Updated! Info on GO service to western Mississauga
"Commute-to-commute" now shorter

Lisgar GO slide show

The wait is over! Now you can get on the GO Train at Lisgar! After four years of working with Mississauga Ward 9 Councillor Pat Saito, with the Ministry of Transportation and Highways, and with GO Transit, western Mississauga now has the first new GO Train station in Mississauga in 25 years. I'm now joining commuters and using Lisgar to get back and forth from work myself.

The Lisgar station is complete save for some finishing touches. The PA system, additional ticketing systems (cancellers) and the remaining pavement markings and the platform canopy should finished during the spring. Work on the pedestrian track crossing and landscaping will continue until June 2008. Approximately 400 passengers per day are using this station. Recently, plans have been drafted to allow for a coffee vendor at the station building and the wind turbine project has been resurrected. Work to build the wind turbine should be tendered during the spring.

The formal "ground-breaking" ceremony was held during a cold snap in December of 2006. Then-Transportation Minister Donna Cansfield, Ward 9 Councillor Pat Saito, the Lisgar Residents Association executive, GO Transit and Greater Toronto Transit Authority executives and I turned the ceremonial spade of dirt.

Commuters in Lisgar, Churchill Meadows, central Erin Mills and western Meadowvale can now ease the frustrations of "commuting to commute," the daily stop-and-go drive to get from home to the Meadowvale, Streetsville or Erindale GO Train stations.

Ease pressure on east-west roads

The Lisgar station now helps ease some of the east-west rush-hour commuting, and the traffic pressure on Derry Road, Aquitaine Avenue, Battleford Road, Britannia Road, Thomas Street and Burnhamthorpe Road. Those in the western part of the city can now drive north-south to Lisgar rather than east-west to Meadowvale, Streetsville or Erindale.

The Lisgar station is another step toward integrated transit in the GTA. Those of us (including me) who use the GO Train to get to work will also be able to pilot the new smart card fare system (which probably won't be what is it actually called). This system allows you to pay electronically for the bus and the GO Train, as well as the TTC subway, if you use it as well. Similar systems are already in use in newer transit systems around the world. I tried out a similar system when I was in Hong Kong a few years back, and it works very well. Meadowvale will be the closest station on the Milton Line to pilot the new system.

GO Transit carries about 45 million passengers per year, and with some 4 million additional people scheduled to move to the GTA in the next generation, GO needs to expand to cope with the inevitable pressure, and to help people get around the GTA without needing to take a car with them.

All-day service on the Milton Line means a new, third track

Another initiative to enhance GO Transit's ability to move people between where they live and where they work is all-day service on the various lines. This isn't a problem on some lines, but it is on the Milton line, which serves us in western Mississauga. The tracks are owned by CP Rail, which uses them at nearly full capacity. Those who live close to the tracks can attest to the growing freight traffic on the Milton GO Line. To enable GO Transit to offer all-day service, we need a new track between Milton and Toronto. In order to build a new track, several bridges also need to be replaced or upgraded, including the big span over the Humber River leading into Toronto. If you are a GO commuter, you can count those bridges on the way to and from work.

The third Milton Line track is not a trivial undertaking. Not only can it be done, it will be done. In June of this year, Ontario announced the MoveOntario 2020 Plan. This 12-year, $17.5 billion massive undertaking is by far the largest public transit infrastructure investment in North America. Part of the MoveOntario plan is capacity expansion on the Milton Line, and that means the third track! GO Transit has awarded a study contract to a consultant. Work has started on outlining the ultimate track improvement plan and the service level increases that may be possible along the Milton corridor over the next five to ten years. This work is scheduled to be complete in the Fall. The next step is an environmental assessment. If all goes well with the EA process, GO should be able to start construction in 2011.

Both GO Transit and the Government of Ontario recognize the need for the third track on the Milton Line. In fact, the design of the Lisgar GO Train station includes an allowance for the third track when it is built!

New, 12-car trains will alleviate crowding on existing GO Trains

Those of us who get on the GO Train at Meadowvale know that we are very likely to get a seat on the train. By the time the GO Train pulls out of Streetsville, seating is tight, and it is almost non-existent on the later trains by the time one gets past Erindale.

GO Transit has begun to accept delivery of its newer and more powerful locomotives. This allows GO Transit to add an extra two cars onto existing GO Trains. The current (older) locomotives are at their maximum capacity pulling the existing ten-car trains. Beginning in early April, GO introduced two of the new locomotives onto the Milton Line. All Milton Line trains will eventually be twelve cars long. Right now, these trains have 12 cars:

The Streetsville access tunnel

Commuters suggested to me a few years ago that an access tunnel to the Streetsville platform would be helpful, especially on cold and rainy days. The very long parking lot at Streetsville means that if you are on any of the last three trains, you'll be parking your car about a city block from the station, and it's a brisk hike to the station, and then to the tunnel under the tracks, and finally onto the platform itself. And if you are a bit late, the length of that hike probably means you won't be making your train in many cases.

GO Transit agreed with my suggestion on your behalf, did a study of the problem, and will build an access tunnel under the tracks toward the back of the Streetsville train platform this summer. Along with the new tunnel, the platform will be extended 170 feet west to accommodate the new 12-car (was 10) trains and a new west kiss-and-ride area will be provided at the tunnel entrance. Until the construction is complete in the Fall, the platform will be restricted allowing doors to open to only five cars on each train. The doors on the seven west end train cars will not open. This measure will allow the station to remain barrier-free. Its impact on the train's distribution of passengers will be offset by the opposite half of the train being shut off at the Meadowvale station.

Chronology

After nearly fifteen years of talking about the problem, Ontario and Mississauga got together and did something about the gridlock on our western Mississauga roads. In 2003, Ward 9 Councillor Pat Saito and I teamed up to work on the Government of Ontario and GO Transit to acquire land and build a new GO Train station to serve the northwest corner of the city. We succeeded! See the slide show above.

In August of 2006, GO Transit held its final "Open House" on a sweltering evening to show residents of Lisgar, Churchill Meadows and Meadowvale the plans and drawings for the new station. Construction began in the winter of 2007.

GO Transit awarded the contract after overcoming a problem with Hydro One over a drainage ditch near the hydro corridor. The new station is on the northwest corner of Tenth Line and the train tracks, right near the big box mall on Argentia Road. The land is bounded by Tenth Line, the train tracks and the hydro corridor, and is triangular in shape. See the slide show above.

On January 19, 2005, after nearly a year of reading our GO Train petition in the Legislature, and some patient work with GO Transit and with the Ministry of Transportation and Highways, the Ministry announced that the new Lisgar GO Station was in the 2005-06 Capital Plan. Commuters bagan riding the train from Lisgar on September 4, 2007.

Three years of work to get this far

Those of us who live in Lisgar and Churchill Meadows, including me, acknowledge Ward 9 Councillor Pat Saito for keeping improvements to GO Transit's infrastructure alive and on the front-burner for more than ten years at the local level. Pat briefed me on the Lisgar GO station in early 2003. In December of 2003, I phoned GO Transit, asked for (and got) a meeting with GO Transit President, Gary McNeil. I explained what we in western Mississauga were looking for. GO Transit has been very pleasant and professional to work with, and listened carefully to the needs that Pat and I had heard at your doors. They adjusted their plans, and moved the Lisgar GO Station upon their priority list after working with us. Quite frankly, we couldn't have asked for a better working relationship with GO Transit, and I said as much to GO Chair Peter Smith at the announcement. In fact, the Lisgar station will be the first new GO Train station in Mississauga in 25 years! It may also be the last GO Train station built in Mississauga.

In working with Pat Saito, she successfully had the land rezoned when the station had to be moved from the east side of Tenth Line to the west side. Throughout, Pat ensured that everything that the City of Mississauga had to do to expedite the project was done quickly and done well.

Comforting to know that an MPP can get things done

Of the local issues on which I asked for a mandate from you back in 2003, the Lisgar GO Train station was the first project that has gone from start to finish on my "watch." While we have made progress on other issues, the new GO Train station at Lisgar is the first commitment on which we have had a full and successful closure. It will open on schedule in 2007, and the lessons I learned are those I can apply to other projects on our community's behalf.