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

I just pulled up the Toronto one as well, and it shows Toronto at the same share of journeys by auto (68%) as Vancouver? But Sydney did open up that shiny new subway extension, so maybe their share will improve.
 
According to the recent USEP documents that were posted here earlier this week, a bridge above Yonge Street connecting to Union Station is under consideration, this bridge would connect to various potential platform extensions, providing Union Station a direct connection to Yonge Street.
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Here’s the official blueprint of the bridge included in the USEP documents:
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It can also be partially seen in the 3d model of Union Station Metrolinx showed in one of their social media posts a few months ago:
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Alongside this bridge over Yonge Street, a west bridge coming out of the Skywalk and UP Express station is also under consideration, and would also connect to future platforms extended out of the west side of Union, here’s the blueprint for the west bridge and a screenshot of it in that same Metrolinx 3d model video:
Image 2024-09-16 at 8.45 PM.jpeg

IMG_8146.jpeg

The photos of the 3d model are very low quality and in awkward angles, but that’s just how Metrolinx posted the video.
 
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Willybru21 said:
According to the recent USEP documents that were posted here earlier this week, a bridge above Yonge Street connecting to Union Station is under consideration, this bridge would connect to various potential platform extensions, providing Union Station a direct connection to Yonge Street.View attachment 597146

Here’s the official blueprint of the bridge included in the USEP documents:View attachment 597147

It can also be partially seen in the 3d model of Union Station Metrolinx showed in one of their social media posts a few months ago:View attachment 597148


Alongside this bridge over Yonge Street, a west bridge coming out of the Skywalk and UP Express station is also under consideration, and would also connect to future platforms extended out of the west side of Union, here’s the blueprint for the west bridge and a screenshot of it in that same Metrolinx 3d model video:View attachment 597149
View attachment 597150
The photos of the 3d model are very low quality and in awkward angles, but that’s just how Metrolinx posted the video.
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Back when that rumored discontinuation of the UPexpress brand there were theories about a bridge to connect to the platforms instead to use GO services.
Could be the same thought. That bridge on yonge is curious though
 
generalcanada said:
Back when that rumored discontinuation of the UPexpress brand there were theories about a bridge to connect to the platforms instead to use GO services.
Could be the same thought. That bridge on yonge is curious though
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I personally think the west bridge is independent from the UP Express discontinuation plan (so different from the plans from a few years ago), however there isn’t enough information available yet to really for me to really know, so it’s more of a prediction than anything
 
Plodding through the Docs, including the Detailed Revision List............

I note the following:

There is to be zero retail in USEP (south concourse)

There is to be zero seating except for the enclosed seating at platform level.

I note that the City made comments about animating the concourse and providing for retail and seating and Mx's proponent responding by saying they would include neither as they would impede passenger flow.
 
Retail is fine to me, Union already has a lot of it and the Bremner Concourse will have a direct connection to The Market, not to mention deliveries to potential stores in the concourse would be really difficult given its location in the station.

No seating is unfortunate but looking at the layout of the concourse I can kind of understand why, it’s very thin and long with a lot of ramps and angled floors, it’s more like a hallway/teamway than it is the Bay or York Concourses.
 
I agree Union has a lot of retail space already and not all of it is full yet.

I do wonder about the animation of the Bremner Concourse with no retail though.
 
Dan416 said:
I have to say the approach here does make Toronto feel like a provincial backwater instead of the financial capital of a G7 nation. I guess I've gotten so used to it I don't expect anything better, but seeing Australia do so much better than us is kinda disheartening.
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I know Sydney quite well. Toronto and other Canadian cities have a lot to learn from Australia, particularly around public spaces like parks and streetscapes, but the reverse is also true.

For one thing, the shiny new Metro extension does not remotely reflect the state of most infrastructure. (See: Sydney and especially Melbourne airports). And the very expensive, very elaborate line parallels the existing rail network, literally within a couple of blocks, for most of its route. It adds capacity and redundancy, but doesn't change the fact that vast swathes of Sydney--including some very busy areas like Bondi and Manly--are nowhere near rapid transit. And some of the recent expansions, like the bizarre Light Rail system, are as suboptimal as anything dreamed up by Metrolinx. On the plus side, Metro West (still under construction) looks like it will be a major leap forward.

More broadly, outside the hyper-dense CBD and a couple of other nodes, Sydney is an extremely sprawl-first, low-rise city. I'm sure there are differences in measurement, and the boundaries of Greater Sydney (like Greater Toronto) are debatable, but most online sources I see put GTA population density roughly 2X higher. NIMBYism there is on another level from basically anything in Canada; you can walk for miles in central neighborhoods and encounter virtually no construction. So the growth, of which there's a great deal, gets shunted to endless plains of one-story bungalows way out toward Penrith, Liverpool and beyond. That's the default mode of development, and aligns with the Australian attitude that the only proper way to live, certainly with kids, is in a big house.

To bring this back to Union: Sydney's existing rail system--which runs along broadly the same principles as a German S-Bahn or the London Overground--is really impressive, especially considering the above. It sort of disproves the notion that you need high population density to support good transit. If GO ended up following a similar model, Toronto would hugely benefit.
 
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^I agree. I posted this in the Statistics thread but thought that it might be useful here.

Here are the best measures for comparing cities globally known as ‘built area.’

http://www.demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf

Some quick numbers:

GTHA: 6,837,000, Density: 2,917/km
LA: 15m, Density: 2,253/km
NY: 21.3m, Density: 1,886/km
Chicago: 8.9m, Density: 1,370/km
SF: 6.8m, Density: 1,883/km

Sydney: 4.8m, Density: 2,200/km
Melbourne: 4.7m, Density: 1,635/km

London: 10.8m, Density: 6,200/km
Birmingham: 2.5m, Density: 4,200/km
 
Willybru21 said:
Retail is fine to me, Union already has a lot of it and the Bremner Concourse will have a direct connection to The Market, not to mention deliveries to potential stores in the concourse would be really difficult given its location in the station.

No seating is unfortunate but looking at the layout of the concourse I can kind of understand why, it’s very thin and long with a lot of ramps and angled floors, it’s more like a hallway/teamway than it is the Bay or York Concourses.
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Yeah you can see it in the renders, it's going to be extremely different from the other concourses in terms of the number of connections of stairs and ramps between the various levels it's connecting to within and outside of the station. It's really just an upgrade of the hallways used to reach the south platforms before. And that's still a big improvement, even without any retail.
 
TossYourJacket said:
Yeah you can see it in the renders, it's going to be extremely different from the other concourses in terms of the number of connections of stairs and ramps between the various levels it's connecting to within and outside of the station. It's really just an upgrade of the hallways used to reach the south platforms before. And that's still a big improvement, even without any retail.
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The south platforms will be used for the Lakeshore lines of I remember correctly so it will have the most footfall when compared to the other platforms. It makes sense that they maximize the area for walking and moving people through.

They York and Bay concourses are right there as well so anyone needing retail can definitely make their way over there.
 
Speaking of retail - there still seems to be big areas that aren't open yet - are they still under construction or waiting for tenants to complete the build out ?

The retail that does exist is nice though, very much changes the feel of the station from say 10 years back.
 
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