drum118
Superstar
Built the new west end first for GO and retail and then close off the east end and rebuild.
The same would happen for VIA.
The same would happen for VIA.
GTS
Active Member
I was on Steve Munro's website and he gave a breakdown of what they have planned for Union Station. One item that was left out, and I was hoping for, is moving the Coach Canada terminal, which is up on Bay St. near Dundas. I have relations in a small city that isn't serviced by GO so I have to make my way up to the Coach Canada terminal and catch my commuter bus to visit them.
Since moving to Ontario from Vancouver years ago I have been following the developments of Union Station fairly closely. It is going to be a very effective transit hub that will be able to handle a lot more traffic in the near future. I have always felt, because I use the Coach Canada terminal up on Bay quite a number of times a year that it would be even a more effective transit option if it were located near Union Station. The GO buses are at Union but GO doesn't go everywhere and if the had the Greyhound and Coach Canada buses there it would make Union even more versatile then it presently is. All the different rail lines, subway lines, streetcars and future LRT, GO buses and city buses and hopefully Coach Canada buses as well.
When I was a teen and left home I used Commuter buses to travel exclusively. I imagine that some teen leaving home would enter Toronto into something as grand as what Union Station is going to be that it would help him or her get around easily. The elderly use commuter buses quite frequently as well and having the Coach Canada terminal there would help them transfer much more conveniently- not everyone is as mobile as myself.
One other reason to have the Coach Canada terminal at Union Station is that the different commuter buses would have easier access to our highway system from Union Station as opposed to Bay/Dundas area.
Since moving to Ontario from Vancouver years ago I have been following the developments of Union Station fairly closely. It is going to be a very effective transit hub that will be able to handle a lot more traffic in the near future. I have always felt, because I use the Coach Canada terminal up on Bay quite a number of times a year that it would be even a more effective transit option if it were located near Union Station. The GO buses are at Union but GO doesn't go everywhere and if the had the Greyhound and Coach Canada buses there it would make Union even more versatile then it presently is. All the different rail lines, subway lines, streetcars and future LRT, GO buses and city buses and hopefully Coach Canada buses as well.
When I was a teen and left home I used Commuter buses to travel exclusively. I imagine that some teen leaving home would enter Toronto into something as grand as what Union Station is going to be that it would help him or her get around easily. The elderly use commuter buses quite frequently as well and having the Coach Canada terminal there would help them transfer much more conveniently- not everyone is as mobile as myself.
One other reason to have the Coach Canada terminal at Union Station is that the different commuter buses would have easier access to our highway system from Union Station as opposed to Bay/Dundas area.
Automation Gallery
Superstar
DSC
Superstar
As far as I know there are two possible plans for the Coach Terminal (or three if it stays where it is.)
1. Move it to the GO bus terminal east of Union Station by building another deck there and extending the GO Bus station right up to the back of the Dominion Building. This appears to be the current favourite as it consolidates transit quite conveniently to Union Station and adding a deck to the GO bus station would also make connections to Union Station easier.
2. Move it to the area around 90 Harbour Street (York/Harbour); this building (former Workers Compensation Board HQ) belongs to the Province and Metrolinx (under their earlier name) asked the Province not to sell the building until they decide what to do. The drawback of this site is that it is really not very convenient to Union Station and certainly not to the subway. City report on this building at http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/2006/agendas/committees/te/te060613/it021.pdf
My vote is #1 but I don't think any final decision has been made and it seems to have dropped off Metrolinx Board agendas.
1. Move it to the GO bus terminal east of Union Station by building another deck there and extending the GO Bus station right up to the back of the Dominion Building. This appears to be the current favourite as it consolidates transit quite conveniently to Union Station and adding a deck to the GO bus station would also make connections to Union Station easier.
2. Move it to the area around 90 Harbour Street (York/Harbour); this building (former Workers Compensation Board HQ) belongs to the Province and Metrolinx (under their earlier name) asked the Province not to sell the building until they decide what to do. The drawback of this site is that it is really not very convenient to Union Station and certainly not to the subway. City report on this building at http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/2006/agendas/committees/te/te060613/it021.pdf
My vote is #1 but I don't think any final decision has been made and it seems to have dropped off Metrolinx Board agendas.
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DavidH
Senior Member
I'm guessing that by that you mean that VIA would spend a few years using the York Concourse once it's ready so that the Bay and VIA concourses could be done at the same time?
Woodbridge_Heights
Senior Member
Dan416
Senior Member
I definitely agree about the coach buses using Union as well. It makes sense to have all the connections available from that one point. Same goes for the DRL.
CodeMonkey
Active Member
Where would the DRL connect at Union go? Something tells me it would be painful to build it under or beside the current TTC platforms, and there's no mention about a "possible" DRL in the Union Station renovation plans.
Woodbridge_Heights
Senior Member
It hasn't been decided yet. You are right though there really isn't a good place to put the tracks (ideally you'd want to at least connect to Union subway station.). Which is why Wellington has been proposed as the routing through the core.
Jonny5
Senior Member
This a point that just doesn't seem to sink into people's heads. There is no space left in the Union station vicinity for a DRL station, barring some truly fantastic engineering works.
The plans for the area have been set and the DRL isn't in them.
CodeMonkey
Active Member
Maybe they planning to integrate the lines together and use the same platform. It's a wild idea, but it would explain why they kept the "Next Train" signs all these years, even to the point of updating most of them.
jwill
Active Member
The old Metro Centre proposal for rail lands development suggesting extending the YUS south with stations at Front/Yonge, Queens Quay/Bay, and Front/York.
It was determined to be a bad idea at the time, but it would allow the DRL to use the existing Union Subway Station.
It was determined to be a bad idea at the time, but it would allow the DRL to use the existing Union Subway Station.
Dan416
Senior Member
Tell that to a subway designer from NYC or Tokyo and I'm sure they'd laugh you out of the room.
EnviroTO
Senior Member
Subways are built by boring a tunnel. They bored a tunnel right through downtown to hold hydro wires. There is always space to put in a tunnel. I don't see why it would be at all difficult to put in a subway station right below the current one. Regardless of where they put the DRL I would assume that the plan would be to go deep to avoid needing to move utilities and shore up foundations except for stations.
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CDL.TO
Moderator
Wait a sec. Where did that image come from, Enviro? I don't recall seeing it before. It seems to include the DRL. Did you make it?
It also helps illustrate how you could hypothetically fit two more tracks and a platform between the current subway tracks and the Union Station exterior wall.
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