Metrolinx approves Vaughan GO station that will put more cars on the road

$100 million station is on the Barrie line and being built in the provincial transportation minister’s riding.

Thestar.com
March 27, 2017
By Ben Spurr

Metrolinx has approved a $100-million GO Transit station in Vaughan despite a government analysis that determined the stop would have negative economic and environmental impacts, and would induce people to abandon transit and drive their cars instead.

The proposed Kirby station would be located on GO’s Barrie line at the southwest intersection of Kirby Rd. and Keele St., in the riding represented by Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca.

The station was one of 12 new stops the Metrolinx board approved last June as part of the agency’s 10-year regional express rail expansion program, but an initial business case the agency commissioned for the stop wasn’t released publicly until two weeks ago.

The report found that “the benefits which could be realized by a Kirby station are not large enough to outweigh the anticipated negative impacts to GO transit and the economy.”

Asked why Del Duca supports building the station and whether the fact that it is in his riding played a role, spokesperson Andrea Ernesaks said the proposed stop was supported by sound planning rationale.

“The minister has always believed that it's extremely important for transit infrastructure to be aligned with population densities, both existing and planned,” Ernesaks said in an email. She added that the mayor of Vaughan has also been a vocal supporter of the project.

Ernesaks said that 35,000 residents are expected to live near the station “over the next number of years” and because of this “massive population growth” building the GO stop “makes sense and deserves support - we cannot just be building for today, we need to build with the future in mind.”

The Metrolinx report, which was prepared by a consultant, cited a lower figure for residential density in the station’s catchment area, saying that it could accommodate between about 19,000 - 27,000 residents by 2031, in low- and mid-rise developments.

That would meet the Metrolinx’s density criteria for regional rail service, but the report noted that development potential was limited because some of the surrounding area is already developed, used for agriculture, or within the protected Oak Ridges Moraine.

According to the business case, by 2031 the Kirby stop would attract 5,100 daily riders. However, most of them would be people who already use GO’s nearby King City and Maple stations.

Because stopping at Kirby would inconvenience “upstream” GO passengers by increasing their travel times, the report predicted that the proposed stop would result in roughly 3 per cent of riders who board north of Kirby opting to take cars instead.

Over the course of the 60-year study period, the new station would lead to a net loss of 3.3 million transit trips, and 688.1 million additional kilometers of car travel on the region’s roads.

The study found the shift to driving would increase congestion, traffic collisions, and greenhouse gas emissions, and the associated costs for transportation users and society as a whole would total $374.4 million. The station would have “no transportation user or environmental net benefits/savings to the regional economy,” the report’s economic analysis concluded.

Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said it was important to keep in mind that all the new GO stations are “at the very early concept stage - and much more study is required.”

Asked why the location was chosen, Aikins said Metrolinx picked the site because it was in a designated “new community area” in Vaughan and the city recently expanded its planning to include a GO transit hub there.

Michael Harris, the transportation critic for the Progressive Conservatives, said that the fact the station was in “right in the backyard” of the transportation minister “does raise concerns” that politics played a role in its approval.

Metrolinx was created by the provincial government in 2006 to take the lead on regional transit planning in the GTHA, and is accountable to the minister of transportation.

“I would question why Ontario taxpayers are funding a station that would mean longer travel times” and would send transit users “back on the road” and into their cars, said Harris, who represents Kitchener-Conestoga.

Building and maintaining the station over 60 years would require $98.4 million in capital costs, including $21.9 million earmarked for land acquisition and an additional amount for station refurbishments in about 30 years time. Over the same 60-year period it would cost Metrolinx $27.3 million to operate. Construction would start in 2022 with an in-service date of 2024.

Although the proposed station site is currently within Del Duca’s riding, the province’s electoral districts are being redrawn ahead of the 2018 election. The minister plans to run in the new riding of Vaughan-Woodbridge, while the proposed station would be in the adjacent riding of King-Vaughan.

Property records show that the land on which the station and accompanying development would be built is owned by a company registered to John Di Poce, a prominent developer and philanthropist.

The records show the company bought the land in 2004 for $10.5 million.

Elections Ontario records show that companies registered to Di Poce donated $1,300 to Del Duca’s 2014 election campaign, in addition to giving the Ontario Liberal Party a total of $3,862 in 2014 and 2015. Over the same period Di Poce’s companies gave $9,350 to the Progressive Conservative Party.

Di Poce did not return a request for comment on Monday.