the lemur
Senior Member
28 April 2015:
Used this sort of by accident the other day while walking from the southeast corner of Front & York. Handy, since the intersection is a mess to cross by any means.
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Used this sort of by accident the other day while walking from the southeast corner of Front & York. Handy, since the intersection is a mess to cross by any means.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Filip
Senior Member
From a business point of view - probably not. They're well connected as is and this PATH wouldn't really revolutionize anything for them, it doesn't go anywhere the current connections don't (without a short detour).
Platform 27
Active Member
It probably makes more sense for them to connect only after the second phase is complete and the PATH under York is functioning as a north-south thoroughfare up to TD.
Picture the following scene if it were open this winter: GO train pulls into Union in the morning without a Bay concourse. A torrent of commuters come off the train into the York concourse and teamway bound for the Bay street bank towers, walking north under Front and then turning right to cut through the hotel's basement. Not exactly a 4 star experience for their guests.
the lemur
Senior Member
People were already taking the Royal York entrance on York from outdoors, especially if they were coming from the GO building on Station St. Also, people going through the lower retail level under the hotel (the basement) don't necessarily interact with RY guests, who are mostly on the ground floor and around the main Front St entrance.
muller877
Senior Member
Platform 27 is correct...the concourse level of the Royal York is not suited to the potential large crowds. There are too many bottlenecks (escalators) and the noise would waft up to the main level through the staircases. Not a great guest experience (Trump Hotel doesn't even want a PATH connection).
But they may be missing out on a revenue potential...think of the increased rent from the stores/restaurants. I'm sure they will want to be part of the construction when it is built north to York...probably cheaper to include the connection as part of this future phase.
nfitz
Superstar
I walked through today. Ah, I see. There's TWO temporary walls. One to head north, and one to head east, right into the Royal York.
That eastern "knockout" looked more temporary than I'd have thought, if they haven't got immediate plans to make the connection.
JasonParis
Moderator
I'd think it could only help. Their concourse retail never seems to be very busy and much of it also has a dated feel.
Mr_Praline
New Member
PATH connection from York moat to 123 Front St W open as of yesterday. Very new smelling and bright, but not well-used currently. That probably will change when the next few buildings west along Front (ex- East Side Mario's) start to get redeveloped.
mdrejhon
Senior Member
Wouldn't it still help things from a capacity perspective, especially if you disembark the GO train closer to a specific PATH connection?
Consider that 3x the number of passengers are going to cram through Union sometime in the 2030s, we need more "bandwidth" for input and output for Union. This PATH connection will be needed eventually, for the peak surges during winter and bad weather.
We're almost, but not quite, at the limits already, and the revitalization roughly doubles the pedestrian bandwidth of Union (roughly double the number of exit doors, roughly double the number of meters of width totalled of all outgoing PATH connections) by end of 2017.
Le Gique
Active Member
Let's consider again what happens when the Bay concourse closes and many of the riders who used it start exiting through the VIA and York concourse. For those headed to the TTC or PATH, they will be loading into the west-most doorways facing the Bay hall and down the stairs.
Will the current set of doors at the west ramps remain the only covered access to the subway station as well as north underground (for the foreseeable future)? Even with the moat open -- eventually -- I see a helluva jam up here.
Is there any plan to open up Union subway station further west? The middle of the subway platforms do not align with the centre of the train platforms but nonetheless, access to the subway seems unnecessarily skewed to the east.
Do I overreact or are opportunities being missed to minimize crowding into the only extant below-surface conduit to PATH?
(Please link to any previous discussion of this.)
Will the current set of doors at the west ramps remain the only covered access to the subway station as well as north underground (for the foreseeable future)? Even with the moat open -- eventually -- I see a helluva jam up here.
Is there any plan to open up Union subway station further west? The middle of the subway platforms do not align with the centre of the train platforms but nonetheless, access to the subway seems unnecessarily skewed to the east.
Do I overreact or are opportunities being missed to minimize crowding into the only extant below-surface conduit to PATH?
(Please link to any previous discussion of this.)
The subway station is finished, with no chance of being directly linked to the Northwest PATH extension. There will be some pedestrian jam-ups in Union Station while the Bay Concourse closes for a couple of years for the rebuild, so it will be interesting to see how many people shift their walk to the Northwest PATH to avoid the jam. Because the NW PATH does not link up to the system, I'm afraid it's not going to be very many.
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TOareaFan
Superstar
This is what I was getting at when I suggested a few months ago that it was wrong to call this a path connection.......and lots of people jumped on me. In it's present form it is simply a tunnel getting people under Front........in that it
bypasses a crowded, multi-stage intersection it will be useful to some.........but people working east of York are not likely to divert themselves over there to be chucked outside.......particularly in the winter
Le Gique
Active Member
Um, was the great big PATH pillar in place on the NW corner of York&Front when the related stair/lift entrances were opened?
It's an awesome signpost, and dastardly false advertising...
Can we assume a northward connection is five plus years away ...?
It's an awesome signpost, and dastardly false advertising...
Can we assume a northward connection is five plus years away ...?
muller877
Senior Member
FYI. the PATH connection to the Citi building (123 Front). There are no plans to extend it to any other building.
151 Front (East Side Mario's) is actually the most expensive rent in all of Toronto. It's the main data centre/interconnect hub for all of Canada (proximity is important when you are transferring terabytes of data even with fibre).
They are planning to expand this as I understand by cantilevering a new building over the old so that it will not disrupt the current users. It will be connected via the Skywalk to Union, not via the Citi building due to this planned design.
From 151 Front (Simcoe side of the building) there is an ability for the PATH to continue north to the NE corner of Simcoe/Front where there is 2 or 3 towers planned (currently a parking lot). From there it will go to the NW corner of Simcoe/Front to connect to the existing PATH in Simcoe Place. (at least that's what I understand).