Construction on the new Bay Street concourse at Union Station won’t be completed until the end of this year but on Tuesday morning officials opened up the doors to the worksite for the first time to give commuters a sneak peek at what they can expect.
The Bay Street concourse was shut down for renovations in August, 2015 immediately after work was completed on the revamped York Street concourse.
The work on the Bay concourse was initially supposed to be completed in 2018 but delays in the project have since pushed back the expected completion date to the end of 2019. The overall cost for the revamping of Union Station has also risen over the years, going from an initial budget of $640 million to an anticipated $823 million.
“Because trains need to continue to run construction projects like Union Station take longer because you need to keep the facility operating and make sure people remain safe. You know you finish one piece, turn that over and then close another, so it feels like it is sort of never-ending but there is light at the end of the tunnel, which is way we are here today, to show everybody all the work that is happening” City Spokesperson Brad Ross told reporters as he gave them a tour around the still under construction concourse on Tuesday. “We are literally digging out new basements to expand the facility and make it modern and transform it so that this premier destination is a welcoming environment.”
Once fully complete, the revamped Bay Street concourse will feature a new retail level that will include a so-called “Fresh Market” where commuters will be able to pick up grocery items on the way home.
It will also have a new connection with the underground PATH network and a new entrance from street level.
Ross said that commuters will also notice that the concourse will be “more open and more airy” than it was prior to renovations, with a design similar in some ways to the York GO concourse.
All told, the renovations to the Bay and GO concourse will effectively triple the combined square footage of both areas once fully complete.
“This station was not built for the 21st century, let’s face it,” Ross said on Tuesday. “Being able to expand this and grow it to meet the needs of a growing city is really what this is all about.”
Though construction on the Bay concourse is expected to be completed by the end of 2019, the reopening of the facility will be delayed until early 2020 due to some customization work that will have to be completed by Metrolinx.
Ross said that officials decided to give members of the media a tour of the concourse prior to its actual completion because they wanted to show the public that “there is actual progress happening.
“There really is a lot of accomplishments that have happened to date,” he said.
