The birth of the ridiculous design of the escalator at the TTC’s Christie subway station: A historical reenaction

Sometime in the mid sixties at TTC headquarters, the Christie station designer and his boss meet…

“Hey – just looked over your drawings for the new Christie TTC station – great job.”

“Thanks boss, I feel really good about that one. Nice location too, people will walk out the front doors looking directly into the park.”

“Yeah, that’s one of my favorite parts. Hey, one thing though, I think you forgot an escalator from the mid-level to street-level.”

(scans drawings madly) “Holy crap, you’re right! Can’t believe I missed that!”

“We’ll need an escalator there for people who have trouble walking up stairs.”

“Okay, I’m on it. Now what kind of people are you talking about? Disabled people who can’t walk?”

“Not really, there are elevators for people in wheelchairs and stuff. I’m just talking about people who can walk, but have trouble with stairs.”

“How much trouble? Like they can’t even walk up a couple of stairs?”

“No, no - they just have trouble walking up a flight of stairs, especially the long flights typically found in subway stations. It’s not like they can’t walk up a couple of stairs.”

“Ok, I think I got it. Design an escalator for people who get tired if they walk up too many stairs, but are ok walking up a few stairs.”

“You got it.”