Wednesday morning I was at the King City GO train station with Vaughan Councillor Marilyn Iafrate (Maple/Kleinburg) to request support for a petition to the Province to push forward the planning for a new GO station at Kirby Road. This station is going to be built as it is on both Vaughan and York Regions plans; but timing is 10-20 years out. There is an opportunity to build it much sooner leveraging a private-public partnership that has been offered by a developer working in the area where the station will be built. If you would like to help this earlier timeline to be realized please sign the petition here.
As anyone knows who uses the GO train, parking at the stations is inadequate. While talking about this issue with Councillor Iafrate I learned that the parking bottleneck at the King City station is exacerbated by Maple commuters (i.e. people who would normally use the Maple train station) driving “up the line” to King City as the trains are often packed by the time they reach Maple and it is necessary to make the trip standing up. Metrolinx knows that more capacity is required and they have plans for adding more trains and/or trains with more cars. Clearly, without more parking the inadequate train capacity will not be addressed.
Road congestion is everyone’s problem in the GTA. For those who need to get from A to B, valuable time is being wasted on the road. And everyone bears the consequences of the carbon dioxide greenhouse gas emissions.
At a very local level a new station at Kirby Road is one piece of a multi-faceted solution to the parking problem at King City Station. We persuaded York Region Transit to run the King Local (Bus 61); I hope as many commuters as possible are using Bus 61 as the ridership needs to be large enough to ensure that it continues. If you aren’t familiar with the King Local (Bus 61) schedule click here. We are now being more aggressive in publicizing parking opportunities on municipal properties within reasonable walking distance to the GO station; namely Wellesley Park (King Rd/Keele), United Church (50 Elizabeth Grove), King City Arena (east side Doctor’s Lane). Finally we continue to work with Metrolinx to consider this issue as a high priority.
I agree a Kirby Station is needed now not 10 years from now. And, an elevated parking structure with it besides an outdoor parking lot.
As to the present King City station it is dangerous for pedestrians and drivers when the trains come in and out. It is a nuisance to the surrounding residential communities whose streets are used to by-pass the congestion at Keele and King Rd. And, the station is creating financial stress to the Township. The installation of stop signs and speed bumps on every road leading to and from the station isn’t free. A police presence and parking enforcement officer is also required from time to time.
And, should anyone living in the immediate community wish to use the Go bus to head downtown one must walk sometimes a distance to get the bus because the parking lot is full by 7:30 am. Sadly, most residents, if they can, avoid the station between commute times out of the sole interest of protecting their own safety. The two businesses on either corner have trouble entering and leaving their premises at the peak of the morning and evening rush hours. The sooner a new station the better!
A new station would be great and transit is so important on so many levels. Is there any update in the meantime about more parking at the King City Station?
Hello Pam, I don’t have any specifics (i.e. timing, magnitude) on additional parking at King City GO train. What I can tell you is that Metrolinx has acquired property for parking and that early stages of site preparation have been done such as clearing out debris from property immediate south of station. King, York Region and Metrolinx are meeting regularly and studies are underway; Toronto Regional Conservation Authority is involved too as there are water courses. To set expectations I also want to re-iterate that we were told a couple years ago that King would not receive a parking garage as the need is relatively small versus other stations.