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

Bojaxs said:
Any speculations on what's going to be the next big project for Union Station after the Southern Corridor is completed?

When are they going to upgrade the tracks in and around Union to allow for the trains to approach and depart the station at a higher speed? It's annoying how slow the trains are on the LSW between Union and Exhibition. I can imagine people on the LSE line will have a similar experience once East Harbour is completed.

EDIT: I'm guessing this would also involve signal upgrades around the station.
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South concourse reopens some time in 2026. with reconstruction of union itself starting then continuing through the next 3-5 years.
 
Bojaxs said:
Any speculations on what's going to be the next big project for Union Station after the Southern Corridor is completed?

When are they going to upgrade the tracks in and around Union to allow for the trains to approach and depart the station at a higher speed? It's annoying how slow the trains are on the LSW between Union and Exhibition. I can imagine people on the LSE line will have a similar experience once East Harbour is completed.

EDIT: I'm guessing this would also involve signal upgrades around the station.
Click to expand...
The south concourse will be used by LSW trains and IIRC will enable them to enter the station at 45mph, a substantial improvement.

USRC improvements have been expected to improve travel times for over a decade now through new signalling systems.. not sure where those stand, but I imagine they will come at some point as well.

Combined they will likely result in LSW trip times dropping by 3-4 minutes from Exhibition to Union.
 
Next project? Electrification and adapting the station for HSR, if it ever gets off the ground. Union station streetcar station upgrade.

There was the plan to tunnel under the station and add more platforms that way but I suspect that's off the table now.
 
Bojaxs said:
Any speculations on what's going to be the next big project for Union Station after the Southern Corridor is completed?

When are they going to upgrade the tracks in and around Union to allow for the trains to approach and depart the station at a higher speed? It's annoying how slow the trains are on the LSW between Union and Exhibition. I can imagine people on the LSE line will have a similar experience once East Harbour is completed.

EDIT: I'm guessing this would also involve signal upgrades around the station.
Click to expand...
The tracks were done years ago. So long ago in fact that they've started thinking about having to replace some of the earliest-installed double-slips due to wear and age.

The issue is the signal system which needs to be upgraded in order for the enhanced speeds to take affect. This was supposed to be cut over in stages starting in November of last year, but I've never gotten confirmation that they've ever proceeded past the first stage - Cherry Street.

Dan
 
The walls are down:
IMG_1782.jpeg


Some new Christmas decorations this year too, I kinda wish the Great Hall had a massive tree like the Eaton Centre:
IMG_1779.jpeg
 
They never actually took last years down.

It makes me wonder if that section of the moat will ever open to the public, I can’t imagine it would be useful to anyone so I understand their decision to make it an event space.
It’s zoned for 3 retail spaces (a store and seating for 2 restaurants) I just can’t imagine they would ever get filled out, I don’t think the foot traffic will be enough to justify stuff in there:
IMG_1794.jpeg
 
Willybru21 said:
They never actually took last years down.

It makes me wonder if that section of the moat will ever open to the public, I can’t imagine it would be useful to anyone so I understand their decision to make it an event space.
It’s zoned for 3 retail spaces (a store and seating for 2 restaurants) I just can’t imagine they would ever get filled out, I don’t think the foot traffic will be enough to justify stuff in there:View attachment 616092
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I think it will, eventually, reopen as a useful alternative passage to TTC. The section under the Sir John A MacDonald Plaza is where the artwork commemorating the Walks and Gardens trust is to go - when they get it done! It was selected in 2013! https://www.canadianarchitect.com/w...tos-walks-and-gardens-public-art-competition/

I see that the artists now have a new (to me anyway) rendering of it, dated 2022.

1733068995511.png
 
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DSC said:
I think it will, eventually, reopen as a useful alternative passage to TTC. The section under the Sir John A MacDonald Plaza is where the artwork commemorating the Walks and Gardens trust is to go - when they get it done! It was selected in 2013! https://www.canadianarchitect.com/w...tos-walks-and-gardens-public-art-competition/

I see that the artists now have a new (to me anyway) rendering of it, dated 2022.

View attachment 616094
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What’s gonna happen first:
1. Great Hall lighting replacement
2. Great Hall floor replacement
3. Carriageway art installation


Besides that, the hoarding for the Bovine Wine Club was opened up, it’s located right across from the restaurant:
IMG_1811.jpeg

Not a huge fan of a wine club going here, but the East Wing looks real fancy with glass walls on both sides.
 
DSC said:
The new walkway across Bay St enters Union just south of the CreateTO offices and at the Bovine level but where does it actually go? Is there a 'secret passageway' running east to west south of the Bovine Wine Club?

See @mburrrrr from June 2024 photo below.

View attachment 616160
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There’s a big gap in the hoarding at the end of the wine club where you can peek in the hallway, it’s going to connect the east wing to that new bridge. It’ll likely look like this, mirroring the west wing:
IMG_1816.jpeg

Keep in mind thag the area in red is hypothetical, and overlaid over a real diagram that shows a retail unit in that spot.
 
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Bojaxs said:
Any speculations on what's going to be the next big project for Union Station after the Southern Corridor is completed?

When are they going to upgrade the tracks in and around Union to allow for the trains to approach and depart the station at a higher speed? It's annoying how slow the trains are on the LSW between Union and Exhibition. I can imagine people on the LSE line will have a similar experience once East Harbour is completed.

EDIT: I'm guessing this would also involve signal upgrades around the station.
Click to expand...
Maybe you could do something with the space Metrolinx uses for offices? (My apologies if this has been suggested before; searching "metrolinx offices" produces a mess of results).

A for-profit business would likely consider a range of factors in choosing an office space. They'd consider how many employees would fit in a space, location, rent, and office facilities (wi-fi speed, bathroom quality, etc.).

It strikes me as odd and unlikely that the office space Metrolinx owns would just happen to be the best at meeting its needs.

For instance, if working from home more means Metrolinx has unused/underused offices, that's valuable real estate that could be used for retail. Alternatively, if the opposite is true, and Metrolinx doesn't have enough space, then maybe they should consider moving to a larger space.

As for rent, well, I guess they are paying themselves, but commercial real estate values are in the dumps right now. If they could charge more in rent for their current space than it would cost them to rent somewhere else, that's public money they are missing out on.

There's probably a lot of benefits in being located above their main hub, but wouldn't moving to one of the office buildings next door offer the same location benefits?

I've never been in their head office, so I don't know about the qualities of the facilities, but I feel like it would explain so much if crappy wi-fi and dirty bathrooms encouraged people to work from home less productively.

As for what you could do with that space instead, well, the biggest thing that occurs to me is to move the Via Rail concourse up there, which would separate commuters from long-distance passengers. You could build a new pedestrian bridge above the heritage train shed roof over to Via's usual platforms, and then knock down the walls of the current Via Rail concourse to create a more seamless connection between the new York and Bay concourses.
 
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