Fun fact: bessarion is no longer the least used subway station, there’s a new one called Downsview Park with only 2520 passengers

I can’t believe that this video is approaching it’s 10th anniversary. For the past 10 years, whenever I see Bessarion station on a map or in person, I think about this video and it puts a smile on my face. Thank you so much Jeremy 🙏

Came back to this video after 9 years, it's still a great watch. Bessarion is definitely busier now than when I wrote my last comment, and maybe a little dirtier, but that's just from all of the foot traffic due to more condos being built on the south side of Sheppard now. I love this station. I still use it a few times a week.

Thank you so much for this video. It inspired me. I travelled there with my girlfriend earlier today on a date, just to see it. We also discovered that there is an Ikea nearby. Still, Bessarion station is a great destination in itself!

"Just a random highway." Good, subtle joke.

I used to work for the TTC from 2010-2015 maintaining all the fire life safety equipment and lived near Don Mills station. It truly is a dead station but I always enjoyed how quiet and isolated it was.

Thanks for filming the station I live near! I think the reason they keep the station so clean is because they need a station to do photo shoots for their advertisements. They've done a few ads recently featuring Bessarion, there's one with the TTC fare constable, the coffee cup "I don't belong here" and Bessarion was featured on one of the MetroPasses earlier this year!

It’s so red….. it’s so red………………… it’s BEAUTIFUL!

I get off at Bessarion everyday from school since I live right down Burbank and hearing him compliment the station made me smile.

10 years later and i still wish i brought that particular girl out to bessarion for a date. I still think of this video every time i pass by the station, Thank you so much for the videos back in the day, They still make a difference 10 years on.

My old doctor's office was about 100 steps from Bessarion Station. It's funny to see some random guy from Etobicoke go all the way to North York to check out a lame subway station.

This was just the best thing I've seen all day!

Fantastic!! That just made my day. I've only ever gone as far as Sheppard because my grandmother lives there. I assumed that was the only stop on the purple line but you've opened my eyes to a whole new world to the East!

This truly brought me joy. Thank you for your in depth investigation!

"Don't be afraid to journey, my friends ..." Your journey to The Bessarion is sheer poetry, John. Thank you for this.

I think I saw your video back in 2016, a day (or just a few days shy of) after coming back from Toronto and I regretted not visiting Bessarion station while I was there XD

This is AMAZING! I love that indie producer makers are creating more interesting, smarter content than so many of the big networks.

Besides there being 4 newspapers available, 3 of them free, the picturesque North Bessarion entrance features a Coffee Time, M & M Meat Shop, and an oversized air grate.

Glad you enjoyed it Toban - Thanks for sharing it on your blog!

I have been to Bessarion, and this is amazing! Thank you.

Bessarion - it's no Chester.

You guys are awesome. I'm so excited for this channel!

I love this so much! Such a great love letter.

This was fun to watch. Thank you for taking the time to make this.

that green dot (at 3:28) indicates where the rear subway operator should be when docked in the station. its so the operators can know if theyve stopped in the correct location. theres also a red dot where the front operator should be and an orange dot for the centre of the train.

This delightful lil' film just put the biggest smile on my face :)

this was such a wonderful watch, great job

Knowing that only 180 fares are paid daily at that stations with me being one of them, I feel the station was meant for me. Bessarion Station. There used to be a gateway convenience store in the station, didn't last more than a couple weeks.

this is so well made in every respect. incredible job, you guys

From one documentary filmmaker to the next, I want congratulate you on this really unique short film. I think it was really neat! And it gives insight about Toronto to non-Torontonians as well I think. Keep up the good work!

Loved this, even used it yesterday to teach an English lesson here in Prague. Great stuff.

Can I just express how much I love this? I love this.

Amazing! I love this so much! I'll be sure to visit this station lool

Our Pleasure! Thank you for giving the video the 6 and a half minutes of attention!

The sarcasm and satire in this is great. Well done.

Another mystery of the TTC Solved! Thanks Geoff!

I was actually one of the very few that actually had to go to Bessarion with a purpose. One of the houses outside the station on Sheppard did tailoring

Kipling Station is actually really nice. I took a journey out there a month ago and I have to say I enjoyed it. The station was certainly no Bessarion, but outside was more pleasant on the eyes than I was expecting.

Absolutely brilliant!

loved it! bravo! 1) for the content 2) the editing 3) I now want to go to Bessarion--I grew up around the corner

The train goes right past him at the end. *chef's kiss*

Bessarion is one of my favourite stations! This was a great video I also really like Baview station

Really enjoyed this. I always wondered about the beauties of Bessarion.

I'm glad you broke your silence to say this. Thank you so much Jackie! Take lots of pictures on your visit.

Beautiful and inspirational ending 💕

Charming doco! One time I was riding my bike along Sheppard and got tired near Bessarion station - that day, I contributed to the 180 Bessarion fares. ~AJL

Terrific video! Entertaining and informative!

Bessarion was built for Concord Park Place (Those new condos you see behind Canadian Tire). Probably in a decade or so when people move in and all twenty-so condos are complete that the station will start getting busy.

that was a beautiful and inspiring journey.

He looked so lonely when we went through there. I'm glad you're there to help break up his day.

I've never been to "The Bessarion" as you now call it, but now I really want to... what a hidden gem

i have booked a trip to bessarion in july! i am very excited to discover my own personal purple line!

Can you please do a a whole series on the little things that intrigue and fascinate Jeremy Woodcock. What a great little doc. Thank you!

everyday I passed by that station to my high school, and I saw that kid, very random, but it was a great passage to Ikea ! this makes me miss Toronto!!

Thanks Justin! We can only hope that when tourists come visit Toronto, they'll spend their entire trip just riding the subway.

This is adorable. Definitely filing that "date to Bessarion St." idea away for future silly and fun date ideas.

Nicely done, I cant think of any reason I would ever find myself at Bessarion station, like many other places in the city, which makes it all the more fun to see... Its so red!

the entire purple line is gorgeous from the inside.

Watching this again after the Sheppard line got new rolling stock in which it now uses the Toronto Rocket trains used on Line 1 Yonge-University, I believe the reason for this is because Line 1 is in the process of being upgraded to Automatic Train Control to help relieve congestion on the Yonge segment of Line 1 and the fact that the Sheppard line trains are stored at the Davisville Yard in which the T1 trains aren't compatible with ATC tech.

The bible stories about Bessarion station are some of our favorites. Thanks for the tip on Bloor West - We'll drag Jeremy out there sometime soon!

The Sheppard subway was going to look even fancier. The original plans from the early-mid 1990s called for the T-1 trains to be ATO as in driverless with platform edge doors. Downsview was completed before the Harris cutbacks and reflects all of the extravagance of that which was meant for 1990s Metro Toronto subway expansion. Harris promised that the Sheppard subway would be a "no frills" subway, and it even nearly did not get built, as Metro struggled to meet the escalating costs and funding shortfalls. The massive failure of Bob Rae's Rapid Transit Expansion program with the termination of the Eglinton West subway project and major cuts to the Sheppard subway is the big reason why David Miller decided to push for light rail, because from the early 1980s to the 2000s we were struggling to build subways that we didn't need with money we did not and still do not have. Sheppard is a fairly wide corridor and all it really needs is an LRT (especially if there are only 185 fares collected at Bessarion! XD ).

I LOVE THIS VIDEO!! Now i want to find my own Bessarion.

i physically recoiled when you called the 401 some random highway

I was in Toronto last June to see what was left of the Canadian Forces base I grew up on as a teen. I wanted to ride this line, but I forgot to. Oh well, next time I'm in T.O. I'll have to search for Bessarion station myself.

My understanding (local resident here) is that Willowdale was more just an emergency relief staircase. It's a relatively 'long' way between Yonge/Sheppard and Baview. There was some buzz about a station before they built the whole thing, but it was considered even lower priority than Bessarion.

We love that song. It was the first piece of music selected for the video.

Great video - I am sure it's much busier with all the new development in the area

Pretty cool Mr. Gape. Your video travels far and wide - I watched on recommendation of someone in Tokyo....ofcourse we both lived in Toronto earlier. It was kind of like filling a negative space - in my 7 years I never noticed that subway station. Pretty cool stuff.

Bessarion is amazing! It gives you the downhill walk towards Starbucks, Canadian Tire, McD's and the offices right across from there (including my orthodontist! I frequently choose to get off at Bessarion instead of Leslie for the walk). It's also a nice stop for everybody living around that area (lots and lots of houses down the road).

My girlfriend and I also stopped at Bessarion once just to see it, on the way home from Ikea. The one interesting thing we found nearby is a convenience store across the street that is fully stocked with South African food products. Catering to the South African expat community I guess. We got some yummy rusks; they're great with tea.

Awesome. ima have to check this place out asap

Wow, you have some really good talent. You must be doing really well in life, with your talents!!

The green circle in the video that is placed on the wall at the platform isn't purely aesthetic; train operators use this as a way to guide the train to stopping in just the right spot, so that all the doors on the cars are inside the station at the platform, and not anywhere in the tunnels.

I've asked many of these questions myself. Thanks.

Love it!

I'm not the type to comment on a youtube video but I wanted to say well done. For some reason I adored this and now want to go.

really well done!

Well done!

This video made me smile. I've never been north of Yorkdale or east of Pape on the subway. To me anything beyond is scary and unknown

You and Jeremy already have so much in common.

Toronto just went hipster hahhaha thank you guys, this made my night!!

Amazing!!!

They've wanted to build condos in the area for a long time, well before the subway was built. Property developers occasionally try to offer sell-outs, but most residents (who are long-term owners) don't want to move. IMO, there are enough bloody condos.

THIS VIDEO IS THE BEST FUCKING VIDEO ABOUT THE TTC EVER!!!!!!! I LOVE THIS SOOOO MUCH....it's making me type in caps and spelling words incorrectly! WOW I love this!

Haha this was amazing! I live near Bessarion Station!

For me, the Sheppard line is a preemptive development for the city. Everyone says that downtown needs another line, or Eglinton even, but it would be a massive inconvenience to rip apart those streets for years. The north will inevitably need to be connected, so it's good that they started before their is too much there. The line has already lead to a lot of condo development, which is good because downtown is getting crowded.

This is my favourite station :)

We visited Bessarion when the Sheppard line first opened, but I'd say that you have discovered it, laid open its hidden secrets. The shot at the entrance flanked by trees was nice so give the exterior credit for that feature

Wonderful work John. And you were right about the pronunciation: I'm from around there and it's a hard S, like the name "Bess."

That looks like a pretty fine station, there is a nice station next to where I live too. I live in Leipzig, Germany, but I'm from Victoria BC so when I saw the station for the first time, I didn't really understand what it was. People use it like bus stops apparently and a train like thing takes them from point A to point B. It's an Amazing world we live in.

that was so great

Well done! take Paris over Runnymede :-) nice lyrics at the end 'Stay Awhile', written by Canadian icon Ken Tobias. Looking forward to your next TTC exploration :-)

i love it!

I'm really glad you made this film. I've passed by there a few times on my way to Don Mills or the Ikea at Leslie but I had no idea what Bessarion was all about. I too was surprised that it was pronounced "Bezarion" by the announcement-bot... maybe that's its biblical pronunciation. FWIW, Runnymede isn't much of a station but it's in a fantastic neighbourhood. Highly recommended for shopping, dining, and simply taking in the beauty of Toronto's Bloor West neighbourhoods.

Cool video !

Bessarion resident here. ;) Hope you enjoyed my station. I am just off of Bessarion station, that's reason enough to come here.

the chimes in the song at 0:20 are awesome, haha

great video. ... built on friday!!

You're the second person to mention Taro's Fish. We might have to plan a return trip to Bessarion.

Awesome! Someone should host a event there calling it your title "The Bessarion" as the location to have people explore it getting there are part of the fun!