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Toronto Tuesday‘ is a weekly photo feature about random stuff (landmarks, people, culture, seasons, etc.) in the city.
Bessarion subway station on the Sheppard (Purple) Line is the second least used metro station in Toronto.
For some reason the pictures appear faded, but if you click on the thumbnails, you can see higher resolution pictures.
These pictures on the platform level show commuter’s heads facing away from the camera. The only face facing us is that of the baby, that’s kinda creepy.
Platforms still shine and the color is still glossy.
The train schedule on this line is very simple, hence quite often one can hear both trains pull into the station at the same time, their doors open and close in unison and they chime together. The nice thing is that one has the entire station to oneself to enjoy this. 
Mezzanine level shows people’s feet. The level is swanky and clean, the attendant must be getting bored…
The station opened in 2002 and there have been many suggestions, till date, to close it.
In 2008, only 2000 people used this subway station per day on average. However, a number of new residential towers are under construction in this area so the usage might improve in few years.
The public art in the station, by Toronto artist Sylvie Belanger, is a frieze of hands, feet, and backs of heads, which represent the users of the station. (Wikipedia) The feet images appear on the concourse level while the heads appear on the platform level. The hands images appear along the stairs between the Sheppard Avenue North Side entrance/exit and the concourse.
‘
Toronto Tuesday‘ is a weekly photo feature about random stuff (landmarks, people, culture, seasons, etc.) in the city.
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The Platskart (Плацкарт/प्लात्सकार्त) Coach
Platzkartny Wagon. Very crowded and noisy but social and fun!
Platzkart is the third class coach in Russian trains that offers modest comfort and a quite cheap ticket to your destination. Each coach is divided into 9 units, each unit having 6 seats – 4 lateral and 2 axial (pardon my technical jargon). The lateral seats form a sortof isolated section of 4 berths – two upper and two lower, while the axial side seats get converted into a bunk at night – one upper, one lower (and is meant for shorter people). I was on the lower side berth.
Lets compare Russian and Indian trains. Russian trains have 4 classes: SV (first), Kupe (second), Platzkart (third) and Ordinary (fourth), while Indian trains have First, Second and Third with subtypes of each. In terms of services, facilities and environment, the platskartny coach is essentially an AC-2 coach of the Indian railways, but with Russian people on it. 
Sharing food, and more
Chai, in a beautiful vintage cup and cup noodles
As soon as the train pulled out of Moscow, the Provodnitsa (introduced in the previous post) announced something and suddenly there was activity. People grabbed their mugs and went to the Samovar (Самовар / समोवर) that was located at the end of the coach. Its a neat machine that pumps out hot, almost boiling, water that people will use to make tea. What’s the drink that Russians drink the most? Vodka? nahh… Beer? naahh… its Tea, called Chai (чаи / चाइ) in Russian.
People also took their stash of food out. All the food I brought with me was a can of cup noodles, and after I finished it within 30 minutes of train start, I had practically no food. But no worries, my table was already getting flooded with food. I had cheese, cookies, smoked beef, pork slices, bread etc. It seems that sharing your food is quite common, especially if you have a foreigner in the compartment.
Samovar, a vessel that makes hot water. Young or old, Russians drink tea ALL the time.
My co-passengers
Sitting opposite to me was Sergei, a 39 yr old guy who was going to Sochi to meet his family which was already on vacation there. He offered me cheese, tea, smoked beef and chocolates. On the other side was a woman with her two teenage daughters. They studied English in school for some years, so they were very excited to talk to me in English. Unfortunately we ended up speaking in Russian because I couldn’t understand what they were speaking. I think if you learn sentence structures in a foreign language, a dictionary will go a long way in supplying words for making good conversations. They invited their friends – 3 guys and a girl (all of them were in the army draft) to talk to me at night. All of them were pleasantly drunk, but very polite and talkative. The sixth person in the unit was an old man who wore the typical Russian hat (I don’t know what its called), and had a long beard. His face was very wrinkled and every time he spoke or smiled (and he did that a lot), the wrinkles multiplied. He gave me a bagful of desserts while saying something that sounded like an advice. I understood the words ‘when’, ‘journey’, ‘never’, ‘tea’, ‘Pryanik’, ‘without’. “If you want to enjoy the journey, never have your tea without Pryanik!”
Pryanik (Пряник/प् र्यानीक्), which sounds quite similar to my name Priyank, are popular Russian cookies that come in a unlimited number of flavors. They make an ideal accompaniment with tea or coffee. They are somewhat similar to शंकरपाळे made in Maharashtra.
Other coaches
I walked the entire train to checkout what was on it. There was a little restaurant on board.
Restaurant. I ate chicken here.
купе – kupe – कुपे: Second Class |
|
С В – S V – एस् वी: First Class |
The first and second class coaches were very neat. These are small compartments of 2 and 4 people respectively and feel quite cosy and comfortable. I traveled by Kupe later in my trip.
Whenever the train took a stop, people spilled out of it like ants. The first thing to do? Smoke. Smoking is like the national sport of Russia and it’s very noticeable and on-your-face.
Some train station on the next morning.
So that was how I spent 30 very enjoyable hours on the train from Moscow to Sochi, 1400km south, on the Black Sea.
My train, stopped at an unscheduled station.
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Traveling by Platzkartny, the third class train compartment in Russia is an adventure in itself.
If there is one thing travel guidebooks warn you NOT to do in Russia is to travel in Platzkartny, the third class train compartment. Indeed, the few Russian people I spoke to prior to the trip made all possible efforts to dissuade me from doing this, but I was quite adamant. Then I was taught how to ward off overly friendly travelers who will force you to have some vodka with them, and guidebooks scare you with stories of theft, dirt, noise and (lack of) security etc…
I’m pretty sure that none of them have traveled in 2nd class trains in India.
Train ticket
My train ticket: Moscow to Adler. Impossible to understand unless you look carefully and know some Russian
Tatt Прийанк Шрикант (Thatte Priyank Shrikant)
Вагон 01/П, Места 051 (Wagon 01/P, Seat 051)
Москва Каз – Адлер (Moskva Kaz – Adler)
22.10, 09.21 (date and time)
1105.0 РУБ (1105 RUB, about $55)
I think that was enough information to have.
Kazansky train terminal
With a backpack, wearing baggy shorts and a tshirt, as I was waiting for my friend Evgeny at the Kazansky train terminal in Moscow, I never felt so much out of place. Did I mention that Russians dress quite fashionably? And fashionable might mean Eurotrash but certainly does not mean American backpacker look, which I was drenched in. Anyway. Evgeny got my ticket ‘authorised’ from some place and we found my train waiting to be boarded.
Main hall at Kazansky Train Terminus, one of 9 long-distance train terminals in Moscow. There are obscure booths here n there providing train services.
Train platforms at Kazansky, where is my train…?
Trains and people
I was quite shy and hesitant of taking pictures since it was my day 3 in Russia and I didn’t know how people would take it. Well there is nothing to worry – forget what the guidebooks tell you about overly vigilant police who are waiting to prey upon foreigners.
Ah there it was! Clearly marked АДЛЕР (Adler/आद््ल्यर)
My train
I’m fascinated by rail engines, and this one was diesel… so rare to see! Very cool.
See the lady in the uniform with a drag-queen hairstyle? She was the Provodnitsa, the attendant, of my compartment.
Provodnitsa, (प्रोवोदनीत्सा) the lady who was in charge of the compartment, inspected my ticket, tore off a part marked контрол (kontrol), asked for my passport (which she couldn’t read), looked at me (I look different from the picture) and let me in. I dutifully tried to butter her up after the train started (as the guidebook advised) but she was very stern and a I-don’t-ever-smile type person who was very proficient at saying a loud and clear ‘Nyet‘. Only after 8 hours I made her smile with my broken Russian while asking if it was okay to plug my battery charger in an electrical socket in her room.
I will take you on a little tour inside the platzkart coach and the train in my next post. I was happy to be on the train and I smiled to myself as it chugged off 5 minutes later to a destination 1,400 km south on the Black Sea.
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Volume 1, Edition 13
‘Toronto Tuesday‘ is a weekly photo feature about random stuff (landmarks, people, culture, seasons, etc.) in the city.
Old Mill Subway Station
I biked to my relatives’ place and took a longer route that passed next to the scenic Old Mill subway station. The station itself is just like most others, but the cool thing about is that it is partly underground and partly on a bridge! Sound’s interesting, doesn’t it?
Old Mill subway station and the subway train
View Old Mill Subway Station in a larger map
Train leaving the station
You might notice bird silhouettes painted on the glass walls. This is to keep innocent birds from hitting the glass.
Train stopped at the station
This station is on TTC’s (Toronto Transit Commission) Bloor-Danforth or the green subway line and is not very busy. The bridge is built on the Humber river and there is a very nice bike trail and park along it.
Train entering the station
It was about 22:00 by the time I finished taking these pictures. I like night photography, but the trouble was that the frequency of trains was five minutes, so I had to wait 2.5 minutes (approx.) for either train to appear. But I spent time answering questions of random guys who were jogging in the park. In addition, I was on a road bridge that vibrated slightly every time a vehicle passed and such vibrations are enough to disturb the picture when the shutter speed is like 4 seconds. Ofcourse, finally one has to take hundreds of pictures at various exposures to get few good ones.
Old Mill Subway Station
This is one of my favorite posts and I enjoyed doing it a lot. I hope you liked the pictures. Any tips for improvement are always welcome.
‘Toronto Tuesday‘ is a weekly photo feature about random stuff (landmarks, people, culture, seasons, etc.) in the city.
Related posts
Volume 1, Edition 7
‘Toronto Tuesday‘ is a weekly photo feature about random stuff (landmarks, people, culture, seasons, etc.) in my city.
Go Train crossing over Queen St West and Dufferin St
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Bhutan
Canada
India
Israel
Peru
Russia