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

DavidH said:
So, am I right in assuming that each track has its own set of stairs direct from the concourse, which you can see enclosed in glass? If so, that should produce much better traffic flow by spreading out track access around the concourse better.
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Not each track - each platform. The concourse as built is basically a giant waiting area with a row of stairs on either side.

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Not each track - each platform. The concourse as built is basically a giant waiting area with a row of stairs on either side.

AoD
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You're right of course re platforms rather than tracks. Still looks like a real improvement over the current Bay Concourse approach of having all of the access via the back of the concourse.
 
Things I like:

-- Separation of through pedestrian traffic from commuter traffic. Through traffic on shopping level, commuters in the concourse, with very easy visibility of tracks as evidenced by the floor patterns (black lines representing tracks above). This should produce much better pedestrian traffic flows.

-- Presto reader placement is nice and consistent. I like the presto readers at every single stairwell (look at the presto reader bases on the floor at the column adjacent to stairwell).

-- Two separate easy-to-reach stairs per platform is a big improvement, unlike the old Bay concourse was often labyrinthe.

-- The density of stairwells shows access the VIA platforms too; an obvious nod to tracksharing between VIA/GO

-- The fact that we're getting not one, but TWO huge concourses like this. (Bay will be copycatting this new layout)

A suggestion to Metrolinx --
They should put two numbers on all columns representing the platform they represent, so you know exactly where you are, no matter where you're standing on the floor, nothing ever hidden by columns or booths -- so you can efficiently make a beeline for your platform. If that's too much clutter of numbers, then at the minimum, prominently displayed on a couple places of the stairwells in a way that it's easy to glance (even with a few pillars blocking your view while looking diagonally across the concourse). So you don't have to wander around looking for a less common platform, like you sometimes had to at the old GO concourse.

A suggestion to the photographer --
Next time someone visits the concourse for photos... Can someone do a sweep panorama or 360 next time? So we can see all stairwells in the same photograph, and the amount of space in between, etc? Thank you so much!

Based on seeing this, and similiar train stations elsewhere in the world, it certainly feels like it is designed to allow Union to handle 3x pedestrian traffic that it can today. And certainly they will eventually be able to figure out how to push 2-3x trains through Union versus today (new signalling upgrades being worked on, the closed tracks reopened, track sharing between VIA/GO). Once the revitalization is finally finished in 2016 (both Bay and York reopened), the GO RER upgrades (including SmartTrack if greenlighted) will literally have to go to full throttle to avoid wasting the potential of the Union station revitalization.
 
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DavidH said:
You're right of course re platforms rather than tracks. Still looks like a real improvement over the current Bay Concourse approach of having all of the access via the back of the concourse.
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Huge improvement indeed - the current Bay Concourse is basically a 70s design with a whole bunch of band-aid solutions tacked on after the fact that makes absolutely no sense from a user-navigation perspective. The navigability is ZERO for someone who is not familiar with the station, which is pretty unacceptable for a transportation nexus of this calibre.

AoD
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Huge improvement indeed - the current Bay Concourse is basically a 70s design with a whole bunch of band-aid solutions tacked on after the fact that makes absolutely no sense from a user-navigation perspective. The navigability is ZERO for someone who is not familiar with the station, which is pretty unacceptable for a transportation nexus of this calibre.

AoD
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Wasn't the Bay concourse basically just created out of the old post office delivery space? I don't think there was any idea at the time that the volume of people using the station would be what it is today. It was clearly designed to handle a larger flow than that of the 70s, but is now definitely a huge constraint on the flow of people to the platforms. It was only the inertia of getting Union Station renovated and improved that has allowed it to exist in that state for this long. As a fellow commuter said to me a few years ago: "Despite decades of neglect, amazingly this place hasn't fallen down."
 
AlbertHWagstaff said:
"Despite decades of neglect, amazingly this place hasn't fallen down."
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On these decades of cold weather, I see road salt nestled up against the iron pillars of the old shed. I wince at all the corrosion that has been going on for years, including internally in the platform/track structure, with the use of salt on the platforms. And the salt used on Bay Street, and Bay Street underpass needs a lot of work underneath, with the concrete crumbling. Will the track structure stay up another 25 years? Where does salt-infused water drain to? Do they plan to do a heavy coat of paint on the shed ironwork as salt protection? We may need to do a Revitalization II to reinforce the structure when Metrolinx starts adding those underground GO tracks in the 2030s. Does current revitalization tasks over the next two years include rehab of the Bay Street underpass? Is it massively overengineered enough?

In short: will the structure last?
This is something I'm wondering.
 
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mdrejhon said:
On these decades of cold weather, I see road salt nestled up against the iron pillars of the old shed. I wince at all the corrosion that has been going on for years, including internally in the platform/track structure, with the use of salt on the platforms. And the salt used on Bay Street, and Bay Street underpass needs a lot of work underneath, with the concrete crumbling. Will the track structure stay up another 25 years? Where does salt-infused water drain to? Do they plan to do a heavy coat of paint on the shed ironwork as salt protection? We may need to do a Revitalization II to reinforce the structure when Metrolinx starts adding those underground GO tracks in the 2030s. Does current revitalization tasks over the next two years include rehab of the Bay Street underpass? Is it massively overengineered enough?

In short: will the structure last?
This is something I'm wondering.
Click to expand...

The city uses far more salt than is necessary in general. In Ottawa they use maybe half as much despite having much worse weather.
 
mdrejhon said:
On these decades of cold weather, I see road salt nestled up against the iron pillars of the old shed. I wince at all the corrosion that has been going on for years, including internally in the platform/track structure, with the use of salt on the platforms. And the salt used on Bay Street, and Bay Street underpass needs a lot of work underneath, with the concrete crumbling. Will the track structure stay up another 25 years? Where does salt-infused water drain to? Do they plan to do a heavy coat of paint on the shed ironwork as salt protection? We may need to do a Revitalization II to reinforce the structure when Metrolinx starts adding those underground GO tracks in the 2030s. Does current revitalization tasks over the next two years include rehab of the Bay Street underpass? Is it massively overengineered enough?

In short: will the structure last?
This is something I'm wondering.
Click to expand...

Part of the revitalization is the rebuilding of each platform and track trough. So yes, they are taking steps to remediate whatever damage is there and prevent more damage in the future.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
Came across this model of Union Station retail

Union+Station+Retail+01.jpg

http://www.mccann.on.ca/office-models/slcffsgto6cwrv80knxgtjz254z2p4
 
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