GO could offer TTC riders faster relief

There’s a lot of talk at the city and the TTC about a relief subway line running from the east end of the Danforth to the downtown.

But a west-end relief line isn’t even on the list of Toronto’s transit priorities, says Councillor Ana Bailao (Ward 18, Davenport).

That’s why she says she will continue to push provincial agency Metrolinx to add local stops to GO’s Kitchener and Lake Shore East lines once they are electrified.

Bailao was behind a TTC motion Wednesday to bring that discussion to Metrolinx as one possible solution to mitigating the crowding on the subway, particularly the Yonge line.

She and Councillor Karen Stintz, who chairs the TTC, have met with U of T Cities Centre professor André Sorensen, who has suggested that an express train service could run along the Lakeshore East GO line through Union Station and up the Kitchener-bound tracks that travel northwest through the city.

As it stands, Metrolinx plans to run the Union Pearson Express on the Kitchener tracks at a premium price, with only two stops between the train station and airport at Dundas West and Weston.

Sorensen, who could not be reached Thursday, has suggested that trains could stop at Danforth, Coxwell, Eastern Ave., the Distillery District, Union Station, Bathurst, Liberty Village, Queen, Dundas West, Dupont, Mount Dennis, Weston, Rexdale, Woodbine, Bramalea, Rutherford Rd. and Brampton.

But the idea would only work if the GO lines were electrified to provide for higher speeds, faster acceleration and more stops.

“One thing we need to do more is to think of transportation as a whole. Why aren’t we using these lines to serve the communities they go through? It’s something the community’s been asking for for a long time, the electrification and more stops,” said Bailao.

“There’s not a lot of funds for transit out there. Why not take advantage of the work that is being done to serve two communities?” she said.

Residents along the Kitchener tracks, who will see many more trains once the UP Express begins running by 2015, fear the impact of diesel emissions on their air quality. They have been heartened by assurances from Queen’s Park that the government wants to electrify that line by 2017.

That is subject to funding, a Metrolinx spokeswoman said Thursday. An environmental assessment and preliminary design work are expected to be complete next year, said Anne Marie Aikins.

In 2011, when Metrolinx released its electrification study, officials said it would take at least seven or eight years to convert the south end of the Kitchener line. At the time, GO called it the Georgetown line.