Toronto Union Station Revitalization | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | NORR

Minor note from Union: while waiting for my train to Oshawa, I noticed that the lower level under the new concourse has an additional passageway visible!

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Komiksulo said:
Minor note from Union: while waiting for my train to Oshawa, I noticed that the lower level under the new concourse has an additional passageway visible!

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Does anyone know when this godforesaken food court will open? McCafe is great and all but it would help to have some actual food besides muffins.
 
Richard White said:
Does anyone know when this godforesaken food court will open? McCafe is great and all but it would help to have some actual food besides muffins.
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if they were smart it should have opened with the concourse. I wonder if they stopped work on the york concourse during the pan am games like every other project in Toronto seemed to do
 
EastYorkTTCFan said:
if they were smart it should have opened with the concourse. I wonder if they stopped work on the york concourse during the pan am games like every other project in Toronto seemed to do
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Most likely they did. Union was an integral part of the Pan-Am transit situation.

With that in mind, it has been months since the York Concourse opened yet no food other than a few coffee shops have opened. I am surprised.
 
The handover between construction companies see, to have been a factor too.
Also the change from 40 percent to 60 percent food may also have had a factor in this.

I saw more men than usual last week, milling about on the lower level, so work seems to be progressing (at some glacial rate of some measureable amount, at least).

I also wonder if there is a such a thing as opening too early (as GO RER still has to scale up dramatically) and going AURA shopping mall style until there are level connections between TTC and the food court, without stairs. Epecially since York-side PATH connections are still lacking.

But agreed, I want more food choices!
 
Also, cannot forget that once GC (Carillion in this case) completes the rough space, this is then handed over to Osmington and only then can the subs hired directly by future tenants begin their work. I believe the upper level York has been handed over, lower level not yet. Long process.
 
mdrejhon said:
The handover between construction companies see, to have been a factor too.
Also the change from 40 percent to 60 percent food may also have had a factor in this.

I saw more men than usual last week, milling about on the lower level, so work seems to be progressing (at some glacial rate of some measureable amount, at least).

I also wonder if there is a such a thing as opening too early (as GO RER still has to scale up dramatically) and going AURA shopping mall style until there are level connections between TTC and the food court, without stairs. Epecially since York-side PATH connections are still lacking.

But agreed, I want more food choices!
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If it is level access FROM THE TTC TO THE FOOD COURT you want then you will be waiting awhile. The York Concourse and subway station are on two opposite ends of the moat. The Bay concourse does not open for a few more years...
 
Richard White said:
If it is level access FROM THE TTC TO THE FOOD COURT you want then you will be waiting awhile.
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True.
Precisely my point: Before 2017, the business case is not as good now as during completion.

Also, it's not just TTC but a massive PATH system full of hungry office workers at lunch hour. ;)

Richard White said:
The York Concourse and subway station are on two opposite ends of the moat.
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Yes, but it then becomes a simple indoor L-shaped walk through multiple choices of wide, comfortable, level corridors.

The plans are in flux, but you can clearly see that the PATH/TTC access to the York area will be full of many choices of very wide hallways beelining straight there.

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Look at that -- Many cross-station corridors, and wide ones at it.

You can see the escalator area in the York concourse, and compare the width of the atrium to the width of the hallways between TTC and the York food court areas -- and that's quite a massive wide-open direct, straight walk from Financial District buildings into the Union York food court. Big business potential for lunchtime customers. See?

Also, 60% of the Union basement mall floorplan is now food. So it will already spill over to the Bay concourse. With the first few food establishments a small 30 meter level walk (fully climate controlled, no stairs, no outdoors) walk from RBC bank building PATH exits.

The walking distance from PATH/TTC entrance to the first major Union food cluster will shrink by at more than two-thirds without all the detouring, stairs, construction, etc. Financial District is a huge lunchtime market -- and I tell you this, because I am employed in the Financial District.

Massive lunchtime market, especially since the halls won't be full of peak period commuters, so it's a speedy trip into Union for lunch.
Richard White said:
The Bay concourse does not open for a few more years...
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Correct.
Precisely my point why businesses will need to open slowly as the market ramps up.

Yes, they should open already, but we should open incrementally as ease-of-access increases, and not risk an AURA shopping mall. I want my Burger Priest burger! :D

At the moment, it is not a comfortable walk between Financial District PATH and any Union food. There is an outdoor gap, and it's worse and more circuitous due to the construction. That will change, though.
 

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That's the clearest map/plan I have seen to date, thanks! They are currently excavating the Front Street East Moat to bring it to the level of the TTC entrance and get rid of the stairs. The Front Street West Moat seems to be level so it just needs to be 'smartened up, and the canopy erected and I assume there will be a stair-free passage from east to west via the "Centre Moat". Yes?
 
mdrejhon said:
The plans are in flux, but you can clearly see that the PATH/TTC access to the York area will be full of many choices of very wide hallways beelining straight there.
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Thanks for the map.

This shouldn't be a surprise. There are three staircases down to this level from the York East Teamway that for now are labeled "do not enter". They aren't there as decorations.
 
Megaton327 said:
Why would they make those exits into a major commuter corridor fire exits and not have them be actual doors people can use? That makes no sense.
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Ya these aren't small staircases. Two of them can easily fit four people side by side.
 
EastYorkTTCFan said:
maybe they plan to use them in peak travel times too
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That would be unprecedented access, to the best of my knowledge, not only Union but the entire TTC and GO Transit, probably every GTHA transit service. And again, that would make absolutely no sense. Why on Earth build a set of doors from the East York Teamway to the Food Court, both high-traffic areas, and pay somebody to come by and lock them for absolutely no good reason then open them for a few hours a day?
 
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