Dufferin Subway Station

Dufferin Subway Station

Dufferin Mall - Stores

The Dufferin subway station is located on the Bloor / Danforth line of the Toronto Transit Commission Toronto Transit Commission (TTC).  It was opened to the public in February 1966.  Daily it sees about 28,000 people.  Dufferin station is currently going under a modernization and more changes will be prevalent into the new year. 

Located within minutes of the station is Dufferin Mall.  Historically it was the site of the Dufferin Racetrack, a horse track that operated from 1907-1955.  About a year a shopping plaza was built and and enclosed in the 70's into a shopping mall.  Dufferin Mall has had a complete interior facelift in the past five years.  Although this mall has all the trimmings of most retail malls, it is much less busy than the larger scaled arenas like the Eaton Centre, Fairview and the Scarborough Town Centre. 

Gift Ideas

More Gifts!

The Dufferin Mall is one of the few shopping centres that have a Wal-mart on the subway line.  This is primarily due to the fact that property on or close to the Toronto Transit line is expensive and Wal-Mart stores tend to be very big.  There is also a Zellers as well, which is the added bonus of cheap competition.

Escalator for shopping carts!

Once inside, we found lots of smaller retail stores that offered specialty items, such as LaSenza, Fairweather, Garage, EB Games, HMV, H&M, Payless Shoes, Carlton Cards and much more.

Maybe I don’t get out much but I have never seen before an escalator especially for shopping carts, and I think they thought I was a little strange being fascinated by this and taking pictures!

SANTA & HELPER?

Last but not least, around this time every mall needs to see a Santa.  This Santa didn’t look very jolly and as a matter of fact, neither did the Gift wrapper, so I figured maybe they just had a long day!

Downsview Subway Station

Modern Downsview Subway Station

Downsview Subway station is located on the Yonge-University-Spadina line of the  Toronto Transit Commission (TTC).  It's a relatively new station that was opened in 1996 and serves about 30,000 passengers a day. 

Downsview Subway station is located within minutes of Downsview Park.  The 572 acres of land space was used as the location of the 2003 SARStock benefit concert which was to revive the economy of Toronto after the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak. SARs, which is a respiratory disease caused by the corona virus, caught us and the medical community off guard and unprepared.  Between November 2002 and July 2003, 8,096 known cases were reported killing 774 people.  In April of 2003, the WHO (World Health Organization) put out an advisory against all travel here in Toronto reporting that a small number of persons from Toronto had appeared to have exported the SARs virus to other parts of the world causing a near pandemic.  This claim turned out to be false as only new cases of the disease were reported to have originated here and they were only in hospitals.  But it was enough of a scare for the economy and tourism of Toronto to suffer as a result of the advisory. 

2003 SARstock

Hearing of Toronto's dilemma, the Stones being avid fans of our city dedicated themselves to helping us out.  SARstock became the largest outdoor ticketed event in Canadian history!  I was coaxed to go with friends from work and I remember I really didn't want to at first, but it was one of the most memorable events of my life!!  Live acts by the Stones, Guess Who, RUSH, AC/DC, Sass Jordan, Isley Brothers, Justin Timberlake, Blue Rodeo, Sam Roberts and others I didn't know.  The shows finale was the Rolling Stones doing a 90 minute set.  

Today Downsview Park is alive all year long with sporting events, filming (they have film studios!) camps and school programs and ongoing park projects which are changing the landscape of the way the park looks.  Downsview Subway station also has a VIVA Orange Terminal which serves the York regions as well.