Aurora walking advocate wants Metrolinx, town on board with pedestrian rail crossings

'Safety is critical to everything we do,' Metrolinx says, but resident insists that excuse is 'baloney'

Yorkregion.com
June 7, 2021
Lisa Queen

Anyone who knows resident Klaus Wehrenberg knows he walks.

Anywhere, any time.

And he strongly advocates for infrastructure that encourages other residents to leave their cars behind and use their feet to take them where they want to go.

About 35 years ago, Wehrenberg suggested Aurora could become a healthier community if it put in place a network of trails, a sentiment that led a quarter century later to the town’s trails master plan.

The Klaus Wehrenberg Trail, part of which falls in the larger Nokiidaa Trail system, is named in his honour.

These days, Wehrenberg is campaigning to make Aurora a more walkable community by taking on Metrolinx, a provincial agency responsible for transit expansion in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.

Wehrenberg is upset Metrolinx has fencing along its GO Train tracks preventing pedestrians and cyclists from crossing the tracks at intermittent locations.

In particular, he’s frustrated with the “Berlin Wall” of expanded metal mesh Metrolinx installed on the fence from the Aurora GO Station to Cousins Drive to stop illegal pedestrian crossings.

He argues a safe pedestrian crossing at Cousins would allow residents to walk from residential neighbourhoods on the west side to Sheppard’s Bush Conservation Area and businesses on the east side.

Without that, people either have to find a road and make their way across where cars do or, more likely, give up walking altogether and hop in their vehicles, Wehrenberg argues.

The town would have to pay for a tunnel, he said.

The more Metrolinx expands train service in the GTHA, the more Wehrenberg fears the agency will dig in its heels and refuse to provide pedestrian crossings.

Encouraging people to get behind the wheel makes no sense, especially since municipalities such as Aurora have declared a climate emergency, Wehrenberg said.

According to the federal government, transportation is responsible for 28 per cent of Canada’s greenhouse gases.

Greenhouse gases contribute to climate change, which Ottawa calls “one of the most important environmental issues of our time.”

As part of its climate emergency declaration in 2019, Aurora committed to a number of environmental initiatives.

Despite that, Wehrenberg doesn’t feel the town is doing enough to lobby Metrolinx for dedicated pedestrian crossings.

Metrolinx spokesperson, Fannie Sunshine, said the agency understands Wehrenberg’s frustration.

“But safety is critical to everything we do -- nothing we plan or do can compromise safety,” she said.

“Metrolinx is well aware and appreciates the Aurora community’s desire to see improved pedestrian connections. In response to this feedback, early designs of the Wellington grade separation feature pedestrian connections on and across Wellington Street, improving access to Aurora GO station. As the project progresses, we are committed to continue engaging with the community to share plans and elicit community feedback.”

Since the expanded metal mesh over the fence was installed in Aurora, Metrolinx has not recorded any trespassing incidents since September 2019 and no near-miss incidents with trains and pedestrians, Sunshine added.

Wehrenberg calls Metrolinx safety explanation “baloney,” arguing there are ways of making pedestrian crossings of railway tracks safe, pointing to one at London Road in Newmarket.

Meanwhile, as part of the Aurora GO Station improvements project, Metrolinx will open a tunnel underneath the tracks at the station to help riders and pedestrians move between the existing east platform and future west platform, Sunshine said.

Metrolinx is committed to working with Aurora on its goals of adding pedestrian connections as part of the trails master plan, she said.

“Although that work is outside of Metrolinx’s scope, as good neighbours, we are working with the Town of Aurora to support their effort to install a grade-separated pedestrian crossing at Cousins Drive,” Sunshine said.

When asked if Aurora would lobby Metrolinx for pedestrian crossings, the town’s operational services sent an email.

“The town is actively working with Metrolinx to explore the feasibility of pedestrian rail crossings in Aurora taking into consideration factors such as safety, construction, cost and effective placement of locations,” it said.