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

The Bay Concourse has gotten extremely dark as of last week, I even asked GO’s Twitter and I got back the response that it’s “completely normal and not out of the ordinary”, why are half the lights off now? First image is when the Bay Concourse opened and the second one is from last week:

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And it’s just that some of the lights were burnt out either, it’s all over the concourse.
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Willybru21 said:
The Bay Concourse has gotten extremely dark as of last week, I even asked GO’s Twitter and I got back the response that it’s “completely normal and not out of the ordinary”, why are half the lights off now? First image is when the Bay Concourse opened and the second one is from last week:

View attachment 463693View attachment 463695

And it’s just that some of the lights were burnt out either, it’s all over the concourse. View attachment 463700
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What time were each of these photos taken? Do they dim them after a certain time post sunset?
 
A tidbit of info. When the designs for the Bay Concourse was first introduced, this was back in 2010 and included the lighting that is now outdated. The contractor had to adhere and install what the approved lighting was back in the day under their obligation, which is now obsolete. Any change or deviation would have increased the price of the total build which was already over budget and now the lighting is failing with not enough parts to repair them.
 
union2pearson said:
A tidbit of info. When the designs for the Bay Concourse was first introduced, this was back in 2010 and included the lighting that is now outdated. The contractor had to adhere and install what the approved lighting was back in the day under their obligation, which is now obsolete. Any change or deviation would have increased the price of the total build which was already over budget and now the lighting is failing with not enough parts to repair them.
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@Willybru21 “The Bay Concourse has gotten extremely dark as of last week”

It looks like strip lighting in the cove. How complicated could that be? I’d guess it’s the building automation system and/or someone trying a day test to see if the earth hour mode works for Saturday March 25 at 8:30 pm.
 
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mburrrrr said:
@Willybru21 “The Bay Concourse has gotten extremely dark as of last week”

It looks like strip lighting in the cove. How complicated could that be? I’d guess it’s the building automation system and/or someone trying a day test to see if the earth hour mode works for Saturday March 25 at 8:30 pm.
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Yes, currently CFL lighting with ballasts that are failing at a high rate. Now to change that over to LED is not as simple as a plug and play. The BAS system controls not just the Bay Concourse, but also the retail level and the BoH areas as well.
 
LNahid2000 said:
You can literally see the time in the pictures lol
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Haha, yes you can indeed! Serves me right for not looking more closely on mobile.
union2pearson said:
Yes, currently CFL lighting with ballasts that are failing at a high rate. Now to change that over to LED is not as simple as a plug and play. The BAS system controls not just the Bay Concourse, but also the retail level and the BoH areas as well.
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That sounds like a project in and of itself. I’m not envious of the team that has to deal with that.
 
union2pearson said:
Yes, currently CFL lighting with ballasts that are failing at a high rate. Now to change that over to LED is not as simple as a plug and play. The BAS system controls not just the Bay Concourse, but also the retail level and the BoH areas as well.
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I’m sorry but can you dumb this down a little? Is the Bay Concourse stuck like this until everything is replaced with LED?
 
I thought my eyes were going bad, or I was just imagining the station looked brighter not too long ago. Thanks for making me know I am not losing my mind (yet). It looks dull and depressing again. It also affects commuters' moods. All the work and money they put into the corridor and yet the lights are already malfunctioning. Shows nothing is of great workmanship and lasts anymore. Just like the TTC signal replacement that took over 10 years to complete. They were done earlier this year, yet there's already signal issues. I just don't get how the government spends the money to these contractors and the work is mediocre.
 
rdaner said:
Just crossed over the bridge from CIBC to Union Station and it was packed! The new options at Union are definitely drawing people and this will only increase when the second tower is done. Btw the Arabica coffee place is still not open. What gives?View attachment 463625
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Great to see but also unsurprising, give people a convenient connection to some good options and they will use it! Great way to keep Union busy all day.
 
secondchance said:
I just don't get how the government spends the money to these contractors and the work is mediocre.
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union2pearson said:
A tidbit of info. When the designs for the Bay Concourse was first introduced, this was back in 2010 and included the lighting that is now outdated. The contractor had to adhere and install what the approved lighting was back in the day under their obligation, which is now obsolete. Any change or deviation would have increased the price of the total build which was already over budget and now the lighting is failing with not enough parts to repair them.
Click to expand...
Reminds me of the old-school software engineering days. Build a massive requirements spec up front, get agreement, and then start building to the spec come hell or high water. I mean, people very quickly figured out that this was a pretty blinkered way to build software, since it means you can’t be responsive to what you discover along the way.

At any rate, these fixed price contracts that trigger massive change fees on reopening are an anti-pattern. (Didn’t the Steeles station on the Hurontario Line have exactly the same issue?)
 
secondchance said:
I thought my eyes were going bad, or I was just imagining the station looked brighter not too long ago. Thanks for making me know I am not losing my mind (yet). It looks dull and depressing again. It also affects commuters' moods. All the work and money they put into the corridor and yet the lights are already malfunctioning. Shows nothing is of great workmanship and lasts anymore. Just like the TTC signal replacement that took over 10 years to complete. They were done earlier this year, yet there's already signal issues. I just don't get how the government spends the money to these contractors and the work is mediocre.
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I was thinking of that TTC upgrade the other day. They were promising that with the automation, trains could be run "closer together", lessening the wait times. Yet with recent cuts to service, they are saying wait times will increase, as well as prices.

Makes me also wonder what happened to the promises of 15 mins service on Lakeshore East and 20 mins on Lakeshore West pre-pandemic. We got that for such a short amount of time. These are both 30 min service now post-pandemic with no indications of returning to the higher frequency service.
 
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