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In North York — where Bayview Village meets Concord Park Place meets Silver Hills meets Henry Farm — Oriole GO station rests just to the west of Leslie Street where it passes under Highway 401. Served by the Richmond Hill GO line, Oriole GO has provided those neighbourhoods with direct rail service to downtown since it opened in 1978. In 2002, however, Leslie station on Sheppard Line 4 opened, and plans to relocate Oriole GO station about 500 metres north to better connect the subway and GO lines have been in the works since.
Oriole GO is the first station served on the Richmond Hill line north of Union Station. In the decades since it opened, the station's facilities have undergone very few changes, with its single platform serving a very limited peak-direction service. Its parking lot, located below the Highway 401 overpass across Leslie Street, has been closed for a few years now, since the Province began work to widen the highway in this area.
Despite its modest facilities and the mere 10 trains serving the station on weekdays, (5 southbound in the AM, 5 northbound in the PM), Oriole GO has long been an attractive option for nearby commuters to Downtown looking to bypass traffic on the DVP or avoid numerous transfers on the TTC. At just over 30 minutes from Oriole GO to Union Station, the Richmond Hill line remains the fastest way to get to the core from this area of North York — provided a trains is coming soon.
With the completion of the Sheppard Line 4 subway in 2002, Oriole station was suddenly 500 metres from Leslie station; not an impossible walk, but a bit of a hike. Because of the distance, transfers between the two stations have remained somewhat unattractive to riders, as following Esther Shiner Boulevard to Old Leslie Street extends the weather-exposed walk to about 750 metres. With the Richmond Hill line's tracks passing directly to the west of the Leslie station bus terminal, the possibility for a better connection persists.
Thus, plans to relocate Oriole GO to the north to create a single subway and commuter rail station were drawn up. Due to the existing public ownership of the land required for new platforms, parking, and a drop-off loop, the project appeared quite straightforward. Nineteen years after Leslie station's opening, Metrolinx made a submission to the City of Toronto outlining the provincial agency's plans for the northward relocation of Oriole GO.
This 2021 submission, which has since been removed from the City of Toronto's Application Information Centre (AIC), detailed a simple station in line with current GO station design standards. A single platform would sit to the east of the rail corridor, covered by a partial canopy, and dotted with enclosed shelters. In addition, a second track was proposed for the corridor to facilitate the passing of trains and support future increases in service levels.
The relocation would reduce the length of transfers between Leslie station and Oriole GO to a mere 15 metres, as riders exiting the subway would see the GO platform immediately upon arriving at street level through the bus terminal entrance. For those arriving at the station by car, a 102-space public parking lot is already onsite beside the Leslie station bus terminal. (Its capacity is lower than the now-closed GO Oriole parking lot under Highway 401; GO Transit is currently directing local drivers to park in the lot at Old Cummer station, about 3 km north, where there are 462 spaces.)
For those living in the area, the relocation would put the station within a short walk of much greater density than is found in the low-rise neighbourhoods south of the 401. To the west, those living in the growing number of towers in Concord Park Place would have a much shorter walk, while the intention to have the platform stretch north over Sheppard Avenue East would also make the station close for those living in houses and a new condo development on the north side of Sheppard, providing easy access to the station without having to cross the busy arterial below.
Commuters living in the neighbourhoods of St Andrews and Silver Hills — directly to the west of the current station — would face the disadvantage, however, of a longer walk. Currently, a pedestrian bridge over the GO tracks connects riders directly to Woodsworth Road and the neighbourhood beyond. Owing to the lack of online information about the station plans, once the station relocation is complete, it is not clear if this bridge would be maintained nor if a pathway to the relocated station would be built.
In May, 2024, Metrolinx issued a Request for Qualification and Quote (RQQ) seeking a firm to undertake engineering services for the "Design of Station Improvements at Oriole GO station." Shortly thereafter in June, 2024, Oriole GO was mentioned in Metrolinx's 2023-2024 annual report, only extending, however, to note that the agency's digital billboard initiative had seen the introduction of said technology at the existing station site. A nearly half-million-dollar contract for engineering design was awarded in August 2024, but as of publication, no new submission has been made to the city's AIC.
The most recent substantive mention of the long-awaited project came in September 2025, within Metrolinx's "Capital Projects Group Opportunities Pipeline." The document, used to track the procurement of construction and design services by the provincial transit agency, listed all statuses associated with the Oriole GO relocation as 'TBD' — to-be-determined.
In the five years since the 2021 submission, no timeline has been provided for the completion of the relocated station, and Metrolinx has removed the project page for Oriole GO from its website. As the project seems to have stalled while closing in on its thirtieth year of planning, its path forward remains unclear.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on these developments, but in the meantime, you can learn more about them from our Database files, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversations in the associated Project Forum threads or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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