Union Station Revitalization | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | NORR
Willybru21
Active Member
More new wayfinding that was put everywhere:
SaugeenJunction
Senior Member
Some shots of the recently opened Sephora. Quite busy inside.
adHominem
Senior Member
By Sephora standards, that's downright calm!
BermudaTO37
New Member
Give it some time. Today I took the train into Union and every seat was filled. People are returning. When I left this afternoon, traffic chaos on Bay as usual and hordes of people going to catch their trains. Not back to pre-pandemic but much more than before.
innsertnamehere
Superstar
I mean I took a 4:45 LSW train on Friday and the train was half-full at best.. Union is far busier than it has been since 2019, but it's still got a long way to go.
nfitz
Superstar
The peak trains out of Union have a ways to go - probably directly related to downtown office occupancy (reoccupancy?). Off-peak recovery seems better to me - which would be more likely not to work downtown. Car traffic certainly seems back to normal.
Jeff Morgan
Active Member
Mondays and Fridays are very slow. Tuesday - Thursday are noticeably busier.
Bordercollie
Senior Member
That's great but the VIA concourse is still a disaster with the way they board customers. Business class customers are given this paper tag to identify that they are travelling bus class. The lounge is too far from the boarding area and should be moved to the VIA Boarding area.
Also the washrooms are a disgrace with broken doors and urinals. I sent a message to 311 twice in 6 months and they said they would notify Union Station Management. Nothing happened.
The VIA concourse needs to be rebuilt like the York Concourse if they want to attract customers. There should be a central check in and then a specific waiting area for each train like for a airplane. And then there are no retail shops in the VIA concourse either which doesn't help the fact that it looks abandoned.
JasonParis
Moderator
Once the platforms are widened, I'd hope that VIA customers could simply wait for their train on the platform, as is done in most of the world. Not saying that the concourse isn't a disgrace, especially considering this is our renovated version of it.
Willybru21
Active Member
The lounge was moved FROM the VIA concourse for more space, ironically. I like it’s current spot though so I don’t have an issue with it.
nfitz
Superstar
It's not THAT bad. There's lots of retail a short walk away. It's certainly a bit disappointing, compared to the new Bay and York concourses - but I really don't think that improving the concourse is going to have much impact on ridership.
Willybru21
Active Member
One thing it would help is to take away the display cases, they could set up more seating or move the lines in their place.
Richard White
Senior Member
Parks Canada would throw a fit if they did. The vitrines are original to the station and cannot be removed due to heritage rules. Don't forget there are several layers of protection on Union Station from being on the City of Toronto heritage roster to being a National Historical Site.