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NEWS ARTICLES OF SUPPORT
Reprinted with Permission
Caledon Enterprise
Wednesday May 29, 2002
By Marney Beck - Reporter
Region Ponders Future of Bolton GO Station
Imagine driving your car weekday mornings a few kilometers to the west side of bolton, parking at a GO train staion and boarding a train to whisk you to your workplace in Toronto.
The idea of a Bolton GO train station is already on paper and will be seriously discussed tomorrow (Thursday May 27) at a Peel regional council meeting.
A report prepared by Peel's commissioner of planning recommends that regional council formally endorse a potential site just west of Coleraine and south of King, on the CP Rail line, as the preferred location of a new Bolton GO Station. A backup site, just east of Regional Road 50 and McEwan Drive near the proposed Laoblaws store, has also been identified.
The aim is to provide a more efficient transportation system for the many communters who live in Caledon and work in Toronto. Although regional planners know the GO Transit doesn't currently plan to bring communter rail service to Bolton within the next 10 years, one highlight of the report to be discussed tomorrow notes: "it is important that GO Transit carry out a feasibility study of providing rail service on the Bolton line within the next two years."
If approved, the regional plan will ask GO to look at its current bus services to Bolton and Orangeville to improve connections and build ridership for a future Bolton rail service. It also asks the Town of Caledon to protect the two best sites, of the four considered, against competing development. A Third site was identified near Regional Road 50 north of Healey Road, while a distant fourth was considered in Vaughan on Kirby Road east of the Albion-Vaughan Road.
The regional report by Nick Tunnacliffe, planning commissioner, points out that current statistics prove 240 trips daily are made each weekday from Caledon via GO rail, with another 100 from Orangeville and another 110 trips by GO bus. There are an estimated 380 car drivers from Caledon who also head to Toronto and choke main raods. REgional staff say with Bolton's residential base expected to rise from 20,000 to 32,700 by 2021, there will be a hugh demand for reliable, convenient rail transportation.
The report says the Bolton GO station would need 600 parking spots, a "Kiss and Ride" drop-off area, a straight length of track for the platform and good access roads. The Coleraine location has been identified as the best spot for the station, and discussions already took place with the landowners in February of this year. The nearby residential area is already shielded from the site by a berm and fence, and there is space for CP Rail to build a double track. Just as important, in comparison to the other three sites, the regional report says the cost of acquiring the Papertious land near Coleraine is "low".
One of the recommendations, if approved, asks the Town of Caledon to do a feasibility study for transit within the town to hook up with a future GO train station. Métis Transit has been actively doing just that with surveys to residents for the past few months.
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