Next Saturday, TTC patrons will have a unique opportunity to see a piece of subway history that has been out of the public eye for over forty years. To allow construction crews to perform maintenance on the tunnel between Bay and St. George stations, the TTC is routing Bloor-Danforth trains through Museum. Trains running west from Kennedy will pass through Lower Bay station, which neatly allows the TTC to continue to operate subway service along the whole of the Bloor-Danforth line without the complications of shuttle buses. The diversion will affect all weekend service throughout the subway on February 24 and 25, March 3 and 4, 10 and 11, 17 and 18, 24 and 25 and March 31. Normal service will resume on April 1st.

The chance to see the famed abandoned station will hopefully make up for the confusion that’s bound to result in this unusual diversion. The media is playing up news of this diversion, both because of the unique opportunity to see the Lower Bay, and because the disruption is expected to be significant. Passengers travelling from points west of St. George to points east of Bay (and vice versa) will have to change trains at Museum station. With trains operating on three separate lines (Kipling-Museum, Kennedy-Museum and Finch-Downsview), Museum station is expected to be quite busy, with passengers having to take care that trains entering the northbound platform are bound for either Downsview, Kipling or Kennedy.

Further, with Bloor-Danforth trains proceeding south to Osgoode and St. Andrew stations in order to turn back at the pocket tracks between Osgoode and St. Andrew and St. Andrew and Union (note that passengers will not be allowed on Bloor-Danforth trains as they proceed south from Museum to the turnback tracks), trains will be operating at two minute intervals between Museum and Osgoode (with two out of every three trains deadheading along this route). As this is near the capacity of the subway, the TTC has no choice but to reduce service on all routes to every six minutes, so expect trains and stations throughout the system to be a little more crowded.

Note also that Bay station will be closed outright, as Lower Bay cannot be used with the stairwells to Upper Bay being walled in and the escalators removed. Passengers are asked to use the Bloor-Yonge station complex to the east, and they can access this station through the Cumberland Terrace shopping complex across the street from the Bay station main entrance.

Further details on where to change trains and how to get where you’re going can be found at this special website.