Haydain Neale, 1970–2009
The Lee's Palace Mural is Dead! Long Live the Lee's Palace Mural!
Transit City and Transit Cities
Peeve Patrol
Third Floor, First Rate
Every weekday, we pick an image from the Torontoist Flickr Pool and feature it here on the site. It's our way to give the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention they deserve!
The underground Harbourfront streetcar platform at Union Station is round already, but this wide-angle snap by Flickr pool contributor rebootyourcomputer really gives it an enhanced perspective. But it's not only the bowed curves we like—it's the overexposed glow of the lights, the missing ceiling panels, and the lines of the yellow rubber safety strips that really give this photo a futuristic, sci-fi feel.
It's an unusual experience boarding one of Toronto's famous CLRV streetcars here on a subway-like platform and then zipping through a skinny tunnel with barely a metre to spare on each side. Had certain transit plans not been voted down in 1910, the experience of underground streetcars wouldn't feel so strange today.
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Sigh. If only reality lived up to the photo.
During the winter months I have to take the Harbourfront Streetcar from Union Station every morning and back again. It is not a pleasant experience - in fact, it is arguably one the least pleasant TTC-experiences one can have in this great city of ours. The tunnel and waiting platform are always damp and always bone-chillingly cold. The lights flicker and buzz and make evryone look greeny-yellow. The line ups are INSANE (like 300 people per train or two insane - down the waiting area, sometimes up the stairs back towards the subways). It smells - every single morning - like vomit. So strong on some days people are covering their noses with their jackets. The floor is always wet - sometimes an inch or two deep. When the train comes (they travel in pairs), the hopeful passengers (who have been waiting between 2 and 25 minutes) push en masse to get onto the trains. The streetcars are so full once they load up, people have trouble getting off at the next station (Ferry Docks), often pushing and yelling their way through. I've seen kids crunched between adults not being able to move. Frankly, its an awful experience. The tunnel itself is dark and creepy and really falling-apart looking. The only saving grace is when you gracefully emerge from the dankness up into the light onto Queens Quay and 250 of the 300 people exit at Harbourfront Centre and its a normal street car again.
But the picture sure makes it look nice!