1. Description

2. History

3. Station name

4. Subway infrastructure in the vicinity

5. Fare collection and zone

6. Surface connections
    SmartCentres Place Bus Terminal  Vivastation 

7. City centre development

8. References

9. External links

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,^[2] 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).

Located in Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, a future commercial district under development, the station is designated by Metrolinx as a mobility hub, one of several multimodal transit terminals in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.^[3] 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.^[4][5]

Description

A corridor leads north from the station's concourse level to YRT's SmartCentres Place Bus Terminal, where passengers can transfer to conventional YRT bus routes. There is also a connection 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.^[12]

History

On November 27, 2009, the official ground breaking 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,^[13] 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 {{Convert|8.6|km|mi|abbr=on}} extension opened, with this station replacing {{ttcs|Sheppard West}} as the northwestern terminus of Line 1.

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^[14][15] until February 2012, when Vaughan's preference for the full name was adopted.^[16] 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. {{ttcs|North York Centre}} and {{ttcs|Scarborough Centre}}).^[17] 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.^[17] Other discussed names were "Highway 7", "Highway 7 West", "Jane North", "Edgeley", "Creditstone", and "Applewood".^[17] The new Toronto Rocket subway train's exterior destination sign for this station displays simply "Vaughan" rather than its full 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.^[18]

Fare collection and zone

As with all stations from {{ttcs|Lawrence West}} north to this station, legacy TTC fare media (tokens and tickets) are accepted at this station, but they are not sold here. Passengers paying by cash must have exact change. Presto cards can be purchased and loaded with funds for single rides or with monthly TTC passes for unlimited travel using various automated machines at the station.^[19]

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.^[20] 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 suburban bus routes.^[21] 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:

SmartCentres Place Bus Terminal

SmartCentres Place Bus Terminal is a YRT bus terminal currently under construction north of the subway station to the west side of Millway Avenue,^[23] outside the station's fare-paid area.^[24][25] The terminal will be a multi-modal transportation hub and was expected to open in 2018 shortly after the terminal; in October 2018, it was announced its opening had been delayed until 2019.^[22] Diamond Schmitt Architects designed the terminal in a horseshoe shape. The building features open architecture and can be accessed from every direction by transit customers. The station has a passenger pick-up and drop-off area, and will have an underground walkway linking it with the subway station and the Vivastation on Highway 7.^[23][30]

The total cost of the terminal was about $32.1 million. The station was named after its developer SmartCentres REIT, who contributed $15 million in financing for an underground connection between the bus terminal and the subway station.^[26]

The following YRT routes will serve the terminal:^[28]

Upon completion of the terminal, the following route will continue to use its current on-street stop at the station's main entrance on Highway 7 and will not stop inside the terminal or Vivastation:^[29]

Vivastation

The Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Vivastation is a covered transfer facility in the centre of the Highway 7 Rapidway. It allows Viva Orange and 501 Züm Queen BRT bus routes to quickly serve the subway station without having to pull into the SmartCentres Place terminal. The facility is located directly above the station's concourse and connects to it via escalators and elevators.^[30] It is located south of the main station building and bus terminal, both of which can be accessed either underground through the concourse or at ground level via a crosswalk and sidewalks.^[23]

City centre development

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.^[31]

References

External links

• {{Commons cat inline}}
• {{Official website|https://www.ttc.ca/Spadina/index.jsp}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110612043020/http://www.city.vaughan.on.ca/vaughan/committees/images/subway_map_l.jpg Map indicating alignment of extension and location of stations]
• Updated TTC Subway Map

• Consolidated P4Y Corregidor
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