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Construction of an infill GO station on the Barrie Line at Eglinton Avenue West, known as Caledonia GO, has finally begun more than a decade after the release of the initial plans for the project. Designed to provide an interchange with the soon-to-open Eglinton Line 5, Caledonia GO is one of two new infill stations planned on the Barrie Line in Toronto’s west end, aiming to better serve commuters through the modernization of the city’s long-standing commuter rail network into a regional rail system.
In a press release published on October 10th, the Province of Ontario announced that the construction contract for Caledonia GO station has been awarded to Grascan Construction Ltd, more than five years after the initial request for proposals (RFP) was issued in July 2020. At the time, completion of the station had been targeted for Spring 2023. No reason was given for the RFP to construction process taking over half a decade, and neither Metrolinx nor the Province provided a new projected opening date for the long-awaited station.
This postponement is far from the first to impact the relatively modest infill rail station planned for the neighbourhood of Keelesdale, an area long devoid of rapid transit despite being bound by two high capacity commuter rail lines. Initial plans for Caledonia GO station were released in 2013, in conjunction with the commencement of major work on Eglinton Line 5. The render below displays plans for a bus terminal, in addition to the construction of an additional track within the rail corridor to facilitate expanded two-way service.
Three years later, a new set of renderings were released, showing modest changes to the station layout and aligning the architectural design with that of the Eglinton Line 5 stations. The most significant change in this second version of Caledonia GO station was the relocation of the bus terminal serving local TTC routes. The 2013 plan placed the terminal east of the Barrie GO corridor, at the northwest corner of Eglinton Avenue West and Croham Road. The revised plan moved the terminal to the west side of the rail corridor, directly above the below-grade Eglinton Line 5 platforms, allowing for a faster and more convenient transfer between LRT and bus services.
Building on these updates, an Environmental Project Report published in 2016 provided a closer look at the station’s planned capacity and design. An aerial rendering shows a kiss-and-ride loop in the former bus terminal location, along with an additional entrance north of the Westside Mall at Bowie Avenue, further enhancing local access to the station.
At the platform level, renders displayed a total of three tracks running through the station, which would be served by an island platform and a single side platform. Such an expansion of rail capacity on the Barrie GO Line, which for decades been largely single tracked throughout the City of Toronto, would have allowed for a revolutionary expansion of service when paired with upgrades along the rest of the rail corridor, such as the recently completed Davenport Diamond grade separation.
The Barrie GO Line is currently served by a typical commuter rail pattern, with a glut of trains in a single direction in the morning and then reversing in the evening rush hours, with very modest bi-directional service during the remainder of weekdays, with frequencies falling off even more steeply during weekends. Metrolinx plan's for Regional Express Rail (RER) would have seen train frequencies drastically increased across a wholly electrified Barrie Line. With trains planned to run two-way, all-day service between Toronto and Barrie every 30 minutes, with frequencies up to every 15 minutes between Bradford and Toronto, in addition the retention of existing express trains, the Barrie Line had the potential to act as a major north-south rapid transit spine for the Greater Toronto Area.
The prospect of such a transformative expansion of rail service and frequency being implemented within the decade was dashed after years of inactivity on the project during the late 2010s and the eventual release of revised station designs in 2023. Made public through planning submissions to the City of Toronto, the new renderings of Caledonia GO station revealed extensive value engineering. Long-standing plans to triple-track the station corridor were eliminated, along with the three platforms that would have been required to support the frequent two-way, all-day service and express trains that Metrolinx has long promised to Barrie Line commuters.
Instead, the two platforms that were to be part of an island platform were eliminated, along with the two new tracks that would have served them, retaining only a single side platform and track in the new design. The right-of-way for a future second track and platform has been preserved within the station footprint and is shown as grass in the rendering below. However, with construction on this initial, bare-bones version of Caledonia GO station taking over a decade just to begin, it is impossible to predict when the second track and platform will be implemented for revenue service.
While a true Regional Express Rail service along an electrified corridor may still be decades away, if it is built at all, the mobility benefits of the under-construction Caledonia GO station will be significant nevertheless. Currently, a trip from Eglinton Avenue West and Caledonia Road to Union Station on public transit takes 45 minutes and requires a transfer at Eglinton West (soon to be renamed Cedarvale) station. Once Eglinton Line 5 opens, this trip will be reduced to roughly 30 minutes, with improved reliability thanks to the replacement of bus service on Eglinton Avenue by the grade-separated LRT.
With the eventual opening of Caledonia GO, travel times to Union Station will drop to just 15 minutes, consisting entirely of a one-seat ride on high-capacity GO Transit trains, allowing riders to enjoy views of the west end’s bustling neighbourhoods and downtown’s striking skyline. This expansion in accessibility to the employment and cultural centres of the core would be a welcome improvement for any community, and will be particularly beneficial to residents of Keelesdale, a neighbourhood that has long suffered from disinvestment.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database file, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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