Lack of permanent parking at Vaughan subway station no problem says mayor

YorkRegion.com
Nov. 11, 2016
Tim Kelly

If you build it without permanent parking, will they still come to ride the Vaughan subway?

That's the question that will be answered in just over a year's time at the Vaughan subway at Hwy. 7 and Jane Street.

The parking question was posed to Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua by the Vaughan Chamber of Commerce at a transportation and rental housing forum held at Chateau Le Parc Event Centre last Tuesday morning.

The mayor said there would be temporary parking at the Vaughan station but permanent parking lots would only be established farther down the subway line at the Jane Street/Hwy. 407 station, where there will be about 550 spots, and at the Black Creek Pioneer Village station, which will have about 1,500 spots.

It's expected people who want to use the new Vaughan station at the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre will get there by using public transit through the new Viva Bus rapidway link along Hwy. 407, which is being constructed and will be finished in early 2018, or by being dropped off or picked up at the subway station.

It's to try to get people out of their cars and using public transit, said the mayor.

"We can't be making all these investments if the culture isn't going to change at all," the mayor told the forum.

"The transition will not be easy. We have to bring the future to the present; how do we get people out of their cars and using public transit? I imagine car-pooling will take place," he said.

It's expected the temporary parking structure in place when the Vaughan subway station opens will have a few hundred spaces. That lot is expected to be sold for development in time. The only other option for future parking will be if a private lot is built by a developer, the mayor said.

He doesn't expect the Toronto Transit Commission, which is building the subway, to construct a public lot for drivers.

Mary Frances Turner, president of the York Region Rapid Transit Corporation, confirmed there will be no permanent parking structure at the Vaughan subway station site.

"The goal is for most of the people to arrive not by car, but by transit. You don't want to fill it up with parking."