Don Mills (TTC)
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| Don Mills 1700 Sheppard Avenue East |
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| Opened | November 24, 2002 (Sheppard) October 16, 2005 (Viva Green) |
| District | North York |
| Line | Sheppard, Viva Green |
| Next station | Sheppard: ≅1.8 km west to Leslie (2 min.)
Viva Green: ≅2.6 km north to Seneca Hill, no alighting until ≅8.8 km north to Denison |
| Daytime Connections | 10 Van Horne, 24 Victoria Park, 25 Don Mills, 85 Sheppard East, 139 Finch East Express, 167 Pharmacy North, 169 Huntingwood, 190 Scarborough Centre Rocket, 224 Victoria Park North |
| Daily Boardings | 33,420 |
| Rank 2007-08 | 22nd out of 69 |
| Platforms | Centre |
| Accessibility | 5 elevators
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| Washrooms |  |
Don Mills is the eastern terminus station of the Sheppard line of the subway system in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is also a "Vivastation" on the Viva Green line of York Region's Viva bus rapid transit system.
Its address is at 1700 Sheppard Avenue East at Don Mills Road. The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) station was opened in 2002, and the Vivastation was opened on October 25, 2005.
Nearby landmarks include Fairview Mall and the Fairview district branch of the Toronto Public Library.
The station is adjacent to an exit from Highway 404; TTC bus route 139, Finch East Express, exploits this highway connection to provide an “express” bus route for Finch Avenue even though its terminus, Don Mills station, is almost 2 km away.
On a wall on the platform level, there is a small plaque commemorating John Marinzel, a worker who had died on April 18, 2001, during the construction of the station.
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[edit] Public art
There are two pieces of public art in the station.
The piece before / after: 1997 / 2002 spans the concourse and platform levels in the station. Created by Toronto artist Stephen Cruise, it consists of tile work on walls and inlays on floors:
- On the concourse level, the tilework on walls represents the geologic strata through which the line travels, plus graphical depictions of local flora and fauna.
- On the concourse and platform levels, bronze inlays in the floor depict fossils of fish, turtles, and leaves found on the site; the Sheppard line is also depicted in an abstract form on the floor.
Outside the station (on the north side of Don Mills Road, south of the bus entrance) is a tribute to Northern Dancer, a famous racehorse foaled at E. P. Taylor's Windfields Farm, which was then located on “nearby” Bayview Avenue.
.JPG/120px-Inside_Don_Mills_station_(concourse).JPG) Complex artwork on the concourse level walls |
 The bus terminal at Don Mills |
 The spacious platform area in the station |
 The wide open mezzanine area |
[edit] Bus terminal and surface connections
In addition to being a subway station, Don Mills station also serves as a bus terminal for both the Toronto Transit Commission and York Region Transit. Like most large TTC bus terminals, it is inside a fare-paid area, so bus passengers will need to enter Don Mills station to board most buses. As of 2005, Don Mills Station serves 10 TTC routes and two YRT routes:
- TTC 10 Van Horne
- TTC 24A Victoria Park (Only the A Branch serves Don Mills - connects to Victoria Park via Consumers Road)
- TTC 25 Don Mills, both northbound and southbound
- TTC 85 Sheppard East, both eastbound and westbound
- TTC 139 Finch East Express
- TTC 167 Pharmacy North
- TTC 169 Huntingwood
- TTC 190 Scarborough Centre Rocket
- TTC 224 Victoria Park North
- YRT 90 Leslie South
- Viva Green
The bus terminal is underground, one level above the concourse level; it consists of a large outdoor waiting area serving as its bus platforms, with a relatively modest indoor waiting area. Because some of the bus platforms are far away from the indoor waiting area, it is practical to wait outdoors for some routes due to the way TTC bus terminals work; unfortunately, because it is underground, the air quality on the bus platforms can be poor during busy hours. Stairs connect the indoor waiting area to a usually-unmanned pedestrian entrance/exit on the ground level just outside Fairview Mall.
This terminal is the southern terminus of the Viva Green bus rapid transit line. Two Viva ticket vending machines are located in the indoor waiting area and one machine is located outdoors, on the bus platform. During the first two weeks of Viva’s stage 2 launch, the indoor machines were staffed by one to two Viva personnel in the morning.
The Viva buses stop three times at Don Mills. First, they stop in front of the station entrance on Sheppard Avenue to offload all of their passengers, then, they enter the bus terminal to pick up passengers. This is to ensure that Viva riders do not access the TTC without paying a TTC fare, as the bus terminal is inside the station's fare paid zone. After this, they stop a third time, on northbound Don Mills Road, to pick up passengers who did not transfer from the subway or a TTC bus.
This Vivastation is considered a Viva terminal. Therefore, there are multiRide ticket vending machines available.
[edit] Parking lot and drop-off facility
Above the bus terminal, on the street level, is a multi-storey public parking lot, providing 366 parking spaces for commuters. Access to this parking lot is by cash only; commuters cannot access this parking lot with the Metropass.
Outside the parking lot, next to a manned pedestrian entrance to the station is a passenger pick-up area. It is not as elaborate as the “Kiss-n-Ride” passenger pick-up/drop-off area in Finch Station, but it still provides 18 temporary parking spaces—about the same as the Finch “Kiss-n-Ride”—for passenger pick-up and drop-off purposes.
[edit] Light rail transit plans
As part of the Transit City plan, the TTC has proposed the construction of a light rail transit (LRT) line to connect Don Mills station to Sheppard East station on the proposed extension of the Scarborough RT line. This replaces previous plans to extend the Sheppard subway line to Scarborough centre station on the RT line.
The Transit City plan includes an LRT along Don Mills Road from Steeles Avenue through Don Mills station to Pape station on the Bloor-Danforth subway line.
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