Great see the front of Union all cleaned up. I hope that they have some excellent pigeon sitting prevention measures in place. In addition to the black grime that clung to the outside stone, I found that pigeons made a big mess.
 
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The streetscape looks stunning as is, but trees are indeed coming on the north side. The paving turned out well considering the early renderings showed some dated grey interlocking brick used for the roadway. I haven't seen the granite pavers, but the concrete curbs are disappointing.

No renderings showed ornate black street lighting. They showed some minimalist modern design that was different from the utilitarian off-the-shelf stuff you see on Bloor Street in Yorkville. Ornate lighting would look quite good here. It's what the city should use.
 
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PATH west corridor

So extension of the passage beneath York Street is blocked by unforeseen utilities?
If so, then people exiting the York Concourse will only be able to go up to the street or to the lower level of the Royal York Hotel...

How does this affect opening of the York Concourse? Wasn't the plan to connect Union to the western section of PATH to facilitate closing the Bay Concourse for renovation?
 
Preview of new LED platform lighting at Union. Been there for several months but no one pointed them out.

If you stand in the center of platform 24/25, you will see a preview of the LED lighting that they plan to put underneath all the green roofs. At night, seems very bright and natural warmish color with high CRI index (looks 90ish) at color temperature that looks 4500K or 5000K. Halogen temperature. Continuous strip (about 10x brighter than the cheap LED ribbons found for accent lights) using replaceable rigid linear modules containing about 12 large LEDs each. Observe the nearby arc and fluorescent lights are darker.

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mdrejhon said:
Preview of new LED platform lighting at Union. Been there for several months but no one pointed them out.

If you stand in the center of platform 24/25, you will see a preview of the LED lighting that they plan to put underneath all the green roofs. At night, seems very bright and natural warmish color with high CRI index (looks 90ish) at color temperature that looks 4500K or 5000K. Halogen temperature. Continuous strip (about 10x brighter than the cheap LED ribbons found for accent lights) using replaceable rigid linear modules containing about 12 large LEDs each. Observe the nearby arc and fluorescent lights are darker.
Click to expand...

Very nice! Thanks for sharing.
I'm also really interested to see how the atrium section of the platforms will be lit... Will it just be the ambient light from the "lightbox"?
 
junctionist said:
The colour is good, but the platforms should be evenly lit.
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I kind of like the gradient since I can step out of the bright zone if I want to keep my phone/iPad screen dim (to save battery) -- and bright light sometimes bothers some people -- but I see what you mean. Even lighting would probably be, overall preferred, by the general populace (on average).

During the daytime, the skylight between the greenroofs, will light up the platform edges, so the light is at least focussed where it most critically needs to be.

yyzhyd said:
Very nice! Thanks for sharing.
I'm also really interested to see how the atrium section of the platforms will be lit... Will it just be the ambient light from the "lightbox"?
Click to expand...

Good question about the atrium area; not sure how they plan to light that area at night. Maybe pleasant diffuse lighting by adding hidden LED lighting all over inside the glass-enclosed roof truss structure. We shall have to see... Some nighttime concept art suggests that it'll be lighted internally inside the roof. That will obviously illuminate inside below, too.

goatriumnight.jpg

Source: Steve Munro's transit blog

I hope they finish the LED lighting by PanAm, at least in the atrium and critical platforms, even if they don't finish the greenroof yet completely.
 

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Been lurking on this thread for a year, recently moved downtown and been fascinated by the scope of work at Union, both the subway and grand station. Had three questions, perhaps a bit off-topic but I couldn't find a better place.

1. While walking through and around Union Station today, particularly in the Grand Hall I saw big windows and what look like offices on the south side? Who is there? How do they access those offices? I didn't see an elevator or stairs?

2. I watched GO trains come into the station for a bit from the West, saw the new UPX track. Got me wondering how GO and VIA share tracks. I see signs like "THIS WAY TO GO TRACKS 4 - 27", but don't know what that means. There don't look to be more than about 15 tracks. And if GO gets 4-27, what tracks do VIA use?

3. Finally, when looking at the east un-cleaned side of the building, I noticed that the east side is not really union station, or is it. It's marked 61 Front Street West, and when I went inside, it's the TD bank. Is that physically connected to the station, was it, anyone know the history? And does that building connect to those offices (VIA and City of Toronto) which run off the east end of the Grand Hall?

Thanks so much. Trying to get my head around this project.
 
I'm estimating that GO uses platforms 4 to 17 and 22 to 27. VIA has the gates in between, so no sharing of tracks I think.
Two numbered "platforms" between tracks. Can be confusing. UPX to use platform 3. Where are 1 and 2? I've heard it suggested these can apply to the subway platforms.

I understand that along Front Street, Union Station is comprised of the East Wing, the Great (not Grand) Hall and the West Wing. Three distinct addresses (61, 65 and ... 91?) but all comprise Union Station along with the Bay, VIA and awaited York Concourses.
There are architectural drawings on Urban Toronto- search the articles.
 
harry_fine said:
2. I watched GO trains come into the station for a bit from the West, saw the new UPX track. Got me wondering how GO and VIA share tracks. I see signs like "THIS WAY TO GO TRACKS 4 - 27", but don't know what that means. There don't look to be more than about 15 tracks. And if GO gets 4-27, what tracks do VIA use?
Click to expand...
Track numbers and platform numbers are different. There are two platforms per track. Platform numbers applies to edges, so the same waiting area between two tracks consists of two platforms.

VIA uses fewer tracks than GO does. VIA uses a few center tracks, while today during construction, GO currently actively uses tracks that passes platforms #5-12 and #25-27. VIA uses a few of the platforms that are in between these. Several tracks are currently out of service, due to the revitalization, but they will be brought into service in the coming years.

Track sharing will probably be more actively used when the Union corridor is re-signalled. This work is going to be under way, and with the upcoming resulting upgrades Train Traffic Control (or what they call it), as well as Videoboards already at all gates, tracks can be more easily dynamically assigned to trains as they arrive and leave.
 
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