Toronto Union Station Revitalization | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | NORR
Student99
Active Member
... that will not be much of a drop down to the glass from the top of the wall.
Especially the middle part of the arches on the Sir John A McDonald Square side.
That said though, the arch supports are really close together (= lots of support), and as long as they get decent glass, I have a hard time believing someone could fall through.
Le Gique
Active Member
GO regulars coming in from Front will likely proceed directly to the York (or Bay) Concourses but they will be able to use the VIA Concourse too, yes?
Those catching a VIA train or picking up a passenger would still have to make their way to the Great Hall or the "Arrivals" area below if they want to see a VIA board, unless these are added to other entrances of the building.
BTW ... I wonder if the Arrivals area will ever return to its former glorious glory...
DSC
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They have started to remove the scaffolding on the north wall of the Great Hall and continue to fence off sections of the floor while they completely replace the tiles. It really is moving on.
ttk77
Senior Member
The VIA concourse is even more of a mess right now. Half the back entrance from Maple Leaf square is blocked off, as is much more of the main VIA concourse. They've blocked off so many of the stairs up to track level that they're having problems getting everyone on/off trains. I arrived about 20 minutes early for a train to Guelph (train 87) last weekend and was directed to an elevator on the other side of the concourse because they needed the one they currently had allocated to train 87 to de-board another train.
I know it's going to be a rough few years, but VIA really needs to get their act together here. Despite being directed by 3 separate VIA employees to the elevator the guy at the top told me I had to go back downstairs when I asked him how to get to my train from there. He refused to listen when I told him I'd been directed up this way.
I know it's going to be a rough few years, but VIA really needs to get their act together here. Despite being directed by 3 separate VIA employees to the elevator the guy at the top told me I had to go back downstairs when I asked him how to get to my train from there. He refused to listen when I told him I'd been directed up this way.
Canadian Chocho
Active Member
There isn't really much VIA can do, it has to live with its concourse being under construction while it remains open, unlike GO which got an entirely new concourse while they work on the Bay Concourse. To make matters worse GO passengers still insist on cutting through the VIA concourse, despite having a shiny new concourse to themselves.
As for someone telling you to go back down, that is a bit strange. I can only maybe imagine that they were overwhelmed with three different trains on the same platform (2 boarding, 1 disembarking) that the best advice he could give you is to go back down and and wait until the east side of the platform was clear from the disembarking train and let everyone up at once.
I'll have you know however that the eastern escalators typically used for arrivals on that platform are now in service as of this week, so they don't have to suspend the boarding for 87 to let out the Ottawa train anymore.
As for someone telling you to go back down, that is a bit strange. I can only maybe imagine that they were overwhelmed with three different trains on the same platform (2 boarding, 1 disembarking) that the best advice he could give you is to go back down and and wait until the east side of the platform was clear from the disembarking train and let everyone up at once.
I'll have you know however that the eastern escalators typically used for arrivals on that platform are now in service as of this week, so they don't have to suspend the boarding for 87 to let out the Ottawa train anymore.
ttk77
Senior Member
Yeah. My concern isn't really about how congested things are in there. I understand that's out of their control. My issues were around the employee confusion. He insisted that the platform was for the Ottawa train and that I'd have to go downstairs and back up onto another platform for train 87. I just stood there contradicting him every time he said that until another VIA employee came up who knew what was going on.
Regarding the renovations in there though, they seem to be going painfully slow. I know they're constrained by usage hours, but it still feels like it could be going a lot faster. I asked one of the VIA employees on the concourse how long they expect the renovations in there to take and she said another two years at least.
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Since the VIA employees did not seem to know where their own trains were I suspect their knowledge of how long the renos will take is equally flawed! As far as I know, the majority of the work in the Great Hall and the VIA Concourse will be finished by late 2017 and early 2018. (At theCity's Government Management Committee last week it was reported "Substantial Completion of Stage 2/3 currently expected in February 2018 (excluding York and Bay Street moat covers; mid 2018), which includes the restoration of the Bay Concourse, VIA Concourse, Great Hall, remaining retail areas and East Wing exterior façade. This will trigger the turnover of the Bay Concourse to Metrolinx for final fixturing. After this time, the City will have no control of the actual timing of the opening of the Bay Concourse to the public." I was there last week and the floors in the VIA Concourse and Great Hall are currently being repaired/replaced and the VIA Concourse is getting its new wall and ceiling plasterboard at a good rate.
G.L.17
Senior Member
ttk77
Senior Member
That's good to hear about the expected completion dates. The floor work is probably why so much of the concourse is blocked off right now. Maybe I have unrealistic expectations, but to me the drywall/plasterboard work is going painfully slow. I walk through there just about every morning at 6am along the east side corridor of the concourse, and the ceiling work is going at a snail's pace.
tecturemuse
New Member
More pics from Katia Osokine:
North Wall:
(https://twitter.com/KatiaOsokine/status/874249340948291585)
South Wall:
(https://twitter.com/KatiaOsokine/status/874249820243931136)
North Wall:
(https://twitter.com/KatiaOsokine/status/874249340948291585)
South Wall:
(https://twitter.com/KatiaOsokine/status/874249820243931136)
aquateam
Active Member
More pics from Katia Osokine:
South Wall:
(https://twitter.com/KatiaOsokine/status/874249820243931136)
Is it just me or does "50 years going strong" on top of the construction hoarding sound more like a statement about the interminable Union Station construction than about the history of GO transit?
Just so people have a sense of history Union Station was originally completed in 1920. It then stood empty until finally opened in 1927. We have nothing to complain about today.
pman
Senior Member
Absolutely right, we're spoiled by the speed of Toronto public works construction. For that matter, it took between ten and twenty years to construct the Great Pyramid of Giza, and in all likelihood at least 80% of the Union renovation will have been completed in that time span, so there.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza
Le Gique
Active Member
We Trontonians have nothing to *reasonably* complain about ... but just as our penchant for construction delays and mismanagement is now a tradition, so is our love of kvetching about ourselves...
I wonder if there's a record of how the locals expressed themselves during the long seven years...
I wonder if there's a record of how the locals expressed themselves during the long seven years...