rdaner
Senior Member
Train hub hullabaloo
Residents Bristle As GO Proposes 'Second Union Station' In Rosedale
Kelly Patrick, National Post
Published: Saturday, September 01, 2007
Every weekday at the zenith of the morning rush hour, as many as 60,000 commuters ride 35 GO trains into Union Station, where they elbow and shove their way through the hordes to the streets and offices beyond.
GO's rail service from the suburbs to Union is already at capacity between 7:15 a.m. and 8:15 a.m. most weekdays.
That is why, with thousands more people expected to stream into the station over the next decade or two as GO train service expands across the GTA, the provincially owned commuter rail service has begun to quietly explore building a second Union Station in one of Toronto's most exclusive neighbourhoods.
A rail line is located at Yonge Street and Scrivener Square, where what was once the Canadian Pacific Railway's North Toronto Station has been converted into a LCBO outlet.View Larger Image View Larger Image
A rail line is located at Yonge Street and Scrivener Square, where what was once the Canadian Pacific Railway's North Toronto Station has been converted into a LCBO outlet.
The proposed site is in the heart of Rosedale, on Yonge Street just south of Summerhill Avenue, a location that until the late 1920s housed the Canadian Pacific Railway's North Toronto Station.
Today the station is a lavish LCBO. However, the old platforms and the CP rail corridor are still there and the TTC's Summerhill subway station is nearby.
All these attributes make Summerhill the obvious place to put a new terminal, says Gary McNeil, GO Transit's managing director and chief executive.
"It's very, very logical that there be a station here because there is an existing station there right now," Mr. McNeil said in an interview.
"It's 10-plus years away, but we've got to start protecting the land for it today. It's amazing how fast 10 years go by."
Some locals are already bristling at the thought of their tony neighbourhood turning into a commuter hub.
Paul Oberman is especially averse to the idea. His Woodcliffe Corporation owns the refurbished North Toronto station and most of the surrounding block.
He has a simple message for GO officials: "The land is not for sale."
It is easy to see why Mr. Oberman wants to hang on to this parcel of land and buildings, which he purchased from CP's old real estate arm in 1996.
Multi-million-dollar homes and their well-off inhabitants abut Woodcliffe's Yonge Street promenade from Shaftesbury Avenue to Price Street, just south of the Summerhill LCBO.
Stroll down the street and you will find the high-end food shops long known as the Five Thieves, which together possess the charm of a European market.
The block is currently being reconstructed and Woodcliffe has a long-term lease with the food shops, Mr. Oberman says. Woodcliffe also has a 25-year lease with the LCBO.
The LCBO's aisles are labelled as "tracks." A poster explaining the history of the station, which closed to rail traffic in the late 1920s, hangs over baskets of Chardonnay and Chianti Reserve.
Wine samplings are hosted in the "Tasting Tower," beneath a clock tower inspired by the camponile in St. Mark's Square in Venice.
Christopher Parke, a longtime resident of the neighbourhood who sat smoking at a table outside the store recently, called turning this venerable pocket of the city into a commuter hub, "a ridiculous idea."
"It would radically change this area," Mr. Parke said. Pointing to the condos behind the LCBO, he said "For those people who could be living next to a train yard, I'm sure they'll castrate or suitably harm their city councillor if this goes ahead."
But Susan Bowman, the chief operating officer of fine food purveyor All The Best -- one of the Five Thieves -- the proposal could mean a steady stream of new customers.
"From a business perspective, if it were possible, it would be fabulous. There'd be thousands of commuters coming through here every day," she said.
Mr. McNeil stressed that GO would not move ahead with its Summerhill plan without environmental assessments and public consultations, none of which will be conducted until the plan is much closer to reality.
GO Transit's timeline for making Rosedale a commuter hub depends on a raft of what-ifs and when-ifs, but the biggest factor will not be North Toronto -- it will be North Pickering.
In about two years, construction is slated to begin on the Seaton community in north Pickering. The province expects 70,000 people to live there and 35,000 to work there when the development is completed in 20 years.
As it happens, the CP rail corridor that serves Seaton runs through Rosedale, setting up Summerhill as a potential new hub. A new Seaton train would become the first GO line not to terminate at Union Station.
"We know we can't bring a fully new line into Union Station," Mr. McNeil, the GO Transit boss, said. "So as the development starts to happen there, that's when we would start really looking at Summerhill as a viable alternative."
Mr. McNeil expects some of the trains on the Milton line would be re-routed to Summerhill too, after the Seaton line is up and running.
The idea faces other hurdles. Besides acquiring the land and the North Toronto station from an owner averse to selling, GO would have to negotiate use of the tracks from CP, which currently runs about 100 freight trains daily on the portion of the line that cuts through Toronto, Mr. McNeil said.
The TTC would also have to get on board. Adam Giambrone, the chair of the TTC, said he does not necessarily oppose locating a new Union Station at Summerhill, but he would "prefer" a spot near Dupont station, on the less-crowded University subway line.
"Anything we can do to shift passengers over to the University Line is good, because southbound in rush hour its not anyway near capacity," Mr. Giambrone said.
As well, Mr. Giambrone said about 95% of the GO passengers who disembark at Union Station walk to their destinations.
(Mr. McNeil put the figure closer to 80%.)
Mr. Giambrone fears riders' aversion to paying a second fare for a TTC ride could be a problem at a Summerhill GO terminal, but Mr. McNeil said he expects plans for a universal fare card to fix that dilemma.
In the meantime, GO is working on other ways to increase its rush hour capacity at Union Station. This fall the first of 26 new, more powerful locomotives -- which cost about $5-million each -- will begin arriving.
Capable of pulling a heavier load, the new engines will allow GO to expand its trains from 10 cars to 12, meaning as many as 2,000 people will be able to fit on one train. That is up from between 1,500 and 1,800 now.
GO has also begun building a new south platform at Union whose initial purpose is to allow for the reconstruction of the train shed's roof.
When that work is done in about four years there will be room for six more GO trains at rush hour's peak.
Still, none of these steps will erase the need for a new commuter rail terminal at Summerhill, according to Mr. McNeil.
"In the grand scheme of things, GO Transit needs to be on every single rail corridor in the GTA," Mr. McNeil said.
"People have to recognize if they want a good environment they have to deal with trains going by them."
kpatrick@nationalpost.com
Residents Bristle As GO Proposes 'Second Union Station' In Rosedale
Kelly Patrick, National Post
Published: Saturday, September 01, 2007
Every weekday at the zenith of the morning rush hour, as many as 60,000 commuters ride 35 GO trains into Union Station, where they elbow and shove their way through the hordes to the streets and offices beyond.
GO's rail service from the suburbs to Union is already at capacity between 7:15 a.m. and 8:15 a.m. most weekdays.
That is why, with thousands more people expected to stream into the station over the next decade or two as GO train service expands across the GTA, the provincially owned commuter rail service has begun to quietly explore building a second Union Station in one of Toronto's most exclusive neighbourhoods.
A rail line is located at Yonge Street and Scrivener Square, where what was once the Canadian Pacific Railway's North Toronto Station has been converted into a LCBO outlet.View Larger Image View Larger Image
A rail line is located at Yonge Street and Scrivener Square, where what was once the Canadian Pacific Railway's North Toronto Station has been converted into a LCBO outlet.
The proposed site is in the heart of Rosedale, on Yonge Street just south of Summerhill Avenue, a location that until the late 1920s housed the Canadian Pacific Railway's North Toronto Station.
Today the station is a lavish LCBO. However, the old platforms and the CP rail corridor are still there and the TTC's Summerhill subway station is nearby.
All these attributes make Summerhill the obvious place to put a new terminal, says Gary McNeil, GO Transit's managing director and chief executive.
"It's very, very logical that there be a station here because there is an existing station there right now," Mr. McNeil said in an interview.
"It's 10-plus years away, but we've got to start protecting the land for it today. It's amazing how fast 10 years go by."
Some locals are already bristling at the thought of their tony neighbourhood turning into a commuter hub.
Paul Oberman is especially averse to the idea. His Woodcliffe Corporation owns the refurbished North Toronto station and most of the surrounding block.
He has a simple message for GO officials: "The land is not for sale."
It is easy to see why Mr. Oberman wants to hang on to this parcel of land and buildings, which he purchased from CP's old real estate arm in 1996.
Multi-million-dollar homes and their well-off inhabitants abut Woodcliffe's Yonge Street promenade from Shaftesbury Avenue to Price Street, just south of the Summerhill LCBO.
Stroll down the street and you will find the high-end food shops long known as the Five Thieves, which together possess the charm of a European market.
The block is currently being reconstructed and Woodcliffe has a long-term lease with the food shops, Mr. Oberman says. Woodcliffe also has a 25-year lease with the LCBO.
The LCBO's aisles are labelled as "tracks." A poster explaining the history of the station, which closed to rail traffic in the late 1920s, hangs over baskets of Chardonnay and Chianti Reserve.
Wine samplings are hosted in the "Tasting Tower," beneath a clock tower inspired by the camponile in St. Mark's Square in Venice.
Christopher Parke, a longtime resident of the neighbourhood who sat smoking at a table outside the store recently, called turning this venerable pocket of the city into a commuter hub, "a ridiculous idea."
"It would radically change this area," Mr. Parke said. Pointing to the condos behind the LCBO, he said "For those people who could be living next to a train yard, I'm sure they'll castrate or suitably harm their city councillor if this goes ahead."
But Susan Bowman, the chief operating officer of fine food purveyor All The Best -- one of the Five Thieves -- the proposal could mean a steady stream of new customers.
"From a business perspective, if it were possible, it would be fabulous. There'd be thousands of commuters coming through here every day," she said.
Mr. McNeil stressed that GO would not move ahead with its Summerhill plan without environmental assessments and public consultations, none of which will be conducted until the plan is much closer to reality.
GO Transit's timeline for making Rosedale a commuter hub depends on a raft of what-ifs and when-ifs, but the biggest factor will not be North Toronto -- it will be North Pickering.
In about two years, construction is slated to begin on the Seaton community in north Pickering. The province expects 70,000 people to live there and 35,000 to work there when the development is completed in 20 years.
As it happens, the CP rail corridor that serves Seaton runs through Rosedale, setting up Summerhill as a potential new hub. A new Seaton train would become the first GO line not to terminate at Union Station.
"We know we can't bring a fully new line into Union Station," Mr. McNeil, the GO Transit boss, said. "So as the development starts to happen there, that's when we would start really looking at Summerhill as a viable alternative."
Mr. McNeil expects some of the trains on the Milton line would be re-routed to Summerhill too, after the Seaton line is up and running.
The idea faces other hurdles. Besides acquiring the land and the North Toronto station from an owner averse to selling, GO would have to negotiate use of the tracks from CP, which currently runs about 100 freight trains daily on the portion of the line that cuts through Toronto, Mr. McNeil said.
The TTC would also have to get on board. Adam Giambrone, the chair of the TTC, said he does not necessarily oppose locating a new Union Station at Summerhill, but he would "prefer" a spot near Dupont station, on the less-crowded University subway line.
"Anything we can do to shift passengers over to the University Line is good, because southbound in rush hour its not anyway near capacity," Mr. Giambrone said.
As well, Mr. Giambrone said about 95% of the GO passengers who disembark at Union Station walk to their destinations.
(Mr. McNeil put the figure closer to 80%.)
Mr. Giambrone fears riders' aversion to paying a second fare for a TTC ride could be a problem at a Summerhill GO terminal, but Mr. McNeil said he expects plans for a universal fare card to fix that dilemma.
In the meantime, GO is working on other ways to increase its rush hour capacity at Union Station. This fall the first of 26 new, more powerful locomotives -- which cost about $5-million each -- will begin arriving.
Capable of pulling a heavier load, the new engines will allow GO to expand its trains from 10 cars to 12, meaning as many as 2,000 people will be able to fit on one train. That is up from between 1,500 and 1,800 now.
GO has also begun building a new south platform at Union whose initial purpose is to allow for the reconstruction of the train shed's roof.
When that work is done in about four years there will be room for six more GO trains at rush hour's peak.
Still, none of these steps will erase the need for a new commuter rail terminal at Summerhill, according to Mr. McNeil.
"In the grand scheme of things, GO Transit needs to be on every single rail corridor in the GTA," Mr. McNeil said.
"People have to recognize if they want a good environment they have to deal with trains going by them."
kpatrick@nationalpost.com
), I can easily understand why there is so much objection. The strip of Yonge between Davenport and St. Clair is quite charming, and it's definitely part of the appeal of living here. Whether the threat is real or not, residents are afraid that "Main St. Rosedale" as it is called may start to resemble Yonge and Bloor, which may as well be worlds away. 
