Jane Station

The Toronto subway has a typeface all its own: a graphically unique rectangular sans serif, exclusively upper case. It is primarily found in older subway stations in Toronto, which feature a washroom-tile aesthetic.

The original font, though revered, is anonymous—it has neither a known creator nor an official name. The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) refers to this orphan as “Station Font.” (The name has not yet taken root with avid transit or typography fans.)

In the late 1990s, as newer stations began adopting easily identifiable typefaces such as Helvetica, artist David Vereschagin became determined to recreate the TTC’s birth font, “to rescue the Toronto subway typeface…to ensure its continued existence.” He visited stations, took photographs, and made rubbings of the letters, and issued a new “Toronto Subway” typeface that served as an extremely close reproduction of the original. It’s so close, in fact, that the TTC adopted and now uses it widely throughout their stations—and above any remaining public phones that exist.