Second Union Station subway platform opens today

TTC riders at Union Station are getting some relief from the usual crowds this morning.

Crews have opened a second platform at Union after three years of construction.

TTC spokesperson Brad Ross said the new platform will help ease congestion inside the busy station.

"Customers who are travelling north on the Yonge line toward Finch station will be using the new platform," he said. "Customers travelling north on the University/Spadina line toward Downsview station will use the existing platform."

The new platform cost $137 million. The existing platform, built in 1954, is a centre platform located between the tracks that served both sides of the Yonge line.

Ross said the existing platform was unable to meet current capacity needs at Union Station, which is the third busiest station on the TTC's subway system, handling about 115,000 passengers on a typical weekday.

"It is very crowded during rush hour after an event at the Air Canada Centre or the  Rogers Centre," said Ross. "The platform can become crowded almost to the point of becoming unsafe."

Still some kinks to be worked out

Steve Munro, who runs a transit blog, was at Union Station Monday to check out the new platform.

"Union Station still feels very much like moving into a condo before the building is actually finished," Munro said during an interview on CBC Radio's Metro Morning. "There's signs still to go up, there's escalators to get running.

"The good thing about it is there's an army of people there giving directions. As I was touring around the station, every time I stopped to look around, someone was saying 'Are you lost?'

"It will take a day or so to get the kinks worked out."

Renovation work will now move to the existing platform, which Ross said will receive the same finishing treatments as the new platform. Work on the existing platform, which is expected to conclude in early 2015, will include 150-metre long glass wall that displays artwork.