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. The entrance consists of a collector's booth and turnstyles. Five etched artwork images in granite and a panel describing the art concept is to be installed near the entrance.

Beyond the fare line are stairs and an escalator down to the concourse. The concourse connects the eastbound and westbound subway platforms to the entrance and bus terminal. The glass and stainless steel balustrades will feature three etched glass art images.

Beyond the fareline and concourse stairs is in indoor waiting area for bus passengers. A paved walkway connects passengers to the bus platforms outside. The bus roadway wraps around the north-eastern edge of the bus terminal, and buses exit onto Lipton Avenue. Pape Station is served by three bus routes.

The subway platforms at Pape Station have the tracks running between them. This is typical of Bloor-Danforth stations.

The walls of the entrance and bus terminal are finished in dark grey porcelain tiles. Walls at platform level are finished in light cream coloured tiles with a medium blue accent strip and the station name. Abstract artwork by Allan Harding MacKay comprising of 112 digitally manipulated images of the station pre-modernization and surrounding area is integrated into the walls at various locations.

History

Even before the opening of the Bloor-Danforth subway and Pape Station in 1966, the area where the station currently exists had an important part of transit history. Harbord streetcars went up Pape Avenue 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.

A plan for the Downtown Relief line used Pape as a starting point. It would 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 came back in a way, however, when Transit City was announced. The Don Mills LRT line would terminate somewhere along the Danforth subway. Pape is one of the more popular options 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. If it proves able, Pape will be the main choice of terminus. 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

Preliminary modernization work in 2008 included painting a portion of the ceiling.

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 plans called for a new entrance at the east end of both subway platforms to comply with new fire standards, elevators to make the station accessible, to make the station more passenger-friendly (wider corridors and improved signage for example), and updating the exterior and interior of the station.^[1]

The plan also called for the redesign of the bus terminal. The original crescent shaped bus terminal had southbound buses (route 72) inside the curve and the northbound buses (routes 25 and 81) outside the curve. A small glassed in booth protected waiting passengers from the elements. Another had stairs/escalator to the concourse. Passengers had to cross the inside bus roadway to reach other buses. This crossing was eliminated with modernization, and assengers can now wait inside the expanded station building for buses

Original wall tiles.

The Bloor-Danforth line had a wall colour scheme that cycled along the line. At Pape, the two colours used were 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 were painted to match the trim, and the station name engraved in the trim was painted to match the wall. The TTC has done away with this colour scheme during the modernization. The original platform level wall tiles were removed in 2012.

Construction began in the fall of 2009 and was expected to be complete in 2012. However, labour disputes, structural problems, and contaminated soil have impacted the timeline. In an effort to expedite the work, the TTC suggested closing the station for a number of days in 2013. The TTC polled riders and it was decided to close the station from August 19 to 31. The project is expected to be complete by the end of 2013.