Ontario Construction News staff writer
Metrolinx will build a train maintenance and storage facility in East York to support the new Ontario Line subway.
The storage facility will be built on a 175,000-square metre site east of Laird Drive, between Overlea Boulevard and Wicksteed Avenue. It will be large enough to store up to 250 trains when and I includes space to inspect, clean and maintain the vehicles.
“Confirming the location of the maintenance and storage facility is an important step in bringing the vision for the Ontario Line to life,” Metrolinx project sponsor Malcolm MacKay said in a statement. “When the facility goes into service, the work that happens there will help us give customers rapid transit that is safe, clean and reliable.”
After exploring nine potential locations for the facility, the site in the southeast portion of the Leaside Business Park was selected because studies showed that it keeps impacts to the local community to a minimum while meeting all the needs for the project, including proper zoning for industrial use.
Planning teams studied how quickly and easily each site would connect to the main Ontario Line tracks, the ability to expand to meet Toronto’s future transit needs, and how impacts on residents, businesses, and the surrounding environment could be minimized – both during construction and after the maintenance facility goes into service.
Studies included how quickly and easily each site would connect to the main Ontario Line tracks, the ability to expand to meet Toronto’s future transit needs, and how impacts on residents, businesses and the surrounding environment could be minimized—both during construction and after the maintenance facility goes into service.
“We care about the communities we serve and we know how important local businesses are to them,” says Jason Ryan, vice president of pre-construction services for Metrolinx. “Given the difficulties many of them have been facing recently, we’ll be challenging ourselves to go the extra mile to come up with creative solutions—a suite of customized supports to help them adjust, and hopefully relocate nearby if they wish.”
“Unfortunately, this amount of vacant land just doesn’t exist in the city,” says MacKay.
“We want to protect jobs and businesses as best we can, so we looked at a number of different options and weighed all of the potential impacts. We feel confident that the decision we’ve made comes with the least amount of impacts to the community while still providing an essential piece of Ontario Line infrastructure.”