Jane Street (Toronto)
Jane Street is a major north-south thoroughfare in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It begins at Bloor Street and continues north into York Region to Davis Drive in King Township. It goes through many famous/infamous places, such as Canada's wonderland, Jane and Finch, and Vaughan mills. It's one of the most congested roads in the GTA, with the bus routes on it being among the most congested in the systems that operate on it.[1]
Jane Street | |||||||
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York Regional Road 55 | |||||||
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South end | Bloor Street | ||||||
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Country | Canada | ||||||
Province | Ontario | ||||||
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The most famous place on Jane would be the Jane and Finch neighborhood, known for being a place of high crime rate, and being one of the poorest neighborhoods in Toronto. [2] The title character of the Barenaked Ladies song "Jane" is Jane St. Clair, and is named after the intersection of Jane and St. Clair Avenue. Steven Page recalls that co-writer Stephen Duffy saw the intersection on a map and remarked that it sounded like the most beautiful intersection in the world; "I didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't".
Jane street is the 5th concession west of Yonge Street.
Description
Jane street's southern end is at Bloor St, at Jane station. It is practically a northward continuation of South Kingsway, a semi-major road one block to the west, though the intended continuation of it is a jog west on Bloor to The Kingsway. Jane is a 4 lane road for the entire length until Teston, though it has a median for most of it north of Eglinton. It passes primary residential areas in the entire Toronto region, and in York Region after passing Hwy 407, it becomes a commercial street before Major Makenzie when becomes residential again, and at Teston it becomes rural and goes down to 2 lanes until its northern terminus at Davis Drive.
The street passes by the infamous intersection/neighborhood of Jane and Finch, an infamous neighborhood for having a high crime rate.[2] Passing Steeles, Line 1's western branch parallels Jane for 2km until Hwy 7. In York region Jane Street is called regional road 55, as part of its road numbering system. It travels through places such as Canada's Wonderland and Vaughan Mills.
History
The street was named after Jane Barr by her husband, James. They immigrated from Glasgow in 1907, and a few years later James became a real estate developer in the region north of then York or Toronto. James named numerous streets in the development after his children, but the most important was named after his wife Jane.
Originally, the street continued south to Lake Ontario with a sinuous course, but that section was redesignated as South Kingsway after Bloor Street was extended west across the Humber River (where it originally ended) by being realigned into a reverse curve which incorporated a short length of the southern segment of Jane, severing it from the section north of Bloor.[3] Also, until the early 1970's the street had a break through the valley of the Humber River, near what is today Eglinton Avenue, which itself ended at the river on the east side. The two sections of Jane were joined by bridging the river in a combined project which included extending Eglinton across the valley by linking up with the Richview Side Road on its west side in Etobicoke.[4][5]
In 2007 there was a proposal for a Jane LRT, which would've gone into the middle of the street, but in 2010 it was canceled with Rob Ford becoming mayor, and never really put again as a project.[6]
Public Transit
Jane street has 4 subway stations along it, from north to south:
on Line 1:
on Line 2:
In the city of Toronto, TTC route 35 Jane operates daytime from Jane station to Pioneer village station, with a branch(35B) going via Hullmar drive between Finch and Steeles serving the Black creek neighborhood.[7] It has express route with the same route as the main 35A branch, the 935 Jane express,[8] and a night route, the 335 Jane blue night.[9] During rush hours, the 35/935 can be notoriously slow.[1]
In York region, YRT route 20 Jane operates from Pioneer village station to Teston road.[10]
TTC line 1’s university branch parallels Jane Street from Pioneer Village at Steeles to Vaughan Metropolitan Center at Hwy 7.
History
Before 1971, When Jane had a split at Eglinton, TTC route 35 would turn at Lambton, and past route 83 Tretheway would've headed north of Tretheway to Steeles.[11]
In 2010, the 195 Jane rocket was made as a express route on Jane St from Jane Stn to York University(not station). On December 17th, 2017, both the 35 and 195 were changed at the northern end to serve Pioneer village station rather than York University(not station) or Steeles effective the line 1 extension, and service to it was replaced by the subway. In 2018 the 195 Jane rocket was renumbered and renamed as part of the TTC's rebranding of express buses to 935 Jane express.
Future
In Toronto, there are proposals to put RapidTo bus lanes from Eglinton to Steeles, public consultation is anticipated for 2023.[12] Also in 2023, line 5 will open, and the TTC is expecting route 35 to split at Eglinton and a new 27 Jane south would be constructed heading south of Eglinton with 35 serving the northern part. Also in 2023, the line 6 Finch West LRT will open creating a stop at Jane and Finch, and in 2030 the line 5 west extension will make a new station at Jane and Eglinton.[13]
There were, and still are proposals for a Jane lrt, however it has died out and is not in many plans.
Landmarks
Landmark | Images |
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Jane station | ![]() |
Canada’s wonderland | ![]() |
Vaughan mills | ![]() Food court of vaughan mills |
Jane and finch neighborhood | ![]() |
Pioneer village station | ![]() |
See also
References
- Murno, Steve (July 22, 2021). "Service Reliability on 35/935 Jane". Steve Munro. Retrieved October 28, 2022.
- Mirror, Dominik Kurek | Scarborough. "Does Toronto's Jane and Finch community deserve its bad reputation?". Toronto.com. Retrieved October 28, 2022.
- "1894 map of Swansea from the Toronto Public Library". Retrieved October 1, 2023.
- "Eloquent Systems Inc - JPEG 2000 Viewer". jpeg2000.eloquent-systems.com. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
- "Eloquent Systems Inc - JPEG 2000 Viewer". jpeg2000.eloquent-systems.com. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
- "National Post 17 Mar 2007, page 16". Newspapers.com. Retrieved October 28, 2022.
- "Routes and schedules". TTC web. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
- "TTC web".
- "TTC web".
- "yrt system map" (PDF). October 19, 2022.
- "83 Trethewey (1947-1972) - Transit Toronto - Surface Route Histories". transittoronto.ca. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
- "RapidTO: In Action". City of Toronto. October 4, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
- "TTC service plan" (PDF).