Warden Station bus terminal to be demolished ahead of massive revitalization | CBC News

The TTC’s Warden Station is set to undergo a massive revitalization project, as community members voice concerns about the station’s lack of accessible infrastructure.

The project will see the station’s bus terminal demolished and rebuilt in an effort to make the station accessible, leaving riders to board buses at a temporary bay for two years beginning Jan. 5, according to the TTC. 

The work is long overdue, says Franklyn McFadden, who uses a wheelchair.

“I particularly don’t understand why we don’t put more of an emphasis on transit and transit infrastructure when we consider that the population is going to age and depend on it more and more,” McFadden said.

McFadden says transfer points at Warden Station would make his commutes around the city much easier, but that’s currently not an option he and other members of the accessibility community have.

“I’ll often have to make adjustments throughout my day,” he said.

“When I talk to various friends or other folks with accessibility needs, I generally tell them not to have any interaction with Warden Station mainly because there are no supportive technologies.”

The station currently has nine bus bays, but to get from the bus bay to the street, Bloor-Danforth subway trains or the retail shops above it passengers must walk up a set of stairs.

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The TTC says the completed two-level station will include 12 street level bus bays with two elevators, two escalators and staircases connecting bus passengers to the station’s concourse level.

TTC spokesperson Stuart Green said the project is a part of a larger effort to make all 70 TTC stations accessible, currently 14 of them are not.

“That work is ongoing and … will be done over the next couple of years across the city,” he said.

Warden Station could be fully accessible much sooner than the project’s 2027 completion date when the construction of the station’s new elevator wraps in 2025, according to Green.

New station could see the return of retail shops, TTC says

The revitalization is bittersweet for business owners whose shops line the walls of the upper level of the station, which includes convenience stores, dry cleaning services and bakeries selling Jamaican patties.

Satkuru Raveendran has owned Gateway on the Go at the terminal for 30 years and officially stopped operations on Dec. 3. The 72-year-old said closing the shop’s doors has not been easy.

“It’s almost like half of my life in here,” he said. “Closing down — it’s very painful.”

Raveendran said he hopes to return once the project is complete — and Green says that’s the plan. 

“We’ll have about five or six retail spaces there,” he said. “Absolutely, we’d be inviting those former tenants to come back.”