[DavidH]

Those black lines on the floor seemingly replicate the location of the tracks at the platform level

Toronto Councillor Ainslie posted some photos on twitter and instagram yesterday and mentioned exactly that about the black lines. One of the photos was linked to a few posts earlier; there are more below.

http://instagram.com/p/zTJoZqlXlw/
http://instagram.com/p/zTKb7blXnE/
http://instagram.com/p/zTKq_slXnn/

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Toronto Councillor Ainslie posted some photos on twitter and instagram yesterday and mentioned exactly that about the black lines. One of the photos was linked to a few posts earlier; there are more below.

http://instagram.com/p/zTKb7blXnE/

Pretty nice, though I find it slightly annoying that the starwells aren't aligned (not that they were ever planned to be aligned)

AoD

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

I believe from what I saw in 2013, York side was dug down as per this photo. Some of the centre was dug down at the south end

Nope - if you look at this floor plan, you'd see that section dug downwards is underneath the trainshed and not the head of house - there will be a grade change at the retail level for the area immediately below the west wing and centre block to the rest of the concourse.

(pic from UT)

AoD

 

[mdrejhon]

View attachment 41784

GO Wickets

They will need to design the lineup area to snake around the pillars efficiently, and have a very good signage telling you which wicket is free. The pilars could be a potential bottleneck for the wickets. An efficient lineup layout (and free-wicket alerts) will be necessary here.

http://instagram.com/p/zTKb7blXnE/

Hope Metrolinx has designed some good signage to put on the doors and/or pillars, so you can quickly identify which stairwell to go to, no matter where you're standing on the concourse floor!

 

[Transportfan]

Essentially, yes - as the above said - not everyone realizes digging is occuring below the floor while keeping the station operating - many Torontoians will get a shock in 2015-2016 when they realize how massive an engineering accomplishment just occured; to install a whole new shopping mall / PATH system / pedestrian bypass, all under Union, and make the GO concourses far more organized and open. They don't all realize that the GO concourses are tripling in square footage, while separating the stores below to a whole new mall level.

Now I get it. I always assumed the retail area was just a renovation of the concourse level with the area behind the maze of plywood approaching the skywalk was were the retail was going in. This also explains the new tunnel being built on the west side of the outdoor stairway coming from the subway. Will the lowering of the existing concourse in the next construction phase will the stairway be completely eliminated?

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Will the lowering of the existing concourse in the next construction phase will the stairway be completely eliminated?

Yes, the stairway is temporary.

AoD

 

[drum118]

Nope - if you look at this floor plan, you'd see that section dug downwards is underneath the trainshed and not the head of house - there will be a grade change at the retail level for the area immediately below the west wing and centre block to the rest of the concourse.

View attachment 41789

AoD

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[FONT=Trebuchet MS, Helvetica, Lucida Sans Unicode, Lucida Grande, Lucida Sans, Arial, sans-serif]They were in the process of doing work there when I was there and was told it was to be dug out. Maybe the person was referring to the concourse area only, not the retail. The hole for the retail east of it was still being dug out and you could see where parts of it that was being built. Wish I had more time to shoot the area at the time.[/FONT]

 

[Sir Novelty Fashion]

Yes, the stairway is temporary.

AoD

I was amazed at how solidly it was built, for a temporary stairway - rebar and everything. It made me wonder if it was really permanent or not. (Assuming we're talking about the same stairs - from the subway station into the old GO concourse.)

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

I was amazed at how solidly it was built, for a temporary stairway - rebar and everything. It made me wonder if it was really permanent or not. (Assuming we're talking about the same stairs - from the subway station into the old GO concourse.)

Yup, we are talking about the same stairs. I think drum mentioned that it was built that way due to the amount of traffic it has to handle.

Invalid Attachment specified
They were in the process of doing work there when I was there and was told it was to be dug out. Maybe the person was referring to the concourse area only, not the retail. The hole for the retail east of it was still being dug out and you could see where parts of it that was being built. Wish I had more time to shoot the area at the time.

Sorry, I have updated the attachment - it should be showing up now. The areas labelled York Street Promenade and Front Street Promenade are unexcavated I believe.

AoD

 

[interchange42]

I have a more up-to-date plans of the new concourses for you to look at.

First, how it all connects, then each floor enlarged. You'll see that they are going for a pile of food retailing down there. That covers food court, full restaurant, and market type retailing. Look carefully and you'll see which areas are getting the full dig-down (it's L-shaped, with the centre and west sections near Front Street staying at their current height). More coming on this as soon we can reveal more.

42

 

[nfitz]

I'm surprised there is so much food (green) on the lower level. The lower York concourse looks like it will be a massive food court.

 

[TOareaFan]

I'm surprised there is so much food (green) on the lower level. The lower York concourse looks like it will be a massive food court.

Totally agree....you would think food would be far better concentrated where people are milling around waiting for trains....this seems to expect that the hungry commuter will drop down a level (ie two levels away from their train) to access the smells that will make them hungry?

Or I am totally misreading the diagrams

 

[innsertnamehere]

most people will be entering the station from the bottom level, it is where the subway and PATH connections are.

Besides, the retail sort of had to be seperated from the main concourse for capacities sake, there simply isn't enough floorspace for them to share a single level.

Am I the only one confused by the food retail in the Great Hall where the current GO and rental car booths are?

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Thanks i42 - a bit surprised by just how much of the space is devoted to food - perhaps they are looking at the Washington Union Station food court as the model.

AoD

 

[ryguy7787]

I would think they would get a lot of business from the the ACC, considering there aren't a lot of food options in the area as well as the tens of thousands of people using the PATH just to get to SouthCore and the waterfront on a daily basis.If I was using GO and had an extra ten-twenty minutes I would be more than happy with the amount of food options one floor below.