Did you know there is a second TTC subway station beneath Bay Station? It’s known as Bay Lower and was built in 1966.
“It was going to serve almost as a bit of a relief line,” said Brad Ross, spokesperson for the TTC.
The idea? Every second train on the Bloor-Danforth line would come through Bay Lower station and then head down via the University Line and back up Eglinton – but that idea was scrapped after six months.
“The problem was it was far too confusing for people,” said Ross. “They didn’t know which train was coming.”
While the platform is closed to the public, the track is powered and it is a functioning station that is mainly used as a film set for television shows, commercials and movies.
“Because of its columns and height and colours of the tiles, it’s often used to replicated a New York City subway station,” said Ross.
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You can see Bay Lower in movies such as Repo Men, Total Recall and Resident Evil: Retribution.
The 500 ft long space is also used for TTC training and emergency services training.
Below Queen Station is another piece of lost TTC history from 1954. It’s called Queen Lower.
“They dug out this shell which was going to be Queen Lower, the station for the streetcar line and then they decided now we’re going to build a subway instead and we’re going to do it here as Toronto continues to expand north toward the lake,” said Ross.
It now is an empty shell.
“We have a lot of conduit, plumbing work, electrical work for elevators in Queen station as well as our new signalling system, automatic train control. There’s a lot of cabling, a lot of fibre optics that run through this shell now that is called Queen Lower.”
Bay Lower and Queen Lower are not open to the public. However, Bay Lower has been made available in the past during Doors Open Toronto.
“People are fascinated by it because it’s a part of Toronto nobody ever sees.”
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