[DavidH]

For those of us who seldom arrive on the platform more than 3 minutes before departure time, we don't see the crowds.

I'm not a regular GO Train commuter - I take the 96 GO bus route to work, but occasionally end up returning home from downtown during rush hour. But when I do it, like you, I just go up on the platform when the train is called and my experience is this:

I go up the stairs with a large crowd of people, get to the platform to find trains on either side of the platform blocking my view of most of the shed except for the portion overhead, and lots of people moving around so that looking up is not a safe thing to do for more than a second. Then I board my train.

I'll grant that weekend trips via GO typically let me see more of the shed since things are much less busy, but I seriously question that the typical rush hour commuter is actually noticing much of anything of the state of the shed. Yes, they'll notice the glass enclosure as it grows, but details of the rest of the shed? No.

I'm happy with the current shed plans and if money/time/energy permit anything else, I'd rather see the effort go into making sure that the architecture and experience of the GO concourses and the upcoming shopping level are the best possible. Those will get noticed far more than the shed will.

 

[EnviroTO]

^ That is my experience as well. Most people wait in the concourse, go up to track level 5-10 minutes before the train departs, most of those 10 minutes the train is already on the track so you board right away or wait a minimal amount of time, view of the shed is blocked by trains. The ugly concourse is the bigger issue.

 

[TOareaFan]

For those of us who seldom arrive on the platform more than 3 minutes before departure time, we don't see the crowds.

I spend a lot more time on other GO platforms than Union, as there's little else to do. At Union I never bother to arrive in the station until 5 minutes before ... and if I do, I don't bother heading to the platform.

Seems an odd thing to do with half-an-hour ...

I tend to arrive a couple of minutes before departure.....that said, I think the people lined up for long periods of time are doing so to make sure they get a seat. It does not make sense to me but for others it seems to.

I know that on the few times I get to the station early, I wait in the concourse until the sign tells me to go to the platform (good little rule following commuter that I am) and it never ceases to amaze me how many people are on the platform and have, likely, been there for a goodly length of time!

 

[Guido]

I tend to arrive a couple of minutes before departure.....that said, I think the people lined up for long periods of time are doing so to make sure they get a seat. It does not make sense to me but for others it seems to.

For those of us riding to the end of the line (Kitchener in my case) I reeeeeally want a seat so that I can go to sleep and not stand for half the trip...

 

[TOareaFan]

For those of us riding to the end of the line (Kitchener in my case) I reeeeeally want a seat so that I can go to sleep and not stand for half the trip...

I know you guys just got train service so you have yet to master the art of "sleeping while standing"

 

[Guido]

I know you guys just got train service so you have yet to master the art of "sleeping while standing"

Yeah, still working on that one

 

[SP!RE]

By me, yesterday:

 

[Jonny5]

A few seconds? That couldn't be further from the truth. I see dozens of people lining up to board my train as I'm pulling into Union a half an hour before our departure time. By 10 minutes to departure time(when the doors are to open) there are literally hundreds of people standing on the platform, some of them having been there for 20+ minutes!
For every hourly train that comes into Union, passengers start streaming up onto the platforms about 5 minutes before arrival time. When the trains are delayed, which happens quite often now due to the on-going tie changing programs and associated slow orders on the Oakville and Kingston subs, you'll have hundreds, sometimes thousands of people standing at platform level for an additional 5 to 10 minutes or more.

I a not a regular train commuter anymore. I take a rush-hour trip on the train about once a month now, but it's still the same as it was when I regularly commuted 2 years ago, just as described by other posters above. I wait in the concourse until the track is displayed and then go up the stairs with the "herd" and the train is always already there.

Maybe lines other than Lakeshore work differently? And yes, on the weekends there is usually a few minutes wait. But it's not enough to start caring about the state of the train shed.

On a semi-related note: I've noticed the screens that show what track the trains are on will display the number exactly 10 minutes before the departure for most lines, but they do it 20 minutes in advance for Barrie trains. Why is that line different?

 

[royalrivers]

Somewhere in this thread someone mention that CN Freight Trains do not go under the shed....well guess what I saw last Friday night....

 

[vegeta_skyline]

Well, they are not normally authorized to do so. But GO trains have occupied tracks which were specifically stated not to be used for trains period. And I once heard a train had to change ends and proceed without doing a #3 brake test as required by Transport Canada, a grave violation of the rules, because of an order to evacuate.

Point is, exceptions can be made to almost any given rule. Freight trains are normally not suppose to pass through the shed, but they can if authorized too(likely because access the the north and south connection tracks were out of service, they are working on switches leading to them on the west side of Union) and if the physical envelope does not exceed the given clearance of the shed.

 

[the lemur]

For the past few days a section of Bremner Blvd just east of York has been dug up - anyone know if it's connected to the Union Station project?

 

[raptor]

For the past few days a section of Bremner Blvd just east of York has been dug up - anyone know if it's connected to the Union Station project?

Isn't that for the Bremner substation project?

 

[the lemur]

Isn't that for the Bremner substation project?

I thought that would be over at Lower Simcoe, near the roundhouse? This is right in front of the Telus building.

 

[royalrivers]

For those of us riding to the end of the line (Kitchener in my case) I reeeeeally want a seat so that I can go to sleep and not stand for half the trip...

I am the same way because standing for the first 45-50 minutes before the Kitchener train starts to clear out around Brampton is not always fun

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

OT - but gives you an idea how other jurisdiction approaches revitalizing train stations. Design competition for Flinders Street Station in Melbourne:

http://www.majorprojects.vic.gov.au/flinders-street-station-design-competition/competition-documents (see Design Brief)

AoD