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

Have you guys seen this website? Someone posted it to Union's wiki article today.

http://www.torontounion.ca/
The new logo has been around for more than a month -- they've been using the new Union logo in some signage in the new market plaza.

Personally, I like the logo (I was mixed but I have since warmed up to it over the weeks) -- maybe a tad early to use it -- it's apt for Union circa 2024 with all the multimodal commute options arriving in that general region (GO diesels, GO/SmartTrack EMUs, UPX, TTC, VIA, 509, buses, bikeshare, and much later eventually HSR).

The new logo is currently discreet in the new Union plaza market for a full month already -- if you have not noticed the new logo a month ago, then see -- they're not blatantly advertising the new logo like UPX is. Thankfully over there, they kept it respectably monochrome, like the 1920s-era they kept the Market tents/storefronts/barrels look. The circus colors would have looked out of place in the Market.

The main Union website, admittedly, is a tad hipster. Whee. The website is the only place where I don't currently like the new logo as much. The low-density layout is obviously designed to be viewed on a mobile browser and tablet (ugh -- I prefer old-fashioned high density screen layouts, even on my iPad). Okay, but tweak it over time to better to suit everyone it as time passes. In all other places other than the website, I like the new Union logo.

It's the first time they've published the logo as part of the new Union Station website.
 
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Awful!

As for the logo, I'm reminded of Ben Franklin's pre-Revolutionary cartoon:

800px-Benjamin_Franklin_-_Join_or_Die.jpg
 

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Detailed map for post-August 16:
http://www.gotransit.com/public/en/improve/bay-images/detailed-map-lg.jpg

Not sure what's going on with the little orange ramp(?) a bit above dead centre...

They probably just forgot to edit it out--I doubt they're intending to leave it open, it would be a few metres then a wall where the concourse used to be. Ditto for the stairs just above that and the passage from Via to Bay below the orange ramp/above 12-13. Another error is that it shows the centre moat as being open, not to mention that it indicates it's accessible through the centre-north doors out of Via Arrivals, where in fact you can only head up the blue ramps to Front St and the Great Hall. Also, it indicates that in the York East teamway the stairs for 4-11 only lead to the platform; while that is true in the other teamways, in York East you can also access the concourse via those doors despite signage being solely for the platforms--they've also omitted a couple of sets of doors south of those that just go into the concourse. Now that I'm on a nitpicking roll, for some reason they've pasted a white square where the PATH entrance is in the bottom-centre of the image on the top-left corner of the ACC (the segment of the PATH that leads to Maple Leaf Square and RBC Waterpark Place).

I hope they open up the hallway from the southeast corner of the VIA concourse, just north of 24-25, to the ACC tunnel/Bay South Concourse--if I recall correctly from looking at that area recently it seemed like it was in relatively good shape. The other, simplified map (previous page) they posted for the Bay closure indicated that it should be open--while that map also makes the error of indicating the moats are connected, that combined with its state as seen in-person make me think it'll either be open when Bay closes or very soon after.

The Front St/Centre Moat being opened is, of course, the most crucial thing they need to do by far; it's absolutely, mind-bogglingly stupid of them to close Bay without connecting the West and East moats so that there's a direct, easy, non-bottlenecked passage between the York concourse and the TTC/PATH. I'm stunned by the incompetence here--thank god, at least, that they're leaving that small portion of the Bay concourse open (for now--it must close at some point, my prediction is under 6 months) for people to get to/from the subway--it simply would not have worked with just the small hallway to the west--but the moat is still crucial for passenger flow to York. The moats don't seem to be in that bad of shape--I've stood up on Front St directly beside the West/York Moat and looked behind the hoarding blocking the Centre Moat from up there and it seemed to be pretty much fine.
 
Are those not the stairs to Platform 3? It's open between track level and the VIA Concourse and should not be affected by the Bay closure.

There's a small corridor on the map between the orange ramp and Platform 3--for going between Via and Bay that route has stairs vs the accessible ramp.
 
A someone who doesn't use Union that regularly, what's the deal with the missing platforms? As far as I can tell, there's no platform 14 and 15, and none between 18 and 23.
 
A someone who doesn't use Union that regularly, what's the deal with the missing platforms? As far as I can tell, there's no platform 14 and 15, and none between 18 and 23.

14-15 and 18-19 are baggage platforms, and not normally accessible to the public. There are no stairwells to them.

20 to 23 are closed due to construction at the platform level and the trainshed.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.
 
What are the purpose of dedicated baggage platforms?
Loading checked baggage on to VIA trains. Those platforms are adjacent to the VIA platforms.
This way they don't have to worry about running over passengers while moving around baggage.
 

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