Bloor-Yonge Station could receive a huge renovation and expansion

Raise your hand if you've ever been personally victimized by Bloor-Yonge Station. 

Well, that question may elicit fewer responses in the somewhat-near-ish future as Toronto's busiest subway station could receive a major upgrade, according to a city report.

Estimated at about $1.1 billion, the project— if approved— would give an extra set of stairs and elevators for those transferring between Line 2 and Line 1. 

In order to do this, a new eastbound platform will be built, removing the throttled bottleneck at the north end of the station. This bottleneck is a nightmare when eastbound and westbound trains arrive simultaneously. 

Several hundred thousand passengers flow through the station every day, many of them transferring between the two lines. It causes chaos and headaches more often than not, with "overcrowded and sardine-canned" being the best of days. 

Video captures chaos caused by 10 minute subway delay in #Toronto https://t.co/CmJs5Wb6jJ #TTC pic.twitter.com/QK7Ox9Hl1x

— blogTO (@blogTO) November 7, 2018

This overcrowding is often dangerous, pushing people to the edge of the tracks and cramming waiting passengers up and down stairs and into corridors. 

A timeline for the project has not been given. However, if the city opens new lines on Eglinton (and perhaps elsewhere), something needs to be done about Bloor-Yonge Station—and quickly.