A longtime city councillor is asking Ontario’s minister of transportation to revisit a decision to close a sparsely used GO station near York University’s campus once the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension opens later this year.
Metrolinx is planning to close York University GO Station on its Barrie line as soon as a news GO facility opens up at Downsview Park Station as part of the subway extension.
In an open letter to Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca on Tuesday, though, Ward 8 councillor Anthony Peruzza argued that the province should keep and improve” the station rather than shuttering it.
Peruzza conceded that only about 200 to 300 people use the station on any given day but said that with a small investment that ridership could grow substantially.
He said that about 30,000 people actually work in the area to the east of the station but are not able to easily access it because there is no entrance on that side.
He said that by making some “minor improvements” and working to have better connections with the TTC, Metrolinx could “maximize” the potential of York University GO Station and serve more residents.
“GO has never really closed a station on its network, they are working with us and others to try to open stations and be a more effective transit system and all I am saying is ‘Look here is a station that is already being used by a number of people each day. Don’t deny them service.’ Let’s invest a little bit of money in this station and make it more effective because it is already there,” Peruzza told CP24 on Tuesday afternoon.
City council voted in February, 2016 to ask Metrolinx to keep York University GO Station open but Peruzza told CP24 that it appears as though the transit agency is intent on “mothballing it because they want to save a few seconds on the line.”
He said the planned closure of the station is particularly galling given plans to open two other GO stations, including one in Del Duca’s Vaughan riding, despite an internal report that said neither should be built.
The Toronto Star reported on Monday that the disputed stations - Kirby and Lawrence East – were only approved after Del Duca’s office intervened.
“I get wound up because we have been dealing with Metrolinx for a year-and-a-half and we have been stonewalled and told it’s got to go, it is got to go and lo and behold they are going to open this grand station in the middle of nowhere and I don’t know who it is going to serve,” Peruzza said.
The Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension is scheduled to open in December.
