Provincial budget: transit a big win in King and Vaughan, says Del Duca
Yorkregion.com
March 4, 2016
By Tim Kelly
Vaughan and King residents shouldn’t be surprised the transport minister is touting transit as a big win for them in the recent provincial budget.
Steven Del Duca, also Vaughan MPP, said last Friday that a “$160 billion investment in infrastructure including for transit over a 12-year period means those who really grapple with gridlock. ... will have less time behind the wheel and more time with their families.”
Del Duca also said in future years more people will be able to take GO trains along the Barrie corridor every 15 minutes in both directions, trains that service commuters in Vaughan and King.
“We are double-tracking GO to Barrie right now. We will see increased trips along the Barrie corridor in the next few years and somewhere in the neighbourhood of six, seven years, maybe eight at the outside, the Barrie corridor will have trains running in both directions every 15 minutes. Those trains will be electrified. That’s a phenomenal change,” said the transportation minister.
He also talked about widening Hwy. 400 from Major Mackenzie Road in Vaughan to King Road in King City. It will expand from eight lanes to 10 lanes with the work expected to finish by 2018-19, said Del Duca.
Finally, the minister pointed out the budget specifically mentioned the new hospital in Vaughan, Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital, which he said will see major construction begin by the end of 2016.
