Save Union Station - Background

Background

Letter to Councillors, February 17, 2003

February 17, 2003

Dear Councillor

Our organization is pleased that the decision of City Council on February 6 provides an opportunity for councillors to address Union Station concerns. This letter summarizes the issues we believe are outstanding. We have reviewed the matter with some care in recent months, and have met with officials from Union Pearson and LP Heritage to explore their proposals, as well as with TTC, GO Transit, and VIA Rail.

We believe several important issues have not been addressed or have not been well co-ordinated through the current RFP process. They include: long term transportation; governance; the length of the lease; and fair market value.

1. The Long-Term Transportation Issues

The Request For Proposal excludes any of the long-term transportation issues. Yet the plans of the major transportation operators - GO Transit, VIA Rail, and the TTC - will have an enormous impact on the future of the rest of the building.

The first significant issue is what happens to the tracks and platforms now used by GO Transit. We believe, despite GO's position to the contrary, that the platforms must be widened for the sake of passenger safety and to create the opportunity to connect the concourses to the platforms by escalators. Currently, commuters must take 41 steps - the equivalent of a three storey rise - to get from the concourse to the platforms. It is unreasonable to assume that increased linkages between the concourse and the platforms should remain stairways as planned by GO Transit. At the same time wider platforms will require a realignment of tracks and the expenditure will be in the order of $400 million. Over the longer term, and given the number of passengers using these facilities, that is not an unreasonable sum. City Council should be encouraging other levels of government to help provide the moneys needed for these changes to create wider platforms, install escalators, and realign tracks.

Second, the city must ensure that the future plans of VIA Rail to increase the volume of inter-city travel, including the use of medium and higher speed trains, are integrated into the overall transportation planning for the Station. We do not believe that is currently the case. At the moment it is unclear what changes might be required to the Station, but it is only reasonable to assume that train use will increase as train speed increases and as public appreciation grows for the offer of greater environmental protection which railways provide. Appropriate platforms and linkages must be available for these trains.

Third, opportunities must be created so that a link between Union Station and Pearson Airport becomes a reality. This idea was referred to in the RFP but there seemed little likelihood it would actually occur.

The fourth concern regards linkages between Union Station and the immediate world just beyond its boundaries. Good linkages will require a redesign of the TTC's Union Station stop, a re-thinking of the connection to the new GO Bus Terminal on the east side of Bay Street, and special connections to the north-west corner of the site.

City Council should ensure that these four transportation issues are clearly addressed and resolved in whatever action is taken about Union Station.

2. Governance

We believe City Council should re-think whether it is appropriate to lease away the public as well as the commercial areas of Union Station, as the RFP suggested. In New York, the public areas of Grand Central Station remain in public control while the private areas to be used for commercial purposes were put in the hands of a management firm. We believe this is a more appropriate way of ensuring that the changes required to the station are made and that the largest financial return possible flows to the city.

3. Length of Lease

The length of the lease should relate to the certainty with which one views the future. If it is unclear what the future might bring then it seems unwise to make a lease which ties one's hands for a lengthy period of time. In current circumstances it seems unwise to make a lease longer than for a 20-year period. Twenty years provides adequate time for a developer to obtain a return on investment. It also allows the city to re-assess things in a reasonable timeframe. We believe the city should make a lease for no longer than 20 years on any part of the station.

4. Fair Market Value

Staff have been requested to report further on the fair market value of any lease for Union Station. It should be noted that according to the RFP, the amount of commercial space in Union Station now available for lease is 230,000 sq.ft. and in 12 years when the Bank of Nova Scotia's lease on the east wing expires, the total rentable space will be 375,000 sq.ft. At a net rent of $50 per sq.ft. per year the annual rent from this space should currently be in the order of $10 million, and in the future, $18 million. It is hard to believe that the $500,000 per year offered by Union Pearson is "fair market value" as stated in the January 22, 2003 staff report.

Our group is willing to participate in whatever way we can to help City Council debate and reach a clear statement on these four issues so the city can move ahead with the renovation of Union Station and ensure it serves the city's needs in the future.

Yours sincerely,

Save Union Station Steering Committee, Noel Copping, Laura Cooper, Lawrence David, Andrew Jeanes, Cathy Nasmith, Wayne Olson, Alison Reid, John Sewell, Linda Sheppard, Bobbi Speck, Noelle Zitzer