Lawrence East

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Subway Related Properties Page

Text by James Bow

See Also

Video: Station Walkthrough, by Damian Baranowski.

Lawrence East station is a station on the SCARBOROUGH RT between Ellesmere station and Kennedy. It is located at grade next to the Uxbridge subdivision, beneath the Lawrence Avenue East bridge over the railway tracks.

The station is accessed via service roads which branch off of Lawrence Avenue east and west of the tracks, meaning that pedestrians have to walk some distance to get to Lawrence Avenue. However, a bus terminal on the west side of the station provides passengers with transfer-free access to 54 LAWRENCE EAST buses (including the western terminus of the 54E LAWRENCE EAST express). This connection means that Lawrence East station is the third busiest on the Scarborough RT, after Kennedy and Scarborough Centre, although ridership is low compared to the rest of the subway network. In 2014, only 7,470 passengers used the station on an average weekday, down from 8,370 the year before.

The station is partially accessible, however. The design of the bus terminal allows for step-free access from the western service road and the bus terminal to the southbound platform. Automatic sliding doors, added between 2011 and 2012, helped improve accessibility. The northbound platform, however, can only be accessed via an escalator or a flight of stairs, through a concourse level beneath the platforms leading to stairs and escalators to the southbound platform.

Lawrence East station opened with the rest of the Scarborough RT on March 24, 1985 and shares the steel-and-glass architectural style of other stations on the line, save for Kennedy. The area around the station is low density, with nearby destinations some distance away on foot. Residential neighbourhoods and apartments immediately south of the station do provide some foot traffic, however. Lawrence East also offers a commuter parking lot for TTC patrons, to the east of the station, via an underpass beneath the tracks. The lot is accessed via the eastern service road and has 90 spaces.

Although Lawrence East has no artwork of its own, it is known for its location near the “East Side Mural”, a graffiti art piece attributed to the mid-1980s Graffiti Knights crew. The distinctive artwork covering the entire wall of a building just east of the tracks just north of Lawrence Avenue was likely in place when the Scarborough RT opened in 1985, and can still be seen today — a remarkable feat for a decidedly unofficial work of art.

As of the beginning of 2017, while the City of Toronto and Metrolinx consider how to replace the aging Scarborough RT, Lawrence East station is in limbo. Original plans to upgrade and extend the Scarborough RT as an LRT would have retained the station, but this plan fell to a proposal to extend the BLOOR-DANFORTH subway to Scarborough Centre instead. This subway extension would have followed a new alignment that would have put a Lawrence station either at Brimley or McCowan, although current plans call for no intermediate stations between Kennedy and Scarborough Centre on the new extension. In its place, proposals for Toronto’s SmartTrak and Metrolinx’s Regional Express Rail suggest adding a stop at Lawrence on the Uxbridge subdivision, for use by electric trains travelling between Union and Markham.

Trivia

On December 16, 2016, PRESTO readers were installed on Lawrence East’s fare gates. The station was the last on the Scarborough RT to receive these.
For Nuit Blanche 2018, the artist Shalak Attack was commissioned to create the mural Universal Language inside the station. Of the art piece, painted on concrete, the artist said, “This is the story of one woman’s journey across a divided land and her will to overcome the borders that surround her… …The land she travels on is the body of a giant double-headed bear… that tells her to keep on her journey and that Nature will show her the way.” The art was on view during the Suit Blanche festival. On October 18, 2018, the TTC announced that the installation would be made a permanent part of the station, for as long as it remained in good condition.

Service Notes (as of day before Scarborough RT Shutdown, July 23, 2023):

Off-Site Resources:
- The official TTC Lawrence East Page
- Station Fixation - Lawrence East, by Nathan Ng.
- Video: Station Walkthrough, by Damian Baranowski.
Line: 3 SCARBOROUGH RT
Address: 2444 Lawrence Avenue East
Opened: March 24, 1985
Average Weekday Ridership: 7,470 (2014); 8,370 (2013)
Hours of Operation:
First Train to Kennedy: 5:53 a.m. weekdays, 5:58 a.m. Saturdays/holidays, 8:06 a.m. Sundays.
First Train to McCowan: 6:04 a.m. weekdays, 6:06 a.m. Saturdays/holidays, 8:15 a.m. Sundays Last Train to Kennedy: 1:25 a.m. every day. Last Train to McCowan: 1:34 a.m. every day
Entrances:
- West side, accessed from Kennedy on the north side of Lawrence by walking 126 metres to reach the western service road and then following the sidewalk for another 267 metres to reach the entrance.
- East side, accessed from Midland on the north side of Lawrence by walking west for 144 metres to the eastern service road and following the sidewalk for 274 metres to a flight of stairs leading down to a passageway beneath the station, then up a flight of stairs to the western service road, with the entrance to the south.
Wheelchair Accessible Since: March 24, 1985 (bus terminal and southbound platform only)
Elevators: None
Escalators: (Click here for maintenance schedule)
- West side concourse to southbound platform (Up at all times)
- East side concourse to northbound platform (Up at all times)
Parking:
- 90 spaces, accessed from Lawrence Avenue via eastern service road.
No in-station washrooms
Two side platforms

TTC Surface Route Connections:

Lawrence East Station Image Archive

	A plan of Lawrence East LRT station, when the station was at grade with a level crossing at Lawrence Avenue. This image is courtesy the Toronto Archives and Nathan Ng's Station Fixation website.
	A view of the Lawrence East bus terminal, looking north. This shot was taken on April 23, 1985 for the Toronto Archives and is courtesy Nathan Ng's Station Fixation website.
	A view of the bus terminal at Lawrence East station, looking south. This photo was taken on April 30, 1985 for the Toronto Archives and is courtesy Nathan Ng's Station Fixation website.
	The north entrance to the southbound platform of Lawrence East station, looking east. This photo was taken on May 9, 1985 for the Toronto Archives and is courtesy Nathan Ng's Station Fixation site.
	An aerial shot of Lawrence East station and its surroundings, looking southeast. This photo was taken circa 2000 for the Toronto Archives and is courtesy Nathan Ng's Station Fixation site.
	A passenger waits as a northbound ICTS train enters Lawrence East station on June 1, 2011. Photo by James Bow.
	TTC Orion VII bus #7489 picks up passengers at Lawrence East station's bus terminal in service on 54 LAWRENCE EAST on February 25, 2014. Photo by James Bow.
	The photographer Alexhead8835 captured this image of the entrance to Lawrence East station, looking southwest from the western service road on July 18, 2014. This image is used in accordance with his Creative Commons License.
	The photographer Alexhead8835 captured this image of the eastern end of the entrance passageway at Lawrence East station, looking west, in the evening of August 3, 2014. This image is used in accordance with his Creative Commons License.
	Richard White caught this image of Lawrence East's platforms, taken from the northbound platform, looking northwest, on the evening of August 29, 2014.
	The Lawrence East station sign, in curved metal, a style used in common with the other stations on the Scarborough Rt. Richard White took this photograph on August 29, 2014.
	Richard White captured this image of the pedestrian tunnel beneath the tracks at the north end of Lawrence East station, looking east. Passenger parking at the commuter lot have to take these stairs and tunnel in order to get to the station entrance. This shot was taken on September 17, 2014.
	A view of the southbound platform of Lawrence East station and the entrance to its bus terminal seen through the window of a northbound RT train. Photo taken by Damian Baranowski during the summer of 2015.
	A view of the southbound platform at Lawrence East, and the stairwell towards the northbound platform. This photo was taken by Edward Chamberlain circa June 2016.
	An official TTC diagram showing the location of commuter parking for Lawrence East station.