The former town of
Weston may have long ago become a part of the larger city, but
lately it's back on the map. Tonight at 6:30 p.m., a public meeting
will take place to discuss major changes to the area near Lawrence
Ave. and Weston Rd. GO Transit and the company behind the airport
rail link called Blue 22 are proposing to dramatically increase the
number of trains on what is known as the Georgetown line. Original
plans spoke of possibly closing side streets that link local
residential and commercial areas. So many people showed up for a
public information meeting last month that the fire marshall closed
it down -- the new venue is a huge church at 1901 Jane St.
Locals become so
concerned about the street closures that GO recently publicized a
plan to run an open trench below two of the streets, and turn the
other into a pedestrian-only bridge. There are several projects
underway along the Georgetown line, but this is one of the first
times that the public has had a chance to get information and
comment on the proposed rail link from Union Station to Pearson
airport.
The federal
government chose the option of a rapid light-rail line -- as well as
its owner, SNC-Lavalin -- in a process not open to public scrutiny.
The owner of Blue 22 will not pay to upgrade the Georgetown line. GO
Transit has a number of track improvement projects underway across
the GTA, funded by three levels of government.
GO managing
director Gary McNeil believes a lot of the controversy began after
officials went to a local councillor's office to describe the
project. He says that the environmental assessment process looks at
various options, which were supposed to be laid out at the first
public meeting. "The way the ratepayers' groups and the opposition
to this project came out was, saying that we already made a
decision, which was not the case.
"And of course then
everyone in the neighbourhood... who did not want the community to
be split -- because connectivity is very important here -- came out
wanting to find out what's going on. In a way, by going out and
doing some pre-consultation with the community before going out in
the public venue, we shot ourselves in the foot. So now we're trying
to recover from that."
This week GO
distributed a newsletter in the area showing the trench option that
closes one road to car traffic and moves the train station slightly.
McNeil says that GO has also asked SNC-Lavalin to look at adding a
Blue 22 stop in Weston. The special air-rail link vehicles, powered
by diesel fuel would pass through every 15 minutes -- each way.
Another community concern is air pollution, which McNeil says will
be considered in the assessment process.
Local critics also
contend the trench, which could cost $30-$40 million dollars, is
really for Blue 22, not GO. Counters McNeil, "I think ultimately we
probably still would have had to grade-separate for GO transit."