As the province continues to hype up Toronto’s forthcoming Ontario Line subway with progress videos and other updates, residents have started to notice a glaring omission from the latest promotional materials.
Ads from just a few weeks ago still boasted that the transit route would run from Exhibition Place to the Ontario Science Centre, it seems that the name of the latter terminus point has, for obvious reasons, recently been scrubbed.
That station at the north end of the line is supposed to be called “Science Centre” and it is supposed to serve the Ontario Science Centre so that kids can go and learn and get excited about subjects like engineering. We need that, so we can keep building nice things.
— Transport Action Canada (@TransportAction) July 22, 2024
Many have piped up about the change after a new clip about the project was shared on Monday, in which a voiceover says the subway will go “from Exhibition Place in the west, through the downtown core, over to the east end, and north to Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park,” with no mention of the long-running, newly-defunct institution at the line’s end.
A visualization of the route map also shows all station titles but the one, with an unnamed circle marking where the Ontario Line will meet the Eglinton LRT.
Some have responded with jokes like “Still looking for the Science Centre station! I don’t see it on your map,” and “Wait, what’s the north most station called again? I forget,” but others have simply asked “Why is the name of the Ontario Science Centre Station omitted?”
any reason the name of the major interchange at eglinton and don mills is omitted? the coverup is really blatant huh pic.twitter.com/zp02IMIU0o
— Xav (@OrngeLight) July 22, 2024
The answer is, of course, one we all know, the centre having been suddenly shut down by Doug Ford last month so he can relocate it to include it in his Ontario Place Revitalization scheme, in part to support the construction of a parking garage promised for the Therme spa.
Many have wondered about the fate of the stop — its moniker, at least — since Ford first floated the idea of moving the science centre last April, especially given that so many pieces of signage and maps bearing the appellation were already complete.
A TTC station might have to change its name before even opening https://t.co/BDDxGnQy9N #TTC #Toronto
— blogTO (@blogTO) April 20, 2023
A webpage dedicated to the new subway likewise no longer alludes to the centre, stating only that trains will connect “all the way to the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, at Don Mills Road.”
In a reply to one comment on the subject on X yesterday, the agency wrote that it is “exploring naming options” for the station and “will have more to share soon. “
