Toronto Tuesday 02.03: Bessarion Station

Bessarion subway station on the Sheppard (Purple) Line is the second least used metro station in Toronto.

For some reason the pictures appear faded, but if you click on the thumbnails, you can see higher resolution pictures.

These pictures on the platform level show commuter’s heads facing away from the camera. The only face facing us is that of the baby, that’s kinda creepy.

Platforms still shine and the color is still glossy.

The train schedule on this line is very simple, hence quite often one can hear both trains pull into the station at the same time, their doors open and close in unison and they chime together. The nice thing is that one has the entire station to oneself to enjoy this.

Mezzanine level shows people’s feet. The level is swanky and clean, the attendant must be getting bored…

The station opened in 2002 and there have been many suggestions, till date, to close it.

In 2008, only 2000 people used this subway station per day on average. However, a number of new residential towers are under construction in this area so the usage might improve in few years.

The public art in the station, by Toronto artist Sylvie Belanger, is a frieze of hands, feet, and backs of heads, which represent the users of the station. (Wikipedia) The feet images appear on the concourse level while the heads appear on the platform level. The hands images appear along the stairs between the Sheppard Avenue North Side entrance/exit and the concourse.