Wednesday, August 5, 2015

As we prepare to say goodbye to the GO Bay Concourse, let's take a look back (it's a short read)

According to Transit Toronto and James Bow, the Bay Concourse was built into what was once a Canada Post office at Union Station.

The concourse, a network of narrow corridors and stairwells, was designed by Rounthwaite, Dick and Hadley Architects. It cost $10 million or $43 million in today's dollars to build.

What has always resembled a large, public washroom to me opened in 1979 strictly for use by GO Transit passengers.

There are no "throwbacks" of pictures on the Internet that I could find about its grand opening on August 2nd, 1979, and the only news article I could find was this clipping from the Toronto Star on July 27 of that year:

I paid $9.99 plus tax for this clipping. I suggest you print it out and frame it.



It was proposed on Twitter that Metrolinx throw a 70s-themed farewell party. I said we should pay $10 to get a chance to swing a sledgehammer with all proceeds donated to charity.

Change is coming. It will be rough. It will be brutal. It will take at least two years.

Metrolinx is promising it will be worth the wait.

4 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 5, 2015 at 10:42 AM

    I love how no one but you has done any type of fanfare farewell piece on this.
    Bets are on that The Star steals the idea.

    ReplyDelete
  2. C.J. SmithAugust 5, 2015 at 10:47 AM

    I'm pretty sure the idea is not original to me. What the Star should do is refund me my money considering the incredible amount of technical difficulty I experienced last night using their archive app.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownAugust 6, 2015 at 9:45 PM

    At least try dropped their paywall.

    ReplyDelete

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