Milton Transit Service
Underserved

NRU
Nov. 1, 2017
Daniel Taylor

Despite being the fastest growing municipality in Ontario—one family moves to Milton every hour— Milton is still waiting for the interregional transit it needs to support its rapidly increasing population.

Disappointed with the continuing absence of new infrastructure investment along the Milton GO Transit rail corridor, on Monday Milton council directed staff to provide Metrolinx with its comments on the draft 2041 Regional Transportation Plan. Council said that Metrolinx has consistently downplayed the town’s significant planning and infrastructure commitments made to support those needed regional transit investments.

While Milton has experienced considerable employment and residential growth over the past 10 years of Metrolinx’s initial plan, the Big Move, it continues to be underserved. The town’s initial request for two-way, all-day GO rail service to and from Milton, new GO stations at Trafalgar Road/Derry Road and at Tremaine Road/Steeles Avenue, and related transportation infrastructure was “deferred indefinitely” by Metrolinx at that time.

Planning and development commissioner Barbara Koopmans told NRU that among staff’s nine
recommendations, bringing all-day two-way GO train service to Milton is the top priority, especially with the town’s changing demographic, which includes a high percentage young, well-educated people needing to commute further east for work.

“All-day two-way GO service is hugely important to Milton in terms of supporting our community. We have a lot more younger residents who need to commute on a daily basis, and easy access to GO Transit will be a huge benefit to the community” said Koopmans.

But with trains only operating during the morning and evening rush hours, Koopmans explains, residents are being turned off transit.

“It basically makes transit less useable for [residents]. If they need to leave work for sick children or a personal emergency, they just don’t have the option [of getting home].”

Ward 8 councillor Zeeshan Hamid also expressed frustration with the lack of parking at GO stations. A GO train commuter himself, he now drives to Oakville station and bypasses Milton station due to a consistent lack of parking.

“We have a massive problem with parking spaces. I’m a regular GO train user as I work downtown during the day. Four days in a row I couldn’t find parking at 7:45 a.m. It completely discourages people to take GO Transit. Once [commuters] find the alternative to transit and flaunt the habit, we’ve lost them.”

Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins told NRU in an email that it the agency is listening to comments from Milton council and is taking steps to address them. “We are fully aware of the current and projected population of Milton, and have incorporated these figures into our modelling for the draft plan. We have also worked with municipal staff … and Hemson Consulting to look at how population and employment might be allocated within Milton, for the purpose of the draft 2041 Regional Transportation Plan.”

Engineering services commissioner Paul Cripps understands that Metrolinx staff is in conversation with Canadian Pacific Rail, which owns the track that runs through Milton, to find ways to increase service.

“The problem is the rail line that runs through Milton isn’t actually owned by Metrolinx ... [it needs] to get Canadian Pacific to free up capacity on [its] line, grant access for additional trains or build a parallel system down the same corridor.”