Residents of South Etobicoke say they are still waiting for accessibility upgrades at Mimico GO Station more than a decade after the work was first promised. At a community meeting held the previous night, the provincial transit agency Metrolinx told attendees the project remains in the design phase and could not provide a timeline for when construction will finally begin, in a report by Tyler Cheese of CBC News.
Those who came to the meeting hoping for clear answers left disappointed. One resident summed up the frustration by saying that all they ever seem to do is meet, with little to show for it. According to the report, Metrolinx has still not provided transparent timelines for when barrier-free access will actually be available at the station, leaving the community without a firm commitment.
For people who use the station, the lack of accessibility is a daily obstacle. One rider explained that simply getting into the station and travelling downtown means going down a full set of stairs and back up again, with no elevator available to help anyone who cannot manage the steps. For passengers with mobility needs, that effectively places parts of the station out of reach.
The wait has been a long one. The province first announced accessibility upgrades for Mimico GO Station, including a new tunnel and elevators, back in 2013. Metrolinx later unveiled design plans for the work, raising expectations in the neighbourhood that long-promised barrier-free access was finally on its way after years of requests from local residents.
Instead, the project stalled. The upgrades became tied to two separate private developments planned next to the station, and both of those projects ultimately collapsed. With the station improvements bound up in those failed plans, the accessibility work that residents had been counting on was left without a clear path forward for years.
Last year, under mounting pressure from the community, the agency awarded a contract to advance the project. Yet just over a year after that step, construction still has not started. One long-time resident, who said he is the tenth president of the local residents' association, described sending the same emails to Metrolinx again and again, asking the agency to get to work.
At the meeting, Metrolinx representatives told attendees that the development phase of the project was sixty per cent complete and that more information could be released once it reached ninety per cent. The agency was unable to confirm by deadline when that phase is expected to be finished. Elected officials say they are also pressing for answers, while raising additional concerns and constraints related to parking around the station.