Highway 407 station


Highway 407 is a Toronto Transit Commission subway station on Line 1 Yonge–University of the Toronto subway. It is located at the southwest quadrant of the Jane Street and Highway 407 interchange, in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada. It is one of two Toronto subway stations that are outside Toronto city proper, the other being Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station.

Description

The design team for the station was AECOM as the prime consultant, Aedas as design architect, and Parsons Brinckerhoff as design engineers. The station is an intermodal transit facility providing connections to York Region Transit and GO Transit buses, and Ontario Northland intercity coaches. It will also connect to a future Highway 407 Transitway. The station has a 600-space commuter parking lot and a large 18-bay regional bus terminal. This station has been engineered and positioned for the construction of underground bus platforms for the proposed Highway 407 Transitway. The station has an open design, particularly to the east overlooking the Black Creek. Due to structural elements related to the water table, the centre platform has no columns, with all weight being transferred to the sides to counter buoyancy. The station has a metal cool roof to reflect heat from the sun.
Toronto artist David Pearl designed the artwork titled Sky Ellipse consisting of multi-coloured glass panels for the subway skylights and the western bus terminal glass facade. The panels show moving projections of colour. Sunlight filters down to platform level.

History

On November 27, 2009, the official groundbreaking ceremony was held for the Toronto–York Spadina Subway Extension, and major tunnelling operations began in June 2011. The extension and station opened on December 17, 2017.
This station was, along with the five other TYSSE stations, the first to be opened without collectors. It was also among the first eight stations to discontinue the sale of legacy TTC fare media. Presto vending machines were available to sell Presto cards and to load funds onto them from the station's opening. On May 3, 2019, this station became one of the first ten stations to sell Presto tickets via Presto vending machines.
In 2018, Highway 407 station had the second lowest usage of the six new stations along the TYSSE at 3,400 people per day. The lowest was 2,500 people per day at Downsview Park station, and the highest was 34,100 people per day at. However, after GO bus routes were changed to terminate at Highway 407 station instead of the York University campus, usage at Highway 407 station was expected to increase, as much of the ridership at this station comes from York University students and staff transferring from GO buses.

Fare zone

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. 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 bus routes in the suburban municipalities of Metropolitan Toronto.
At this station, there are no free or discounted transfers between subway and YRT or GO Transit buses. Between January 2018 and March 2020, there was a $1.50 fare discount for GO Transit riders transferring to or from the subway if the rider paid with Presto.

Highway 407 Bus Terminal

There are no connecting TTC buses at this station, but the regional bus terminal, located outside the station's fare-paid area, serves YRT and GO Transit bus routes, as well as Ontario Northland intercity coaches. It is the only regional bus terminal serving a TTC subway station that is part of the main station building and is the largest bus terminal in the GO Transit system with 18 bus bays plus 17 layover bays. It includes a GO customer service counter, Presto and GO ticket vending machines, and washrooms.
The following YRT routes serve the terminal:
RouteNameAdditional Information
20JaneNorthbound to Teston Road via Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station and Vaughan Mills Terminal, and southbound to Pioneer Village station
—Mobility On-RequestParatransit service transfer point—various destinations

The following GO routes serve the terminal:
RouteNameAdditional Information
25FWaterloo/MississaugaWestbound to University of Waterloo
Friday & Sunday express
40Hamilton/Richmond HillWestbound to Hamilton GO Centre via Mississauga Transitway and Toronto Pearson International Airport. Eastbound to Richmond Hill Centre
45407 West
To Streetsville GO
Weekdays
45A407 West
To Square One Bus Terminal
Seasonal weekday express
46407 West
To Oakville GO
Weekdays
47407 West
To Hamilton GO Centre
47D407 West
To Bramalea GO
Seasonal weekday express
47F407 West
To McMaster University
Seasonal express
48407 West
To University of Guelph
Weekdays
48A407 West
To Meadowvale GO
Seasonal weekday express
48B407 West
To Meadowvale GO
Weekdays
48F407 West
To University of Guelph
Friday and Sunday seasonal express
51407 East
To Pickering GO
Weekdays
51A407 East
To Scarborough Centre Bus Terminal
Seasonal weekday express
51B407 East
To Pickering GO Station
Weekday express
51C407 East
To University of Toronto Scarborough
Seasonal weekday express
52407 East
To Oshawa Bus Terminal
52B407 East
To UOIT
Seasonal weekday express
52D407 East
To Unionville GO Station
Weekday express
54407 East
To Mount Joy GO Station
Weekdays
54C407 East
To Mount Joy GO Station
Seasonal weekday express

Ontario Northland also serves the station with two daily northbound and two daily southbound trips on its Toronto–North Bay route, which also serve Yorkdale Bus Terminal next to Yorkdale station.