Toronto Union Station Revitalization | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | NORR

Someone posted this very interesting page on Reddit, it’s a bunch of stories and photos of unseen and abandoned areas inside Union Station in the 90’s: http://infiltration.org/utility-union.html

Crazy that this abandoned hallway was just allowed to flood like this, yikes!

IMG_8246.jpeg
 
nfitz said:
I thought it was the one from Union to the Royal York.

There was one from the subway too?
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Yes, there was one from Union to Royal York.

"With the opening of Union Station in 1927, an underground tunnel was built to connect it to the Royal York Hotel (now known as the Fairmont Royal York). The real growth of PATH began in the 1970s when a tunnel was built to connect the Richmond-Adelaide and Sheraton Centres." from https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/visitor-toronto/path-torontos-downtown-pedestrian-walkway/ .

It was even on older PATH maps, though I am not sure when it actually closed (see red arrow):

PATH.jpg


But I think the flooded tunnel in photos earlier in the thread is a different one. They mention a "disassembled escalator" they saw in the tunnel on the website the photo was originally posted (http://infiltration.org/utility-union.html), and I don't think the tunnel to Royal York had an escalator (I could be wrong). I think it's this tunnel, one that connected Union Station to the subway:

stevemunro.ca

The Original Connection to Union Station (Updated)

In the comments thread on my main Union Station post, some have remarked about a mysterious, abandoned tunnel that links Union subway station to the railway station. Scott Haskill from the TTC sor…
stevemunro.ca stevemunro.ca

Also see: http://infiltration.org/journal-unionsite.html
 
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bearcat said:
But I think the flooded tunnel in photos earlier in the thread is a different one. They mention a "disassembled escalator" they saw in the tunnel on the website the photo was originally posted (http://infiltration.org/utility-union.html), and I don't think the tunnel to Royal York had an escalator (I could be wrong). I think it's this tunnel, one that connected Union Station to the subway:
Click to expand...
'
The flooded tunnel was the original connection from Union Station to the Subway when the Bay Concourse did not exist.

When the GO Concourse opened up, this passage was closed. The Moat was then opened up and we got the access points we all know today.

My understanding is that this was a makeshift sewer overflow tunnel. It is now part of the existing Union Station moat and subway station.
 
bearcat said:
Yes, there was one from Union to Royal York.

"With the opening of Union Station in 1927, an underground tunnel was built to connect it to the Royal York Hotel (now known as the Fairmont Royal York). The real growth of PATH began in the 1970s when a tunnel was built to connect the Richmond-Adelaide and Sheraton Centres." from https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/visitor-toronto/path-torontos-downtown-pedestrian-walkway/ .

It was even on older PATH maps, though I am not sure when it actually closed (see red arrow):

View attachment 598023

But I think the flooded tunnel in photos earlier in the thread is a different one. They mention a "disassembled escalator" they saw in the tunnel on the website the photo was originally posted (http://infiltration.org/utility-union.html), and I don't think the tunnel to Royal York had an escalator (I could be wrong). I think it's this tunnel, one that connected Union Station to the subway:

stevemunro.ca

The Original Connection to Union Station (Updated)

In the comments thread on my main Union Station post, some have remarked about a mysterious, abandoned tunnel that links Union subway station to the railway station. Scott Haskill from the TTC sor…
stevemunro.ca stevemunro.ca

Also see: http://infiltration.org/journal-unionsite.html
Click to expand...
Those older PATH maps were fast and loose with the drawings and even had things explicitly wrong and many never-built "future PATH" walkways.
That tunnel was closed off at least a whole decade before that PATH map was made, and maybe even two or three decades.
But you could still see the access point in Union which was visibly walled off, but I think had a padlocked door for maintenance people. It was right beside that famous one dollar pizza slice place that is remembered here from time to time, and across from where the LCBO used to be.
 
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Jonny5 said:
Those older PATH maps were fast and loose with the drawings and even had things explicitly wrong and many never-built "future PATH" walkways.
That tunnel was closed off at least a whole decade before that PATH map was made, and maybe even two or three decades.
But you could still see the access point in Union which was visibly walled off, but I think had a padlocked door for maintenance people. It was right beside that famous one dollar pizza slice place that is remembered here from time to time, and across from where the LCBO used to be.
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You're talking about the mystery tunnel? Was it later replaced with the leather shop retail unit then? Or commuters lounge?

And the Royal York connection was on the west side of Front St Promenade, I think where the greenhouse juice store is.
 
Student99 said:
You're talking about the mystery tunnel? Was it later replaced with the leather shop retail unit then? Or commuters lounge?

And the Royal York connection was on the west side of Front St Promenade, I think where the greenhouse juice store is.
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It was east of the Commuter's Lounge for sure, though I don't recall exactly how far, but this is what I meant about that "old" PATH map being loose with drawings. I think it was someone trying to represent how you could get to Union Station from the other side of Front without having to enter the TTC section. Yes, it's very off geographically, but I cannot fathom a scenario where someone would put either of the decommissioned tunnel connections on a redesigned PATH map when both had been closed for literally decades, and this matches with the rest of the PATH map from that era which took many other liberties with the placement and distance of the various buildings, connections and walkways to make a more aesthetically good map in place of an accurate one.
 
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Jonny5 said:
It was east of the Commuter's Lounge for sure, though I don't recall exactly how far, but this is what I meant about that "old" PATH map being loose with drawings. I think it was someone trying to represent how you could get to Union Station from the other side of Front without having to enter the TTC section. Yes, it's very off geographically, but I cannot fathom a scenario where someone would put either of the decommissioned tunnel connections on a redesigned PATH map when both had been closed for literally decades, and this matches with the rest of the PATH map from that era which took many other liberties with the placement and distance of the various buildings, connections and walkways to make a more aesthetically good map in place of an accurate one.
Click to expand...

I took a walk to Union Station today and did some research on the internet to find out where the entrances to the tunnels were in relation to what Union looks like now.

Union Map.jpg


So, based off these two old floor plans, the blue arrow is where the entrance to the tunnel to Royal York was, you can see stairs (down to the tunnel) marked on the floor plan.

This is a photo from today with a blue line on the floor where the entrance was, and a photo from way back when in this thread, with a blue line on the floor where the entrance was. You can see the railings match on the photos within the red circles.

Tunnel to Royal York.jpg


This is a photo from today of where I think the entrance to the tunnel to the subway was based on the floor plans (on the floor plans I marked the tunnel remnant in yellow on the newer floor plan, with a yellow arrow pointing to the entrance). It's marked with a yellow line in this photo. Correct me if I am wrong.

Tunnel to Subway.jpg
 
I also checked out the newish Sparetime Gashapon Store. As I understood the cashier, they are at this location until the end of the month as a pop-up, and will move to a different location in Union until the end of the year. I don't think there is plan yet for this to be permanent.

It's certainly not cheap, each toy is 2-5 tokens, and a token is $3+tax. However despite that, it was busy.

PXL_20240922_202704235.jpgPXL_20240922_201844904.jpgPXL_20240922_201750574.jpgPXL_20240922_203146364.jpg
 
bearcat said:
I took a walk to Union Station today and did some research on the internet to find out where the entrances to the tunnels were in relation to what Union looks like now.

View attachment 598247

So, based off these two old floor plans, the blue arrow is where the entrance to the tunnel to Royal York was, you can see stairs (down to the tunnel) marked on the floor plan.

This is a photo from today with a blue line on the floor where the entrance was, and a photo from way back when in this thread, with a blue line on the floor where the entrance was. You can see the railings match on the photos within the red circles.

View attachment 598248

This is a photo from today of where I think the entrance to the tunnel to the subway was based on the floor plans (on the floor plans I marked the tunnel remnant in yellow on the newer floor plan, with a yellow arrow pointing to the entrance). It's marked with a yellow line in this photo. Correct me if I am wrong.

View attachment 598259
Click to expand...
Appreciate your research into this! Are you able to post those old floor plans?
 
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