along the line. At Pape, the two colours used are a yellow for the majority of walls and green trim along the top at platform level. The station name and some other signage engraved in the wall are painted to match the trim, and the station name engraved in the trim is painted to match the wall.

History

Even before the opening of the Bloor-Danforth subway and Pape Station, the area where the station currently exists had an important part of transit history. Harbord streetcars went up Pape Ave. to Danforth, where they used the station grounds to loop at Lipton Loop. The Harbord car was not going to operate after the station opening, so tracks were not laid in the station loop. It is unknown how the Harbord car looped with the closure of its Lipton loop.

Pape has remained relitavetly untouched since it's opening with the original section of the Bloor-Danforth subway. However, there have been many plans circulating for major changes and connections.

The first plan was to have the Downtown Relief line start at Pape and head down to either King or Queen streets, or Union Station. This would have made Pape an important and busy connection point, with passengers from Scarborough and East York using the station to transfer between lines. The plans languished, and eventually faded from all maps. This was partly due to improvements made to Bloor-Yonge station, and favour by governments to extend subways into vote-rich suburbs.

The Downtown Relief Line comes back in a way, however, when Transit City was announced. The Don Mills LRT line will terminate somewhere along the Danforth subway. Pape is one of the more popular options currently, because it allows the LRT to pass through the heavily populated Thorncliffe Park area, plus the current alignment of the Don Mills bus brings it to Pape. Studies are currently underway to see if the Leaside Bridge crossing the Don Valley is strong enough to support an LRT line, and if it proves able to then Pape will definitely be the main choice of terminal. As well, any alignment of the Don Mills LRT will likely permit it to be extended south and west to Downtown Toronto, becoming the long-lost Downtown Relief line in a new form.

Moderization=

In 2008, it was announced that Pape will be the first station to undergo work in the Station Modernization program. Pape was selected because of its current condition and because other work was planned at the station. The current plans are to add a new entrance at the east end of both subway platforms to comply with new fire standards, add elevators to make the station accessible, make the station more passenger-friendly (wider corridors and improved signage for example) and update the exterior and interior of the station. The bus terminal will also be directly connected to the entrance of the building, eliminating the inside roadway.^[1]

In 2008, the east end of the eastbound platform has had its ceiling painted a dark blue. This was preliminary work relating to the modernization program. Platform ceilings will be painted dark blue from the original white. The original platform level wall tiles were removed in 2012. These will be replaced by large, light cream coloured porcelain tiles with a bright medium blue accent strip with the station name. Artwork by Allan Harding MacKay comprising of 112 digitally manipulated images of the station pre-modernization and surrounding area to form abstract images will be integrated into the walls.^[2]

The station entrance will have granite containing five etched artwork images and a panel describing the art concept in a select location. the remaining walls of the entrance and bus terminal will be clad in dark grey porcelain tiles. The entrance stair enclosure walls will be replaced with glass and stainless steel balustrades containing three etched glass art images. The same will be done for the bus terminal stair enclosure two etched images.

Construction began in the fall of 2009 and was expected to be complete in 2012. However this has now changed to 2013.