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

Woodbridge_Heights said:
Union closes around 1 am as a building IIRC so dont expect late night post night club options there.
Click to expand...
Not sure I've ever tried to enter that late. There's regular GO Bus departures until 2:40 AM, and arrivals start at 5 AM. Meanwhile the first train to Pearson departs at 4:55 AM and the last one arrives 1:22 AM!

Meanwhile, the last TTC train doesn't leave until almost 2 AM. And Union TTC is now always open to access the all-night Spadina streetcar.

Hopefully they don't make someone trecking from the Pearson train to the GO Bus, climb down the stairs to Station Street (I keep hearing reports of that elevator being broken!), walk to York, up to Front, along to Bay, and down back to the GO Bus terminal at 1:30 AM!

I'm surprised they bother closing it at all anymore!

Transportfan said:
How long will it be until the connection opens?
Click to expand...
How long until Bondfield goes bankrupt?
 
Seriously, I don't think there was even a proper clean-up of York concourse from construction dust and grime before it opened. You can see hand prints on the ceilings and various dirty markings on the floors.
 
TOareaFan said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1065774785756426240
Click to expand...
Yeesh regular electrical outlets? Could they not have included some USB sockets for charging?

raptor said:
dry run today. Looks like Metrolinx employees were given the opportunity to try out the food establishments first.
Click to expand...
OF COURSE they get to go first :rolleyes:. Lord help us if a handful of average joe commuters get a lucky sneak preview. Probably patting themselves on the back as well, even though the project is way beyond the anticipated timeline and ballooned in cost.

And who are we fooling. Pizza Pizza as a mini circular pizza instead of a triangular slice is going to taste exactly the same . Unless this location uses better quality ingredients, expect the familiar.
 
Student99 said:
Yeesh regular electrical outlets? Could they not have included some USB sockets for charging?


OF COURSE they get to go first :rolleyes:. Lord help us if a handful of average joe commuters get a lucky sneak preview. Probably patting themselves on the back as well, even though the project is way beyond the anticipated timeline and ballooned in cost.

And who are we fooling. Pizza Pizza as a mini circular pizza instead of a triangular slice is going to taste exactly the same . Unless this location uses better quality ingredients, expect the familiar.
Click to expand...
can you focus on the positives?
 
The food court is likely undergoing testing, and this is probably the way they're ramping up carefully, to make sure that the food court ramps up to speed.

Union Station employees (aka Metrolinx employees, since they work in the office floors above the concourses -- Union Station is essentially Metrolinx Offices Headquarters after all) were probably invited to this first. It makes sense that the officebuilding above the food court to get first beta test at the food court.

It doesn't seem to be an abuse of privelege or that kind of stuff (much ado about nothing there, this ain't remotely UPXesque) -- much like RBC building employees may be invited to be the first ones to beta the new RBC food court below them in the same building. Historic tradition is that the tenants often gets to play first. Or whatever. Lots of problems pop up in the first few days of testing the restaurants, and you need a test for high-profile food courts such as this one.

Even Urban Eatery did that, why would Union be different? It's just a more spectator-visible venue, with York atrium overlooking and watching it all. They need to beta, and they pulled a low-lying-apple audience quickly from the office floors above the concourses.
 
raptor said:
can you focus on the positives?
Click to expand...

He made a very valid point about the regular electric outlets without USB sockets. Whoever dropped the ball on that one should be really embarrassed. Who the hell walks around with an outlet charger that doesn't have a laptop?
 
Student99 said:
And who are we fooling. Pizza Pizza as a mini circular pizza instead of a triangular slice is going to taste exactly the same . Unless this location uses better quality ingredients, expect the familiar.
Click to expand...

I can see this being a McPizza fiasco. It will take 15 minutes for the pizza to cook and I doubt anyone will want to wait.

Unless they have Little Ceasers style pizza where it is pre-cooked, nobody will wait 15 minutes for a pizza. Why wait when you can go elsewhere or are waiting on a train. Even conveyor belt ovens take about 15 minutes from start to finish as per Panago.

Their business model is likely grab and go. Grab it and take it home for dinner.

I give it a few weeks before they go back to slices or leave.

The irony is people will likely go to McDonalds rather than wait 15 minutes for a pizza.
 
Last edited:
Richard White said:
I can see this being a McPizza fiasco. It will take 15 minutes for the pizza to cook and I doubt anyone will want to wait.

Unless they have Little Ceasers style pizza where it is pre-cooked, nobody will wait 15 minutes for a pizza. Why wait when you can go elsewhere or are waiting on a train. Even conveyor belt ovens take about 15 minutes from start to finish as per Panago.
Click to expand...

Don't put too much stock in Panago. There is a small pizza chain called Pizza Studio Canada, I go to one of their locations sometimes, and their pizzas get ready in about 3 minutes. They're small 10-inch personal pizzas, and they go through a conveyor belt oven that quickly, and come out very delicious and perfectly cooked, though the sauce is usually scalding; it's one of my favourite pizzas.
 
Richard White said:
This is likely done to prevent lingering. If you put USB outlets people will be there for hours sipping on coffee or eating while charging their phone
Click to expand...

Nah, it’s one of the heritage attributes. No cellphone charging allowed within the confines of that trainshed.

- Paul
 
Megaton327 said:
Don't put too much stock in Panago. There is a small pizza chain called Pizza Studio Canada, I go to one of their locations sometimes, and their pizzas get ready in about 3 minutes. They're small 10-inch personal pizzas, and they go through a conveyor belt oven that quickly, and come out very delicious and perfectly cooked, though the sauce is usually scalding; it's one of my favourite pizzas.
Click to expand...

How busy are they is the question though? A small pizza place with 100 customers a day can't compare to a Pizza Pizza with thousands of potential customers a day.

My point is that made to order pizzas are impractical for large scale fast food. Mcdonalds tried it years ago and found that nobody was willing to wait more than a few minutes for their food.

They ended up scrapping the McPizza because it took too long to cook.
 
A closer shot of the stairs down to the food court at union station
BA4B9BA4-DE40-41AB-B402-4DE6A73CFF25.jpeg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Megaton327 said:
Don't put too much stock in Panago. There is a small pizza chain called Pizza Studio Canada, I go to one of their locations sometimes, and their pizzas get ready in about 3 minutes. They're small 10-inch personal pizzas, and they go through a conveyor belt oven that quickly, and come out very delicious and perfectly cooked, though the sauce is usually scalding; it's one of my favourite pizzas.
Click to expand...
3 minutes? If Pizza Pizza can manage to run their conveyor belt that fast and still come out well cooked for 10 inchers, then I definitely will prefer this over precooked slices. Pizza Pizza is only really good when freshly cooked. And if you're using conveyor, might as well make them round mini pizzas. Precooked slices have often been sitting there for hours.
 
You must log in or register to post here.

Back
Top