GO plans anger residents
Neighbours living along Georgetown line worried about pollution, noise, huge structures
Apr 22, 2009 04:30 AM
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TESS KALINOWSKI
TRANSPORTATION REPORTER
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/622268
What started as a pocket of opposition in Weston is rapidly becoming a river of outrage running down the GO Georgetown line, where one of the biggest transit expansions in Toronto history is underway.
As GO and Metrolinx host open houses this month outlining the grade separations, bridges and tunnels they say are needed, residents living near the tracks are holding their own gatherings, morphing into larger groups, spreading their concerns and ideas – and in at least one case, hiring lawyers.
"The plan has awoken the sleeping giant, which are the folks south of St. Clair," said Mike Sullivan of the Weston Community Coalition.
Few are arguing against the rail expansion. The question is how it will be done, and at what short- and long-term toll on residents.
GO says it is sympathetic to neighbourhood concerns, and although it's looking for ways to mitigate the noise and disruption of construction, some impact is inevitable.
"Obviously, it's in everyone's interests to get this work done as quickly as possible," said GO spokesperson Vanessa Thomas.
The Weston group has been arguing for electric trains and more consideration for neighbourhoods.
"Every time you turn around, there's another community that's being adversely affected," Sullivan said, adding allies are emerging, such as Eli Malinsky of the Brockton Triangle Residents Association.
"The vibrancy of our neighbourhoods is being threatened," said Malinsky, who helped found the Clean Train Coalition, an umbrella group for residents concerned about the pollution that will be caused by 300 to 500 diesel trains expected to run down the line daily.
Like the Weston group, its website,
www.cleantrain.ca, advocates for electrification and more stations so neighbourhoods on the rail corridor can access GO. It says that if electrification is in the cards for the Georgetown line, as Metrolinx claims, it makes sense to spend the extra money now and do the project right the first time.
"Our message is a positive message. We're trying to avoid being painted NIMBY," said Malinsky. "I'm ready to accept 400 trains in my backyard; I'm not ready to accept 400 diesel trains."
Sharon Airhart also approves of the push for transit expansion, even though the noise and vibration from work improving the intersection of the CP and CN tracks known as the West Toronto Diamond drove her out of her home in the Junction neighbourhood. She moved about a kilometre away, to near Symington Ave., when she could no longer work and lost two-thirds of her income in February.
"You can't talk on the phone, you can't think a coherent thought," she said of the deafening piledriving that has gone on daily since January and could continue all year.
Now she's worried that GO is considering a similar project near Lansdowne Ave. and Dupont St., on the Davenport Diamond. Airhart said she and her neighbours are simply looking for more sensitivity from GO about the impact.
Even TTC chair Adam Giambrone, councillor for Ward 18, Davenport, was alarmed by a briefing with GO officials, who showed pictures of the nine-metre concrete walls that may be built on residential streets to accommodate raised tracks. He thinks there could be four times as much piledriving required on the track east of Lansdowne as is already being done on the West Toronto Diamond – 12,000 piles compared with 3,500.
And he said GO has done a poor job of informing residents about an open house tonight at St. Josaphat Catholic School at 55 Pelham Ave.
Giambrone, who sits on the departing Metrolinx board, said he knew the Georgetown construction would be tough on residents. "But what is beginning to tip the balance on this is the talk about these massive grade separations."
He said the province "needs to probably spend more money" to do things right. "Whether you do electrification or different construction techniques, it costs more."
GO's Thomas said that to increase service across the region, alleviating train congestion in the area is essential: "A grade separation is the only way we could accomplish this."
But there are various options for building one at the Davenport Diamond. Timelines and recommended options are still unclear.
Farther south, near Strachan Ave., David Grant, a Stafford St. condo owner, has started a Facebook group for residents who want to stop Metrolinx from building a "superstructure" to carry trains across Strachan. (Currently it's a level crossing.) The residents support a city study that suggested tunnelling under the road to mitigate the ugliness and noise of a huge bridge.
Grant's condo association has also paid a lawyer to seek an explanation from Metrolinx for how such a disruptive option became the preferred alternative.
A bridge, recommended by Metrolinx, has the least impact on utilities and GO's operations going into Union Station, explained Brian Peltier, the project manager. Plus, the work would take one to two years instead of three, he said. And then there's another reason: "The road overpass option that we're proposing is $100 million cheaper."
The bridge may be cheaper, says Councillor Joe Pantalone, who represents the ward, but Metrolinx isn't taking into account the costs to the community, he said.
"People of the community are aghast and shocked," he said, "that somehow their already tenuous quality of life will be made so much worse by an agency and an objective the community supports."
