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Union Station: Northwest PATH Expansion

If Wellington isn't feasible, the tunnel will hit the main PATH if extended north to King at the Sun Life Centre.

In a few posts above there was a mention that the connection is to the HSBC building. This is partially correct. It will connect to both the HSBC building AND the TD Centre food court. If HSBC doesn't want the connection, the real benefit is to get to the food court. HSBC will complete a loop.

If you wanted to skip York and go up University there is already a city-owned parking lot under University all the way from Piper to King. Only a small tunnel is needed to get to the parking structure. Would connect you to 145 King/St Andrew Subway with minimal investment (but losing some parking spaces)
 
In a few posts above there was a mention that the connection is to the HSBC building. This is partially correct. It will connect to both the HSBC building AND the TD Centre food court. If HSBC doesn't want the connection, the real benefit is to get to the food court. HSBC will complete a loop.

If you wanted to skip York and go up University there is already a city-owned parking lot under University all the way from Piper to King. Only a small tunnel is needed to get to the parking structure. Would connect you to 145 King/St Andrew Subway with minimal investment (but losing some parking spaces)

I don't think the TPA, the City, or anyone for that matter wants to route large numbers of pedestrians through a parking garage, one that is quite busy at most times of day yet alone on event days. The potential rise in pedestrian accidents, and probably fatalities given how crazy fast I see people speed through that garage, is a very strong deterrent.

A couple of places in the PATH--citibank, that one RBC building near CBC--have a very short jaunt across a lane in the parking garage, but that's very different than basically going the full length of it from King to Front.
 
I don't think the TPA, the City, or anyone for that matter wants to route large numbers of pedestrians through a parking garage, one that is quite busy at most times of day yet alone on event days. The potential rise in pedestrian accidents, and probably fatalities given how crazy fast I see people speed through that garage, is a very strong deterrent.

A couple of places in the PATH--citibank, that one RBC building near CBC--have a very short jaunt across a lane in the parking garage, but that's very different than basically going the full length of it from King to Front.

sorry...should have explained further. By removing all cars from one level you would have a walking only area with no car access. It is wide enough for the city to rent out some retail to recoup any lost parking fees/construction costs.
 
The garage is not built for human occupation. There would likely not be the proper systems in place to support this type of use without significant investment.
 
In a few posts above there was a mention that the connection is to the HSBC building. This is partially correct. It will connect to both the HSBC building AND the TD Centre food court. If HSBC doesn't want the connection, the real benefit is to get to the food court. HSBC will complete a loop.

If you wanted to skip York and go up University there is already a city-owned parking lot under University all the way from Piper to King. Only a small tunnel is needed to get to the parking structure. Would connect you to 145 King/St Andrew Subway with minimal investment (but losing some parking spaces)

Is the HSBC building formerly the Sun Life Centre near St. Andrew Station? Is there a parking garage in between?
 
Is the HSBC building formerly the Sun Life Centre near St. Andrew Station? Is there a parking garage in between?
nope the former Sun Life Centre near St. Andrew station is still the Sun Life Centre (for a few more months) on the NE corner ( http://150kingstreetwest.ca/the-building/office-tenants/ ) with the twin on the NW ( http://200kingstreetwest.com/200ksw_ABOUT.php ) being an un-named building containing a mixture of decent tenants but none taking the naming position.

The HSBC building is at 70 York Street.

http://core.arcestra.com/view/440339268352045964/hsbc-building
 
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^ But is there a garage extending under York St. between the end of the new PATH tunnel and the main route under King to St. Andrew Station?
 
^ But is there a garage extending under York St. between the end of the new PATH tunnel and the main route under King to St. Andrew Station?
The parking garage is slightly (using a non-technical definition of slightly) to the west of the current end of the new terminus...it, essentially, sits under university avenue from Front up to just south of king.

The future extension of the new NW "path" extension that currently surfaces just south of the 2nd cup in the 1 university avenue building would be going north under York St....so not affected by the parking garage.
 
I don't think the TPA, the City, or anyone for that matter wants to route large numbers of pedestrians through a parking garage, one that is quite busy at most times of day yet alone on event days. The potential rise in pedestrian accidents, and probably fatalities given how crazy fast I see people speed through that garage, is a very strong deterrent.

A couple of places in the PATH--citibank, that one RBC building near CBC--have a very short jaunt across a lane in the parking garage, but that's very different than basically going the full length of it from King to Front.
In theory, the layout of a parking garage can be modified to allow a protected covered/decorated pedestrian 'tunnel' throughfare that doesn't even have a view of the garage except through some windows -- and a couple sets of access doors -- while still keeping most of a parking garage floor for cars.

What type of parking garage is it? I am not familiar with this particular one. The areas that cars can drive through and the parking space layout may have to be changed, depending on how the parking garage is designed (e.g. just pillars that permits a parking spaces layout redesign -- swapping where cars drove through versus parking spaces -- or a lot of immovable load-bearing concrete walls). Certain parking garages have flat levels with just a grid of pillars, and in theory, you can just redesign where the cars drove/where the cars parked, allowing mitigation of loss of parking spaces. Most below-ground parking garages aren't designed this way, though.

The question is -- how many parking spaces would be lost in a 'pedestrian tunnel' scenario? With GO RER electrification, may divert enough cars from that particular building to allow such spaces to be sold off to Metrolinx. It might be surprisingly few, or might be devastatingly huge.

At the Aldershot south parking lot, I was intrigued how Metrolinx added 50 parking spaces during their first stage of incremental parking lot extension (out of two done recently) simply by initially changing the layout of the south parking lot, shifting where the cars drove through, to allow parking spaces at the very southern edge rather than driving lane flush against the southern curb. So the layout efficiency rearrangement meant more surface-area of parking spaces got added than asphalt surface-area.
 
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I don't know if the City would want to route a new PATH connection through a parking garage now, but they sure as hell have before. Try getting from the Sheration to City Hall underground via the PATH.
 
In theory, the layout of a parking garage can be modified to allow a protected covered/decorated pedestrian 'tunnel' throughfare that doesn't even have a view of the garage except through some windows -- and a couple sets of access doors -- while still keeping most of a parking garage floor for cars.

What type of parking garage is it? I am not familiar with this particular one. The areas that cars can drive through and the parking space layout may have to be changed, depending on how the parking garage is designed (e.g. just pillars that permits a parking spaces layout redesign -- swapping where cars drove through versus parking spaces -- or a lot of immovable load-bearing concrete walls). Certain parking garages have flat levels with just a grid of pillars, and in theory, you can just redesign where the cars drove/where the cars parked, allowing mitigation of loss of parking spaces. Most below-ground parking garages aren't designed this way, though.

The question is -- how many parking spaces would be lost in a 'pedestrian tunnel' scenario? With GO RER electrification, may divert enough cars from that particular building to allow such spaces to be sold off to Metrolinx. It might be surprisingly few, or might be devastatingly huge.

At the Aldershot south parking lot, I was intrigued how Metrolinx added 50 parking spaces during their first stage of incremental parking lot extension (out of two done recently) simply by initially changing the layout of the south parking lot, shifting where the cars drove through, to allow parking spaces at the very southern edge rather than driving lane flush against the southern curb. So the layout efficiency rearrangement meant more surface-area of parking spaces got added than asphalt surface-area.

The garage is a long, two storey structure. Perpendicular stalls on each side with a one-way down the middle. Theoretically you could turn all the perpendicular stalls on the east side of one level to parallel stalls and maybe save half the spaces, then build a corridor behind them. The garage pedestrian exit already empties into the PATH at the north end, so you could connect in there. Not impossible, but that's usually a packed garage, particular during events.
 
This project is still alive. In the City's Real Estate Budget documents for 2017 it says:

North West (NW) Path – Phase 2 ($50.0 million) – The North West PATH - Phase 2 extension will connect the existing PATH system from Union Station, along York Street to Wellington Street, $50.0 million in capital funding is planned in 2021-2023.
 
North West (NW) Path – Phase 2 ($50.0 million) – The North West PATH - Phase 2 extension will connect the existing PATH system from Union Station, along York Street to Wellington Street, $50.0 million in capital funding is planned in 2021-2023.

And even then it will still only exit to outside.
 
And even then it will still only exit to outside.
It wouldn't connect to the path on the NW corner of Wellington and York under the HSBC building?

EDIT....I can't even picture where at York and Wellington it would be able to have an outdoor exit/entrance.
 
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