Scarborough Rapid Transit

I thought it would be a good idea to introduce Magnus to a metro system before going to Dubai, since I plan to take him on the metro regularly.   The other day he spotted the subway above ground at Yorkdale and was very excited about the "train".  I told him that his Gonggong and I were going to take him on the "metro-train" very soon.

The Toronto subway isn't anywhere near my parents' house, but there is small extension that is entirely above ground called the Scarborough Rapid Transit.  I thought would an appropriate place to start since the Dubai metro is entirely above ground as well.

(Nostalgia: my father took me and my brother on the SRT decades ago when it first opened)

To get to the station, we went to the mall at Scarborough Town Centre.  Magnus looked down at this atrium and got very excited.  Was it the Christmas decorations?

Nope!  It was the escalator.  Christmas, Schristmas…

Here we are waiting on the platform.  Magnus outwardly looks calm and cool, but inside he finds the noise nerve wracking!

It took awhile to convince him to stand up.  He preferred to stick as close to Gonggong as possible.  After we forced him to stand, he enjoyed the view...

The view afforded by the SRT is unfortunately very bleak.  It's mostly hydro fields and the parking lots of industrial buildings.  Once in a while you'll see a small park with a baseball diamond.  It's funny how this was never clear to me as a child - the SRT was a project created with a lot of cost consciousness and probably a lot of compromise. As such, it is a far cry from the Dubai metro, which triumphantly runs right down the middle of the city, hoisting its passengers up to see all the dazzling sights of the city.  

Did Magnus enjoy it?  Yes and no.  I think he really didn't expect it to be so noisy.  After a couple hours, in the safety of our family room, I was finally able to get him to talk about the "train" ride and to say that he liked it.  

Here he is at the mall hanging out with some mall rats before heading home.