Metrolinx says grade separation at Wellington Street, Aurora a priority
Grade separation, pedestrian underpasses and parking top issues for Aurora as Metrolinx expands to 15-min. service

yorkregion.com
April 6, 2017
By Amanda Persico

Pedestrian crossings, grade separation and parking remain top priorities for Aurora.

Metrolinx is working toward 15-minute, all day, two-way service starting and ending in Aurora by 2025, with incremental service increases along the way.

“Many people think the challenge is getting people in and out of downtown,” said Nick Spensieri, a Metrolinx director for the Barrie GO rail corridor, who is also an Aurora resident.

“The challenge is actually traffic and congestion,” he said.

Currently, it takes about 80 minutes to get to downtown Toronto from the Aurora area, he added.

Having cars stop every 15 minutes to accommodate GO train service doesn’t help ease traffic and congestion.

That’s why grade separation at Wellington Street falls within Metrolinx’s Top 10 grade crossing project across the GO network.

Currently, there is funding for the 10 grade separation projects, costing between $50 million to $150 million per crossing depending on complexity and location.

There are close to 40 rail crossings in the queue across the GO network, funding will be on a case-by-case basis.

Metrolinx is doing a lot of the pre-planning and pre-design work in a large lump sum, so when funding becomes available, projects are ready to go, Erin Moroz, community relations director with Metrolinx.

Grade separation at Wellington Street is in the very preliminary stages, Spensieri said.

Grade separation work is also being considered at Rutherford and McNaughton roads in Vaughan and at Steeles Avenue east.

Aurora councillors are also committed to not allowing all-day, two-way GO train service to cut the town in half.

But Metrolinx is not on the same page when it comes to establishing pedestrian underpasses at nine of the town’s rail crossings.

“We cannot go on like this, with no way to cross the tracks and then say Aurora is the most active community,” said Aurora resident and local trails enthusiast, Klaus Wehrenberg.

“Metrolinx does not want to spend money on trail crossings,” he said. “Metrolinx’s priority is vehicular traffic.”

But pedestrian underpasses remain a top priority for the town.

“We’re committed, our residents know that,” said Coun. John Abel during a recent Metrolinx presentation to Aurora council.

The same sentiment was expressed by many councillors during the presentation.

Metrolinx had few concrete answers when it came to establishing pedestrian underpasses along the railroad that would cut Aurora east from west.

Metrolinx has an active transportation plan, Rails with Trails, and it helps working with a community that has similar master plans, said Moroz.

“I guess, we’ll press hard and keep our fingers crossed,” Coun. Tom Mrakas said.

When pressed about providing shuttle services to and from stations and closing the last mile gap, Moroz said it was a complicated issue since GO services are inter-regional, but Metrolinx is looking in to it.

To combat the ever growing need, Metrolinx is looking at carpooling, using a microbus service similar to Uber and better connectivity to YRT/Viva services.

“With this amount of growth in the community, we can’t be building be building parking ad nauseam,” Spensieri said.