AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Language police notwithstanding, I am glad they went with large and clear signage. They could easily have slapped a "concourse closed" and left it at that.
AoD
AoD
Toronto Union Station Revitalization | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | NORR
the lemur
Senior Member
The pictograms at the top and the hardhats just about suggest there is a closure. I wonder what the white space on each panel is for though.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Maybe it's for handwriting additional info. In any case, the only minor quibble I have is that the arrow pointing left (East) isn't exactly right, considering you can board trains at the Bay teamway - but people who doesn't know that will probably need to access the GO Concourse proper anyways.
AoD
tnarduzzi
Active Member
Might I add to this: It would be nice to see more of the "big yellow themed" signs. They need to continue all the way into the GO/VIA/GOBus concourses.
Right now this is a great start, but passengers have to "follow the breadcrumbs" and pick up different types of construction signage (various sizes, colours, and themes) along the remainder of the routes.
NotMathematical
Active Member
Usually GO posts posters with the French translation along side English either side by side, or on the back side of a handout, it never refers the website for information in French.
reaperexpress
Senior Member
The Government of Canada is officially bilingual, but the Province of Ontario is not. So while VIA is required to provide service in both languages, GO does it because they choose to.
The only bilingual province is New Brunswick. There are some officially bilingual areas within Ontario, but they're outside Metrolinx's service area.
nfitz
Superstar
Your looking at the federal official bilingual areas. Ontario operates under the Ontario French Language Services Act which guarantees the right to services in French from the provincial government in government offices in designated areas of the province.
The list of designated area is at http://www.ofa.gov.on.ca/en/flsa-mapdesig.html
Toronto is a designated area.
GO does it because they have to.
Le Gique
Active Member
How many different entities are currently responsible for signage at Union?
Mind, I'm not asking what should be the case -- but the actual situation.
the lemur
Senior Member
Yeah, that was my thought as well. It doesn't make sense or make a good impression to give all the information in print in one language and then tell speakers of another language, 'Ah, just go look at this website, alright?'.
reaperexpress
Senior Member
Hmm, I learned something new today!
tnarduzzi
Active Member
Demolition has begun on the Bay concourse. I will try and get pictures soon!
(To the security guard that tried to stop me taking pictures through the hoarding this morning. I stand by my comment. "You are a small minded idiot that is bad for PR.")
(To the security guard that tried to stop me taking pictures through the hoarding this morning. I stand by my comment. "You are a small minded idiot that is bad for PR.")
nfitz
Superstar
You should post his picture!
W. K. Lis
Superstar
Is there a competing railway station that we don't know about? Or a foreign spy network that we have to be on watch for?
More likely it's to prevent sabotage opportunities from the anti-transit folks.
tnarduzzi
Active Member
Haha that made me laugh. Jokes. I was more implying to this "gentleman-wearing-a-City-of-Toronto-shirt" that public money is funding this project. As such, the public should have every right to be informed.
The Union Revitalization PR is definitely lacking! It is as if they (City of Toronto, Metrolinx, etc.) are so ashamed of the budget and schedule over-runs that they have outright decided to stop releasing information to the public. The social media profiles have gone dead. Press/media tours have stopped. Even the offical Toronto-Union Revitalization website has not been updated in ages. The best source of information is currently the construction status reports that are presented to City Council (and as such archived online).
The implied loss here is that there is a generation of Torontonians who pass through one of the largest infrastructure projects to be built in our lifetime and yet many would be none the wiser. Really, I mean this is the type & scale of project that people spend the better part of their entire careers working on.
I consider what they are doing to Union to be inspirational. It should not be kept under a shroud.
I would be all for them installing plexiglass "ports" in the hoarding so the public can watch what is happening as the Bay concourse is demolished and underpinned (dug down). Can you imagine how this would captivate people!?!
tnarduzzi
Active Member
You should post his picture!
Sorry to disappoint. It didn't really come out. He's kind of using his body to move me back and close the door to the hoarding...
