Leslie is a

station Station may refer to: Agriculture * Station (Australian agriculture), a large Australian landholding used for livestock production * Station (New Zealand agriculture), a large New Zealand farm used for grazing by sheep and cattle ** Cattle statio ...

Line 4 Sheppard Line 4 Sheppard is the newest and shortest rapid transit line of the Toronto subway system, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It opened on November 22, 2002, and has five metro station, stations along of track, which is built ...

of the

Toronto subway The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). The subway system is a rail network consisting of three heavy-capacity rai ...

system. It is located at 1209 Sheppard Avenue East at Old

Leslie Street Leslie Street is a north-south route in Toronto and York Region, Ontario, Canada. It is distinctive because of its four unconnected segments. History The road has a long history and dates back to 1850s Toronto Nursery that was run by Georg ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario, Canada. It was opened in 2002.

History

Leslie station opened for public viewing on November 22, 2002, along with the rest of the Sheppard subway line and for revenue service on November 24, 2002. On December 22, 2016, this station and were the last subway stations to be equipped with

Presto card The Presto card (stylized as PRESTO) is a contactless smart card automated fare collection system used on participating public transit systems in the province of Ontario, Canada, specifically in Greater Toronto Area, Greater Toronto, Hamilton, ...

readers.

Station description

The station is on three levels. The bus platforms are on the upper level at Old Leslie Street, with an automatic accessible entrance. The concourse and collector are at an intermediate level, where the main fully accessible entrance is located on the south side of Sheppard Avenue East west of Leslie Street. There is a secondary automatic accessible entrance at the corner of Leslie Street directly to the easterly end of the subway platform, which is at the lowest level. The station features 102 spaces of commuter parking. Cost is $7 per day or $2 per hour from 5:00 am to 2:00 am daily. As with all TTC lots, no overnight parking is allowed between 2:00 am and 5:00 am.

Architecture and art

The public art in the station, entitled ''Ampersand'' and created by Canadian artist

Micah Lexier Micah Lexier (born 1960 in Winnipeg, Manitoba) is a Canadians, Canadian artist and curator. He was educated at the University of Manitoba (BFA, 1982) and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (MFA, 1984). He is represented by Birch Contempora ...

, consists of 17,000 ceramic tiles, each with a printed

ampersand The ampersand, also known as the and sign, is the logogram , representing the grammatical conjunction, conjunction "and". It originated as a typographic ligature, ligature of the letters of the word (Latin for "and"). Etymology Tradi ...

between the words "Sheppard" and "Leslie", based on 3,400 different pieces of handwriting from the community collected in 1997. According to the artist's statement posted in the station, this piece of artwork ''"acknowledges the duality of being both an individual and part of a larger community."'' This piece can be seen on both the concourse and platform levels, including the bus terminal.

Subway infrastructure in the vicinity

Just east of the station, the line emerges from the subway tunnel to cross the

Don River The Don () is the fifth-longest river in Europe. Flowing from Central Russia to the Sea of Azov in Southern Russia, it is one of Russia's largest rivers and played an important role for traders from the Byzantine Empire. Its basin is betwee ...

East Branch on a fully enclosed bridge, then returns into the tunnel. West of the station, the subway continues through its tunnels into

Bessarion Bessarion (; 2 January 1403 – 18 November 1472) was a Byzantine Greek Renaissance humanist, theologian, Catholic cardinal and one of the famed Greek scholars who contributed to the revival of letters in the 15th century. He was educated ...

station.

Nearby landmarks

Nearby landmarks include the

East Don River The Don River is a watercourse in southern Ontario that empties into Lake Ontario, at Toronto Harbour. Its mouth was just east of the street grid of the town of York, Upper Canada, the municipality that evolved into Toronto, Ontario. The Don is o ...

IKEA IKEA ( , ) is a Multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Sweden that designs and sells , household goods, and various related services. IKEA is owned and operated by a series of not-for-profit an ...

North York, the Betty Sutherland Trail,

North York General Hospital North York General Hospital (NYGH) is a teaching hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Primarily serving the North York district, as well as southern York Region, it offers acute care, ambulatory and long-term services at multiple sites. It is o ...

, and the

Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine The Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (CCNM) is a private, not-for-profit institution with two campus locations: the CCNM -Toronto Campus in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the CCNM -Boucher Campus in New Westminster, British Columbia, Can ...

(formerly

Seneca College Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology, branded as Seneca Polytechnic since 2023, is a multi-campus public college in the Greater Toronto Area and Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. It offers full-time and part-time programs at the baccala ...

's School of Nursing).

Surface connections

Toronto Transit Commission

TTC routes serving the station include: A bus terminal, located one level above the concourse, is integrated with Leslie station. Although the terminal is quite spacious and has several bus bays, it currently only serves the 51 Leslie route. The 85 Sheppard East route can only be boarded on the street with a valid transfer.

GO Transit

Leslie station is located north of Oriole Station on

GO Transit GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven mil ...

Richmond Hill line Richmond Hill is one of the seven train lines of the GO Transit system in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It operates between Union Station in Toronto to Bloomington GO Station in the north in Richmond Hill. Trains on the line opera ...

, but they are not adjacent. No action has yet been taken on proposals to relocate the GO Station to connect directly with the subway. Passengers wishing to transfer to the GO Station are directed to the exit outside the bus terminal; a short walk to the intersection of Old Leslie Street and Esther Shiner Boulevard brings pedestrians to a walkway which connects to the north end of the GO platform.

References

External links

* {{TTC lines and stations Line 4 Sheppard stations Railway stations in Canada opened in 2002 2002 establishments in Ontario