Toronto Union Subway Station: Second Platform and Concourse Improvements | ?m | ?s | TTC | Arcadis

I am going to be a major tease and just post a photo of the Union signage, but we were on the scene today and there will be a full report on the front page Monday. I promise.

UNION by Jack Landau, on Flickr

Thank god they are going back to using sandblasting for the station name! The painted on tile station name at Dufferin just looks very sloppy compared to sandblasting :)
 
From CityNews:

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So....<crickets>

Anyone experience the new platform this morning?

I detoured from my normal route to pass through at about 8:15 this morning. There was a lot of confusion, as is to be expected. The TTC had extra staff on hand to give directions, but they were overwhelmed by people asking questions. There's a sizable share of the population that just can't adapt quickly to changes like this. No matter how much clear signage and repeated announcements you make, they will ignore all of it, and, for the first couple of times, insist on someone holding their hand and personally telling them where to go until they finally memorise it. A lot of people appeared unaware the access on the east side to Brookfield place was open again, but when they pass they will probably figure out they can go that way tomorrow.

Many people on the University platform were trying to peek through holes in the tarp to see what the new side looked like.
 
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How did it handle the morning rush? Was it less crowded than normal?

It's too hard to tell how it will work based on this morning. People were milling about and blocking the normal pathways while they figured out where to go and see that they couldn't use just any staircase down to the trains anymore. People coming out of the GO concourse were using the eastern doors, going down the stairs, and then bottlenecking there because they had to walk back west to go around the fare paid area. It didn't help that the TTC staff were blocking part of that space telling people where to go. It's not going to be clear for a few days until people remember they should use different set of doors or that the walkway to Brookfield place reopened.
 
Does anyone else find it a bit weird that in the middle of this shiny new project, there are three rather unfinished-looking yellow steel I-beams near the platform edge? (See this photo from Torontoist.) Anyone know if these are going to be left as-is?

Also felt the ceiling was a little too low for comfort, but perhaps that was unavoidable. The platform will certainly be a useful addition, if not the most architecturally daring.
 
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Am I correct that all but one of the entrances from the GO station side go directly to the TTC gates? And that the only doors that do are substantially blocked by the stairs down to the platforms below?

If so, this is going to remain a clusterf*&k of foot traffic between the two stations every morning. The vast majority of people getting off the GO train in the morning are not headed to the TTC, they are headed to the path.
 
Does anyone else find it a bit weird that in the middle of this shiny new project, there are three rather unfinished-looking yellow steel I-beams near the platform edge? (See this photo from Torontoist.) Anyone know if these are going to be left as-is?

Also felt the ceiling was a little too low for comfort, but perhaps that was unavoidable. The platform will certainly be a useful addition, if not the most architecturally daring.

Work is still being done on Front Street which is directly above those pillars. It would be very strange if they left them there after work is done. It bodes well for their impermanence that they're not covered or finished in any way.

EDIT:
Settled:
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Will this tarp become a permanent wall?

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If it does it will become the only station where you can only see your track, not the other track.

Also, are both platforms roughly the same size?
 

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