Metrolinx, the provincial agency in charge of building the LRT, held a second open house on Jan.31 that didn’t make Leasiders in attendance much happier than at the previous open house.
The plan to eliminate a Leslie station that would create a traffic impact at Laird and Eglinton was still intact. Metrolinx however did decide to return a station at Ferrand and Eglinton.
Instead of trains emerging from the LRT tunnel just east of Brentcliffe and proceeding on the surface to the Don Mills Rd. area, Metrolinx still proposed extending the underground tunnel from Laird to Don Mills, eliminating the station at Leslie.
It would be too expensive to build a Leslie station if the LRT were underground, said Metrolinx.
In the absence of that station, attendees at the open house said, Leslie buses would have to deliver thousands of riders to the sidewalks at Laird instead.
Many people asked Metrolinx to go back to the drawing board and consider the surface/viaduct approach, which would permit a Leslie station to be built. Some expressed a preference for giving priority to the Downtown Relief Line, to connect with the Don Mills station.
More community participation was called for, in a more transparent process.
Metrolinx officials said they would continue to consider comments from the public, but no subsequent open houses are planned.
The subject will go to a committee of city council and then to city council as a whole in the spring.
