Dennis Bayazitov | Assistant News Editor

Featured image | Courtesy of NOW Toronto

Whether it is not immediate enough or not pervasive enough, too impeding, or non-existent altogether, public transport seems to always have been a contentious issue here at York.

With the unveiling of the new TTC subway extension this December 17, however—effectively connecting Union Station to the burgeoning Vaughan Metropolitan Center (VMC)—York will certainly have come a long way.

The station will bring new advantages, as well as new complications; nevertheless, one cannot help but appreciate the amount of apparent extravagance today’s York students truly have in comparison to those of its first graduating class.

“Imagine you’re at York, driving up Keele Street. There is nothing north,” reminisces Adam Berel Wetstein, a retired freelance journalist and staff writer for Excalibur in 1972.

“No structures north of the Air Force Base entrance at Sheppard and Yonge. Only fields.”

Wetstein enrolled at York for his Bachelor of Arts in the university’s first years open, later returning for a degree in Business Administration in 1985.

“Then you come to York, and if you went further north, there are the CNR yards. That was York in basically the first graduating class—in 1971 and 1972.”

Time and again, York continues to be labeled as a commuter school. Many students today complain of the current state of transit—however, rewind back to the start, and you will find such headaches are far more deep-rooted and laughably trivial now, in comparison to the standards of the 1970’s.

There was just the one faithful Keele bus—the 41 D: the only bus that went all the way to York, “but it didn’t go into York,” Wetstein clarifies. “It went past York, up to the CNR yards.

“And it ran once an hour.”

With the Bloor subway station having opened its doors in 1965, a 41D bus that ran up and down Keele Street was York’s only hope for inaugural commuters trying to make it to class on time. To commute from York Mills and Bayview, where Wetstein lived at the time, “if you did not have a car,” there was a three-bus routine. The York Mills bus ran westward towards Yonge. Then, one would transfer onto the Wilson 96 to Wilson and Keele, and then once more to the 41D to make their way up to Canarctic Road.

Then, after an hour of bus-hopping, students began their daily walk into campus off Keele and York Boulevard—a little further from where Moda Night Club resides today. Summer was forgiving enough; winter, not so much.

On the way back, exhausted, stressed, and studied out, students had to improvise.

“On York Boulevard, there were these lighting stands with signs that said ‘Don Mills and Eglinton,’ and so on. There were about 10 of them,” Wetstein recalls. “People would stand in line and wait for a car to pull up and take three or four people.

“It was like Uber without Ubers.”

These were only students who were driving to and from school, and “they would pick you up, and they would drive you, and you would probably pay for their gas.”

Needless to say, York—physically and industrially—was a far different place than it is today.

“You know where the bus loop is now? It wasn’t that big. It was a two-lane road that came straight up to the Ross building, with a boulevard in the middle.”

The stands stood in front of Ross. Apart from Ross also stood Complex One, which encompassed Winter’s, Founder’s, and McLaughlin Colleges. Stong was in its building process, Curtis Lecture Halls were there, and half of what the Fine Arts building is now was in its early stages; Calumet, back then, was where the rest of Fine Arts is now.

“Where you have the Schulich school? That was a parking lot. Where you have the Seneca campus? That was a parking lot.

“That’s basically what York was: just a gigantic parking lot.”

Revisit the entrance into York along its admitting boulevard today, though, and you will be pleasantly surprised with how much has changed. Other than perhaps the budding construction of the new Schulich MBA building, chances are the only thing catching your eye will be the sleek, glassy new York University TTC Station.

“I say this as an alumni of Osgoode Hall: it’s absolutely phenomenal that, for the first time ever, there will be a subway connection for the more-than-50,000 students, faculty, and staff who go to the Keele campus on a regular basis,” says Ontario Minister of Transportation MPP (Vaughan) Steven Del Duca.

“Each of the stations are architecturally beautiful and very accessible.

“The subway is going to move beyond the 416, to the 905. This is only going to happen because all levels of government are working together.”

Indeed, students are already thrilled for the unveiling of the subway extension.

“I think that commuting by bus is longer than it should be,” says fourth-year Social Work major Leenaa Walsh, who takes the 196 Rocket. “I’m really excited for the subway to open.”

“Yes, of course the subway station is going to be very good for students,” agrees first-year York English Language Institute student Khalid Pinhjib, taking that same 41D down to Jane Street. “Everything is going to take just one train; not many buses, so it is very good and I think it will be much faster than buses.

“Of course the nightlife will also be much livelier.”

First-year Concurrent Education major Nina Sicion likewise agrees. “Increased nightlife is good—as long as we find a safe way, like if there’s security nearby,” she says. “As long as it’s safe and for students’ best interests, then yes, I agree with it totally and it’s great to see students have a night life.”

Construction of a new light rail transit (LRT) track, running from the new Finch-West TTC station west to Humber College through Jane and Finch is expected to further augment accessibility, passing through several priority neighbourhoods in northwestern Toronto.

“York will be essentially linked to Humber College, going along Finch street because the Toronto-York Subway Station Extension will connect to the Finch West LRT,” Del Duca adds. “This is all part and parcel of successfully building the transit network that we promised to the people of the GTHA four years ago.”

In spite of this, some commuters grow wary that opening the station may dismantle the familiar bus loop system of incoming busses arriving and departing at York’s center. With the introduction of the new subway station, students may—starting next year—be expected to subway to key stops that will serve as new terminals for selected bus routes.

“GO Transit buses will continue operations on the Keele Campus at the current location on the Common. Some GO buses will be stopping at the Highway 407 Station,” confirms Janice Walls of York Media. “Riders do not need to get off at Highway 407. They can remain on the bus and continue to Keele Campus.”

“YRT/Viva buses will continue operations on the Keele Campus at the current location on Ian Macdonald Blvd,” adds Walls. “Some YRT/Viva routes may include additional stops at Pioneer Village, Highway 407, and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Stations.

“ZUM buses that currently come to York will continue to come to York.”

“The opening of the station will relocate most of the existing TTC bus service currently circulating through the Common to bus terminals at Finch West and Pioneer Village stations,” notes TTC Senior Communications Specialist Stuart Green.

York Media encourages students check in with regional transportation partners for updates, while current routes may not be affected at the time being, but are subject to change as new information unfolds.

Students are concerned travel patterns may change later in the year.

Sicion, who takes the 54 GO to Mount Joy says: “It’s not hard to commute to York. The GO is easy,” she notes. “But if it’s not going to be here, then yeah—the commute is so long; it’s inconvenient.”

“Rerouting these buses would make things worse for commuters,” surmises one third-year Business Economics major who wishes to remain anonymous. The aforementioned student first takes the Viva Blue, and then the Viva Purple to get to York. “You cannot improve service in one area and cut service in others.”

Despite these new challenges that some students will have to face, however, the value in unveiling the new extension more valuably impacts the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area as a whole.

Del Duca envisions more economic growth, and improvement in the social district and living conditions overall.

“Extending the line beyond York to the city of Vaughan and York Region, which is now helping create a brand-new city core called the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, I think will help show people what can happen when you make the right kinds of investments in transit.

“We now see office buildings, condo towers, and so much more that are being built where, historically, that land would have been used for other uses.”

Wetstein recalls a similar picture: “There was nothing built west of Dufferin Street.

“It was just industrial land, as it is now. But then, it was farmland. Lack of transit was also the biggest issue why there was no life on campus.”

“The VMC is going to be a great example,” Del Duca continues. “In fact, it’s already a great example of what we call Transit-oriented Development.”

Be all that as it may, Wetstein remembers one aspect of commuter life all too well during his return to academics in the 1980’s.

“In July of, I believe, 1982, the TTC started an express bus from Wilson, and it was packed from the second it opened; even in July, when the university was essentially closed.

“There was never enough service.”

Now, some 40 years later, it appears that many of today’s York students’ complaints of transit service still parallel many of the same issues their academic predecessors encountered.

As far as grand openings of effective, novel, and expedient TTC service lines go, though, let’s just hope overcrowded vehicles doesn’t make the list.