Union Station's Bay Street Concourse closing Sunday for redevelopment

GO Transit customers will have to endure two years of renovations to the busy Bay Street Concourse beginning tomorrow.

Riders will be re-routed through the recently redeveloped York concourse during construction.

Metrolinx says that once the work is completed, the total GO Concourse area will be triple the original size. Customers will be able to access the full length of the platform from the concourse level, and there will be an improved, accessible connection to the PATH system through the TTC Union subway station.

"It's a big change for commuters," Metrolinx spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins told CBC News earlier this month. "You want your commute to be forgettable," she said, adding that for a little while, at least, the changes may be "uncomfortable."

Larger, airier concourse

The eventual payoff, Aikins said, will be a far larger and more airy Bay concourse with almost triple the amount of space to wait for trains.

Some commuters who CBC News spoke with Saturday are bracing for chaos over the next two years.

Joanne Amyot, who commutes from Guelph to Toronto about three to four times a month, didn't know the concourse would be closed for until 2017.

"That's a long time," she said. "That's not great at all, it's not a great idea."

Amyot said the renovations means she will have to add an extra hour of travel time to her commute.

The 62,000-square-foot York Street GO concourse at Union station officially opened to the public April 27.

The concourse is nearly double the size of its predecessor, the Bay Street concourse.