Natika33 said:
This looks like bus bays or a kiss-&-ride which could be related to either project (or both).

I'll try to ask a Metrolinx person when next I'm in the area.
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Since the elevated station will span over the bus loop, it will block that road during a lot of the construction work. So I presume they’re now paving way for buses to turn around here temporarily.
 
Regarding the question of whether this recent construction is related to the Ontario Line, I doubt it. It looks to me like a waiting area for buses. In the past, a bus would pull up to a bus bay at a terminus and let everyone out, others would start to get on, while the driver would leave the bus to use the restroom and/or take a smoke break. If another bus pulled up, and the first driver isn't there, sometimes the second driver may get impatient and honk his horn to get the first to come back. In response to this, over the last decade, it's been TTC practice to let the passengers out, the bus is then driven to a holding area, the driver takes a break, then gets back in, pulls up to the platform, lets passengers in, and then leaves quickly. So I think they decided at the last minute, that a big waiting area for buses is needed.

The area in question, as well as the station itself, used to be a small forest. After the station was built, the area in front became a big lawn. Now it's paved over for buses to park on. I suppose it's inevitable. If it hadn't been paved, the lawn would have turned into a condo.
 
A 6264 said:
Regarding the question of whether this recent construction is related to the Ontario Line, I doubt it. It looks to me like a waiting area for buses. In the past, a bus would pull up to a bus bay at a terminus and let everyone out, others would start to get on, while the driver would leave the bus to use the restroom and/or take a smoke break. If another bus pulled up, and the first driver isn't there, sometimes the second driver may get impatient and honk his horn to get the first to come back. In response to this, over the last decade, it's been TTC practice to let the passengers out, the bus is then driven to a holding area, the driver takes a break, then gets back in, pulls up to the platform, lets passengers in, and then leaves quickly. So I think they decided at the last minute, that a big waiting area for buses is needed.

The area in question, as well as the station itself, used to be a small forest. After the station was built, the area in front became a big lawn. Now it's paved over for buses to park on. I suppose it's inevitable. If it hadn't been paved, the lawn would have turned into a condo.
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I was there today too. It seems there's a demarcation between the larger bus bay area (to the right of the jersey barriers in this photo) & what is more clearly for the Ontario Line construction (to the left) :
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The signage is being changed, but the fencing is not being moved or corrected. It's been up for several years, and during all that time, there have been some nice benches right behind the gosh-darn fence, which is almost touching the gosh-darn benches, but we can't use them to sit on while waiting for the gosh-darn bus. Take note of the FIRE HYDRANT behind the fence as well! Assuming this is going on at all the other new stations, I'm surprised there has not been a public uproar.
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I've got more gripes too! 15 years ago, the city did a sweep of the intersection, removing every bus shelter, bench, and GARBAGE CAN. They also removed a long row of newpaper boxes, which goes to show how long ago what that was; I'm sure the newspapers aren't coming back. But neither have shelters or garbage cans, and we've done without both for 15 years. I think there needs to be a garbage can every place where there's a bus stop, and this intersection has stops on all 4 corners, but no garbage cans for any of them. I have pictures of garbage that has been thrown into the big round stone planter (at least they put something back), but I won't bother posting it, because you can imagine for yourself what it looks like.

On the other side of the street, heading south, there has been more work done today. Trees along the side have new protective fencing, and further south, there is a fence between the road and the sidewalk. Clearly they are getting ready to dig up everything.
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kotsy said:
I'm guessing there was no way to remove the old letters to replace with the new letters.
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I think they're etched into the glass so they'd need to replace all the glass panels with the letters with new ones. Hopefully they do that eventually, but given this is Toronto it'll probably be seen as "too expensive" and so this ugly sign will be permanent.
 
TossYourJacket said:
I think they're etched into the glass so they'd need to replace all the glass panels with the letters with new ones. Hopefully they do that eventually, but given this is Toronto it'll probably be seen as "too expensive" and so this ugly sign will be permanent.
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Well I mean take your pick; have Metrolinx spend hundreds of thousands to replace the panels and have it take 5 years after engaging with their consultants on what to do because they're slow with everything, or do it the "quick and easy" way.
 
It would probably look nice if they had picked any colour other than black. (Though since red is the TTC's corporate colour, that would be boring too.) I'd suggest blue or green.
 
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