Commuters are in for a surprise when they arrive at the lower level of Union Station Monday morning.
A new glass-covered underground pedestrian pathway was opened to the public today, without fanfare at the country's busiest transportation hub.
Several entrances/exits to old pathways have been sealed off for now, so that people can still access Union Station while the long-delayed revitalization project can continue.
Heather Seaman
The City of Toronto, which owns the building, could not be reached for comment.
NEWSTALK 1010 spoke with Metrolinx spokesperson Amanda Ferguson.
"It's a continuation of the revitalization that they're doing at Union Station, so starting today, passengers will be re-routed to the north exit of York concourse, so that work can be done, " says Ferguson, "And so what passengers will see is they won't normally go through that typical pinch-point that they've been going through for months and instead they're going to be routed to this north exit."
More than 300,000 people pass through the station every day.
Heather Seaman
The renovations started in 2009 and were originally supposed to be finished by the summer of 2015, in time for the start of the Pan Am Games. More construction delays since then, have pushed the opening date back.
The original budget for the project was $640 million, but cost overruns have increased the final tally over the years. The project is now budgeted at $823 million.
The Union Station revitalization project is expected to be completed by December.