Save Union Station

Bulletin

SAVE UNION STATION - Bulletin No. 27, October 28, 2004.

In this issue:

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1. Consultants recommend little change to Union Station

2. City Council Committees meet on November 1

3. Making your voice heard at city hall.

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1. Consultants recommend little change to Union Station

The consultants retained to advise on the Master Plan for Union Station have now reported. (Bulletin No. 26 provides details on the consultants.) The report is available at www.toronto.ca/union_station

The physical aspect of the report is attractive with excellent photographs, but the content is exceedingly disappointing. If the report is adopted as the Master Plan for Union Station, a regular rider on GO Transit or VIA can expect virtually no changes to the station during the next 30 years. The consultants propose that a new shed over the tracks be considered only in the long term, that is, after 30 years; there are no proposals to change the platforms; escalators are specifically rejected as a means to connect concourses and platforms; and there are no proposals to ensure that the concourses are anything other than a jungle of stairways. The consultants express fancy intentions to propose well-designed public spaces, but they leave the guts of the station untouched. This is a major disappointment.

More specifically, the proposals made by the consultants are found in Section 1.2, under the title “The BIG Moves.”

The first big move is `An Integrated Public Realm’, which means a well designed Front Street Plaza, and a well designed plaza on the south side of the Station. This is standard stuff.

The second big move is `An Astonishing Trainshed’, but it clearly says “the trainshed should be considered for development in the long term planning of the Station.” Short term is thought to be within ten years; medium term within 25 years. Long term is after that. As John Maynard Keynes once remarked, “In the long term we’ll all be dead.” This is unacceptable.

Another part of the 'second big move' is allowing major new development above the Station's tracks ("In the future, building above the tracks is a real and exciting possibility."). The very controversial commitment that "development above the tracks will be considered where warranted and subject to conditions unique to this site" is not something that the city has previously subjected to in-depth study or public consultation. Development over the tracks could mean that the existing track configuration and the inadequate width of the existing platforms are forever frozen in place, irrespective of future growth or changes in commuter or inter-city rail.

The third big move is `Revitalization of Underutilized Spaces’, such as the west concourse, the teamways and the moat. Nothing new here.

The fourth big move is `Maximized Porousness Through Extended Pedestrian Connections’. But there is no guarantee that the ground floor of the west wing of Union Station will be open to the public; the TTC subway station continues to sit as an obstacle to a direct connection between the Station and Royal Bank Plaza; the concourses are shown as filled with `vertical connections’ which means staircases, since the report argues against the use of escalators to replace the 41 steps between concourse and platform, concluding, on page 36, “The current number of steps in each staircase is not overly onerous.” Instead, the report says “Extensive additional vertical connections [aka `stairs’] in the east GO Concourse and in the new west GO Concourse will accommodate projected ridership demand.”

In short, not one of the issues raised by the Save Union Station Committee over the past two years is recommended by the consultants.

2. City Council Committees meet on November 1

The consultants’ report goes to a joint meeting of the City’s Administration Committee and Planning & Transportation Committee on November 1, beginning at 9:30 a.m., in the City Council Chambers.

The question before these committees is whether the committee members have the gumption to craft a plan which actually helps to improve the station and its environment for the people who use it. City Council would have to do this in spite of the disappointing consultants’ report and in the context of the agreement already signed.

The problem is the agreement between the city and the Union Pearson Group. This agreement provides Union Pearson with a 100 year lease for the Station in return for a payment of $500,000 per year, giving the Station a capital value of a mere $5 million.

Section 7.4 of this agreement states: “It is a closing condition in favour of each of Union Pearson Group and the City that they be satisfied with the outcome of the Master Plan review, including among other things having regard to the impact on the achievement of the Key Objectives.”

When the agreement was signed some of us wondered what that sentence meant. But at this point, when the consultants’ recommendations are so disappointing, the meaning seems clear. City Council should express its disappointment with the Master Plan review. It should say it is not satisfied with the outcome of the Master Plan review. If council does that, it appears the contract will be at an end, and a fresh start can be made for the benefit of the many, many people who use Union Station.

The objective of the meeting on November 1 should be to encourage councillors to say they are not satisfied with the outcome of the Master Plan Review.

Whether they are willing to take such a stand after their dismal record of dealing intelligently with Union Station over the past three years is unknown, but surely it is worth a try.

3. Making your voice heard at city hall.

Readers of this Bulletin are urged to send a letter to the committee asking it to recommend to council that it state that, pursuant to Section 7.4 of the Agreement with the Union Pearson Group, City Council is not satisfied with the outcome of the Master Plan Review.

To register to speak before the committee, or to ensure your letter is put before the joint meeting of the committees, please telephone 416-392-7039 or email admc@toronto.ca.

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Our Email address is signup@saveunionstation.ca and please visit our website at http://www.saveunionstation.ca