A name change is coming for a popular subway station in downtown Toronto after the TTC board approved the decision at its monthly meeting on Wednesday.
A report before the board proposed that Dundas Station, at Yonge and Dundas streets, be renamed ‘TMU Station,’ to reflect “the evolution of both the local neighbourhood and [Toronto Metropolitan University].”
In the report, the TTC’s Chief Strategy and Customer Experience Officer also said the name change will align Dundas Station with the transit system’s current practice of naming stations after institutions and destinations, citing York, Museum, Queen’s Park, and Osgoode stations as examples.
“The area around Dundas Station has changed dramatically with the rapid growth of TMU, and the TTC station has become fully integrated with the TMU campus and student life,” it reads.
On Wednesday, the TTC board agreed to move forward with the renaming decision, which will see the university covering the full cost of the change.
“No taxpayer money will be spent on the renaming,” TTC Board Chair Jamaal Myers said to reporters on Wednesday. “All costs associated with the renaming of Dundas Station to TMU Station will be borne by Toronto Metropolitan University.”
The approved proposal also includes a partnership between TMU and the TTC to create an “innovation hub” aimed at developing and trialing solutions to TTC service problems.
“This is a win-win situation for both TTC and TMU,” said TMU President Mohamed Lachemi at Toronto City Hall on Wednesday. “We do have a lot of expertise, a lot of research teams that are actually working in the field, and we want to make sure that those facilities and expertise we have are used to serve our city and the TTC.”
“It’s recognizing that travel patterns have changed, how you deliver transit has changed, and now we have a research partner who can actually help us focus on these issues and address them in a meaningful way rather than trying to figure it out as we go,” added Myers. “They actually have the innovation and the muscle, and we have the platform in order to test these solutions out in the real world.”
In late 2023, Toronto City Council approved renaming Yonge-Dundas Square to Sankofa Square after numerous studies of academic research found that Henry Dundas – the square’s namesake – was involved in delaying the abolition of the Transatlantic slave trade.
The Jane/Dundas Public Library was renamed the Daniel G. Hill Branch as part of those efforts, and the Dundas West Station is also on the list of “Dundas-linked city assets” waiting for a name change.
“To be clear, the TTC is not taking any position on Henry Dundas,” said Myers. “We are solely responding to a request that was brought forward to us from council. Neither is TMU taking any position on Henry Dundas… Some of this is just timing. We wanted to time this with the work that was happening on Line 6.”
The report called the station renaming “time-sensitive” and “unique,” pointing to the upcoming roll-out of “customer information changes” for the new Line 6 Finch West LRT route, saying that the renaming could be aligned with those changes to save on costs.
