Grimsby GO station plan ‘will be stopped’

GRIMSBY — Niagara Region is seeking answers about the future of local GO train service after a Thursday letter from Metrolinx said the “delivery process” of new GO stations — including the planned station in Grimsby — has been halted.

The letter, citing a recent statement by Minister of Transportation Jeff Yurek, said the provincial government is seeking third-party investment to build new GO stations in Ontario.

“Not only can this approach save tax dollars and exponentially grow transit ridership, it will create and leverage the true value of transit and deliver much more than just transit stations; it will deliver local, integratedbuilt environments that offer the services people want at the doorstep of where people will live, work and play,” said the letter written by Phil Verster, president and CEO of Metrolinx.

The letter does not indicate what this may mean for the planned GO transit line, currently scheduled to run trains from Niagara Falls to Toronto by 2023.

“We have received the letter issued by Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster last evening outlining a new direction for Transit-Oriented Development at any new GO stations,” said Matt Robinson, the director of Niagara Region’s GO Implementation Office, in a statement Friday.

“We are actively reviewing the new policy direction contained in the letter, what it means for Niagara’s GO expansion and have reached out to Metrolinx requesting further clarity,” he continued.

Government sources told The Standard that adopting a new “market-based” approach to building GO stations was announced as a priority for future GO stations this week with little fanfare or advance notice.

Underpinning the idea is that the provincial government no longer wants to fund, own and operate GO stations, wants private-sector business as partners and wants stations integrated with commercial and residential development, the sources say.

The proposed stations in the current GO Niagara plan, approved under the previous Liberal government, were designed with the assumption they were going to be entirely built and funded with public money and may not be compatible with development beyond the stations and parking lots.

The Niagara GO project is now in the late planning phases for station design, and it is not clear how the government’s new direction may impact that process.

Grimsby MPP Sam Oosterhoff — Niagara’s only government MPP — did not respond to an interview request from The Standard for this story.

Metrolinx confirmed Friday that planned construction of the Confederation GO station in east Hamilton is going ahead as scheduled.

Construction tenders for that project were released earlier this month, and the $35-million station is supposed to be ready for commuter train service in 2019.

— with files from Matthew Van Dongen, The Hamilton Spectator