What's so special about Dundas West?

April 17, 2006 6:46 AM

Why do so many people get off the TTC train at Dundas West?

I travel quite frequently westbound on the Bloor-Danforth line, and I've noticed that on every trip almost 1/3 of the passengers disembark at Dundas West station. My knowledge of the city is very limited and just from looking at maps, I can't quite figure out why so many people would get off at that station. Is Dundas West station some sort of TTC hub that I didn't know about?

posted by reformedjerk to travel & transportation (11 comments total)

You can catch the Queen or King streetcar from there. Also you can walk down to Howard Park and catch the College St. car, or over to Dundas/Howard Park for the Dundas car. Aside from that, no idea. I used to live just off Roncesvalles and that was my closest TTC stop but there was nothing all that special about it. And anyway, I don't know why one would go West on the TTC only to get off and go East on a streetcar.

Joe Mercury's (Bloor and Dundas) had a fun karaoke night on Thursday. Maybe that's it.
posted by Succa at 7:05 AM on April 17, 2006

It is relatively close to some enormous apartment buildings (they're on the north-east side of that intersection). Also, as Succa mentioned, the streetcars take you down through the main Roncesvalles area and into Parkdale which is a heavy residential area as well.
posted by purephase at 7:20 AM on April 17, 2006

I've always wondered the same thing; I just assumed it was because of the streetcar connections to Dundas, King and west into McCallion-land.
posted by docgonzo at 8:25 AM on April 17, 2006

Oh man, you don't know about the west-end sexateria?
posted by Capn at 8:44 AM on April 17, 2006 [1 favorite]

Probably just the Dundas & King streetcars. What time of day are you talking about?

There's also a Go train station just east, on the other side of those giant apartments.
posted by maledictory at 8:44 AM on April 17, 2006

Also, there's a McDonalds (opened in 1985) with access from the fare-paid aboveground portion of the station, so you can get some fast "food" without needing to pay an extra fare.
posted by onshi at 9:05 AM on April 17, 2006

Succa, you can only get the Queen car there bu hopping on the 504 King and riding it down. I'd guess, though, that's probably a fairly large portion of the people.. why suffer on the Queen car through downtown and crowding, when you can take the train out that far, then the 504 down to an almost empty 501 car on Queen, and sail out west along the Queensway?

So there's that, and the apartment buildings, and the McDonalds (I thank God, every day, that it's not a Cinnabon. What worries me is that there's some sort of Cinnabon Express type dealie at the Yonge portion of Sheppard/Yonge station, and I'm going to have to pass right by it twice a day every day for the next umpteen years at my new job. I don't know how long I can resist....), and a high school on the corner (though that would obviously account for people getting on), and various bus connections all over the area (a lot of weird routes terminate there), and more apartment buildings on the opposite corner from Crossways (the enormous ones that people are mentioning), and basically once you get off Bloor or Roncie, it's a huge residential area.

Also, if anyone's living in the area, check out the Freshwood Grill. www.freshwoodgrill.com. Seriously, the food is incredible. GO EAT.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 9:25 AM on April 17, 2006

I think there's only a couple buses that end there, although my info may be old. There's the 40 that goes up Dundas through the Junction and the 168 (both A & B) that go up to Weston.
posted by maledictory at 9:34 AM on April 17, 2006

My Toronto road knowledge is limited, but isn't that location near Honest Ed's?
posted by fvox13 at 10:48 AM on April 17, 2006

It's nowhere near Honest Ed's. That's Bathurst St station.

It's because Dundas West is where all the cool people go. I mean, obviously, as it my station.

Also, it does connect to both the 504 and 505 streetcar lines to points east along King or Dundas. And you can get to 506 (College) or 501 (Queen) pretty quickly as well. Plus there is some stuff north of here in theory, but I dunno what. And as dirtynumb said, it's mostly because Roncesvalles rulez, d00d.
posted by GuyZero at 11:00 AM on April 17, 2006

It's near/in the Junction. A lot of people live there.
posted by chunking express at 11:23 AM on June 9, 2006