Toronto Union Subway Station: Second Platform and Concourse Improvements | ?m | ?s | TTC | Arcadis

Media Advisory - Toronto Waterfront Transit Hub Gets Major Upgrade: Launch of Construction for Union Station Subway Platform Expansion

TORONTO, May 19 /CNW/ -

<<
WHO: - Hon. John Baird, President of the Treasury Board and federal
Minister responsible for the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization
Initiative
- Hon. David Caplan, Minister of Public Infrastructure Renewal
- His Worship Mayor David Miller, City of Toronto
- Peter Smith, Acting Chair, Toronto Waterfront Revitalization
Corp. (TWRC)
- Howard Moscoe, Chair, Toronto Transit Commission (TTC)

WHAT: Representatives from TWRC, TTC and the three governments will take
part in an event to mark the start of construction on the Union
Station Subway Platform Expansion. Union Station will be the
transit hub for Toronto's revitalized waterfront.

WHEN: Wednesday, May 24, 2006
12:30 p.m.
Moat between Union Train Station and Union Subway Station
(pedestrian entrance off Bay St., south of Front St. or from Union
Station)
>>




For further information: Kristin Jenkins, TWRC, (416) 214-1479; Mike Van
Soelen, Treasury Board Secretariat, (613) 952-5051; Wilson Lee, Ontario
Ministry of Public Infrastructure Renewal, Minister's Office, (416) 325-8735;
Don Wanagas, City of Toronto, Mayor's Office, (416) 338-7134

great news, thx Ed007Toronto

Finally!

Union Station will be the transit hub for Toronto's revitalized waterfront.

Click to expand...

Thank god they are turning this backwater into something important.

Seriously, though, great news. I must admit I'm always a little afraid when walking along that platform that somebody is going to push me off the platform onto the tracks. :eek

I heard the construction of this would take 2 years. Is that accurate?

I'm guessing that's because it includes reconfiguration of the mezzanine level and fixing up the entire platform. The new platform shouldn't take more than 1 year to dig out and begin usage.

dont be too sure about that. ttc construction seems to have a way of taking far beyond reasonable lengths of time. look at the delays on the dundas square stairs, or the neverending work at broadview, or the years it takes to put in a new elevator

my prediction is that work will be underway on the york extension before work at union is actually wrapped up

More than 2 years on this would just be absolute nonsense... but something tells me you'll be right. |I

How about expanding the dark,narrow platforms of via and go trains? Is there any update regarding that?>:

alik:

Umm, that's not in the program. :\

AoD

Union Station's $100M facelift
$100 million will make commuters' lives easier
Construction work gets underway June 5
May 24, 2006. 05:15 AM
KEVIN MCGRAN
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER


Union Station commuters will enjoy bigger, better walkways and a second subway station platform under a $100 million plan that gets the go-ahead today.

Provincial, federal, city and transit officials will make the big announcement for the project — which has been on the books for six years — at the moat between the historic Union railway station housing GO Transit and the subway system's part of Union Station to the north.

Construction is to begin June 5 when workers begin a year-long project to move a sewer, which is located in the spot where the new subway platform will go. Commuter and pedestrian traffic won't be affected until 2008 when concourse and subway platform work is due to begin. But during construction the current platform will remain in use while the second platform is built.

Planners also hope to give GO Transit passengers their own route to the underground PATH system. Currently, the 100,000 GO commuters who use the main station every day must pass through the TTC station — used by 80,000 people daily — on their way to the underground system.

"It's very complicated today," says TTC project manager Sylvano Florindi. "Right now, to go from GO to the PATH system, you have to walk right through the TTC station. Everybody uses that same passage.

"We're separating that."

To that end:

A new western pedestrian corridor will be created so that GO patrons can connect to the underground walkways without passing through the TTC station.

The centre corridor will be enclosed as a TTC "paid fare zone."

The eastern corridor will be widened.

TTC patrons will get a second platform south of the existing platform servicing the Yonge-bound trains. The fully accessible station will feature wider stairs, new escalators, and new pedestrian corridors.

In addition there will be:

Improved connection to the Harbourfront streetcar line.

New automatic entrances from the BCE tunnel.

Wider subway platforms.

Florindi says forecasts for growth — through waterfront redevelopment, employment growth, and new streetcar and GO Train plans — have double the number of people using Union Station in the next 15 years.

"Right now the station is at over-capacity," said Florindi. "This will fix that problem. It will keep us going for the next 15 years."

Most of the money is coming from the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp., which is co-funded by the federal and provincial governments. The money was promised to the city back when Jean Chrétien was prime minister and Ernie Eves was premier.

The TTC's Union subway project is separate from the Union railway station revitalization plan that collapsed in April when Union Pearson Group, the private consortium selected to do the work, announced it could not meet the city's May 31 deadline to finalize the deal. Union Pearson Group, which had been awarded a 100-year lease to renovate and operate the historic train station, had planned to transform Toronto's Union Station into a transportation showpiece.

www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs...8793972154

Last night at Union was almost a disaster. There was such a huge crowd on the platform that the people on the escalator were just ploughing into them as it descending. Coulda turned ugly.

"Planners also hope to give GO Transit passengers their own route to the underground PATH system. Currently, the 100,000 GO commuters who use the main station every day must pass through the TTC station — used by 80,000 people daily — on their way to the underground system."

One of my top 10 favourite things to do is walk north from Union Station through PATH on a Friday at 5pm. Going against the grain like this is just so amusing...I feel like that little house that survived the Saguenay flood.

^ climbing the stairs against the morning rush always reminded me of salmon spawning upstream

^ Maybe one of these would help?

based on the time taken to do the work on Broadview station, I am forecasting a completion date of 2018 for the refurbishment at Union. anyone care to make a wager?