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The Sheppard Line is the newest subway line in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission. It has five stations and is 5.5 km long. It opened on November 24, 2002.

1 History

Plans were developed in the early 1990s to build new subway lines along Eglinton and Sheppard Avenues. However, with the election of the Conservative provincial government in 1995, work on the Eglinton Line was stopped. When the Sheppard Line opened in 2002, it was the city's first new subway line in decades. It is shorter than originally planned, going from Yonge Street (at Sheppard-Yonge station) east to Don Mills Road, and will only be extended with substantial government funding. It cost just under $1 billion and took 8 years to build, and is the first subway line in Canada to be built with a tunnel-boring machine. (All stations are in cut-and-cover tunnel.)

The line is designed to be extended at both ends, running west at least as far as Downsview Station, and east and somewhat south to reach Scarborough Town Centre. The stations are built to eventually take the TTC's standard subway trains of six 75-foot (23 m) cars, but part of each platform has been left unfinished since only 4-car trains are needed with the line in its present form.

2 Stations

The entire line runs under or near Sheppard Avenue East.
All of its stations, whether by transfer or fare-paid terminal, connect to surface TTC bus routes. Other surface connections are noted below.
All stations have elevatorAn elevator is a transportation device used to move goods or people vertically. In British English and other Commonwealth Englishes, elevators are known more commonly as lifts although the word elevator is familiar from American movies and television shows for wheelchair accessAccessibility is a general term used to describe how easy it is for people to get to, use, and understand things. Disabilities Accessibility is most often used to describe facilities or amenities to assist people with disabilities, as in "wheelchair acces.
Public art is present in every station; a summary is listed with each, below.

2.1 Sheppard-Yonge

Sheppard Avenue East/West at Yonge Street, opened 2002 (Sheppard Line).
Connects to the Yonge-University-Spadina Line
Public Art: A landscape frieze along the platforms and mezzanines, showing how Yonge Street would have looked in its time as a very rural thoroughfare

Much like the Bloor-Yonge Station, this station was renamed from "Sheppard" to "Sheppard-Yonge" upon the opening of this line in 2002, but it does not have differing names on the two lines; existing signage was changed so that all signs say "Sheppard-Yonge".

A connecting track from the Yonge line, used only if cars or work equipment need to be transferred between the two lines, curves around to a point 500 m west of Yonge, where the Sheppard Line tunnel actually begins. This provides an area where trains can be stored clear of the line.

In the station, the Sheppard Line tracks cross above the Yonge line. The Sheppard line platforms are currently on the outer sides of the tracks; however, a center platform is also roughed-in. Should the station become a busy transport hub, this platform will be opened and trains will open all their doors, allowing riders to enter on one side and exit on the other. At present all trains normally use just one of the two open platforms, with the other held in reserve.

Just after the station, the line converges with a second junction track from the Yonge line.