Gormley GO Station

Gormley
Location Richmond Hill, Ontario
Coordinates 43°56′25″N 79°23′54″W / 43.94028°N 79.39833°WCoordinates: 43°56′25″N 79°23′54″W / 43.94028°N 79.39833°W
Owned by Metrolinx
Other information
Fare zone TBA
Services
Preceding station   GO Transit   Following station
Richmond Hill
(Opening 2016)
Terminus

Gormley GO Station is a proposed train and bus station in the GO Transit network to be located in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, serving Oak Ridges and the Whitchurch–Stouffville community of Gormley. It will be the terminus of the Richmond Hill line train service when it is completed, though the line will eventually extend beyond this station to Bloomington GO Station.[1] Originally delayed due to environmental concerns, construction of the station will begin in the fall of 2014.[2]

The station, consisting of a single platform, building, bus loop, kiss and ride, and up to 850 parking spaces, will be located on the north side of Stouffville Road (York Regional Road 14), on the east side of the CNR line and west of Highway 404. The existing road to the golf driving range will provide access from Stouffville Road.[3] Construction of the station and its building will cost approximately CA$13 million.[4] A nearby layover train storage facility with capacity of six trains is being built simultaneously, and is expected to cost about CA$85 million.[4] The station will have heated shelters, a snow melting system, and will be able to accommodate 12-car trains.[5]

A news release from the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario on December 1, 2014, announced that construction of the new GO Station at Stouffville Road in Gormley was underway and it is expected to be completed by the end of 2016. The layover facility in Richmond Hill is already open.[6]

History

Gormley station viewed from the south, showing the industrial centre of New Gormley early in the twentieth century

In 1907 a two storey station was built by the James Bay Railway, south of the original Stouffville Sideroad. The name of the company changed to the Canadian Northern Ontario Railway, and later to the Canadian Northern Railway and was ultimately merged into the Canadian National Railway in 1923.[7]

The arrival of the railway was significant in the development of New Gormley, as a cluster of businesses that relied on the rail service grew up around the station.[7] Houses of the owners and other related building contributed to further expansion of the community, which by the 1920s housed a general store, a blacksmith's shop, a garage, a planing mill, a grain elevator and feed mill, and a cement block and tile company. Many fine red-brick, two-storey homes were built along the main street.[8] The station was important to local farmers who shipped milk and other produce from here to the city.[7]

The Gormley railway station was demolished in the early 1970s.[8] Station Road, that once led to station, is now a narrow dead end street that gives access to a few homes and businesses from Gormley Road.[9]

References

  1. ↑ "Expansion Projects". GO Transit. Retrieved 2011-03-23.
  2. ↑ "Gormley GO Station". GO Transit. Retrieved 2014-08-13.
  3. ↑ "Richmond Hill Layover Facility EA and Preliminary Design" (PDF). AECOM Canada Ltd. August 2009. Retrieved 2011-03-23.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Kalinowski, Tess (18 May 2011). "Richmond Hill GO line to be extended". Toronto Star. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  5. ↑ "Great news for Richmond Hill GO Train customers" (PDF). GO News. GO Transit. Summer 2011. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  6. ↑ Ministry of Transportation (December 1, 2014). "New GO Train Station on the Way for York Region". Newsroom. Ontario. Retrieved December 2014. Construction of a new GO Station in Gormley is underway, extending the Richmond Hill line north to Stouffville Road.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "The Coming of the Railway" (PDF). Gormley Heritage Conservation District Study. Retrieved December 2013.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Robert M. Stamp (July 1991). "Rails through Richmond Hill: The Belated Arrival of the Age of Steam". Early Days in Richmond Hill. Retrieved December 2013.
  9. ↑ "Street Names: When the James Bay train stopped in Richmond Hill". The Toronto Star. Aug 23, 2013. Retrieved December 2013. Station Road is named for Gormley Station, once a stop on the northbound James Bay and Northern Ontario Railways.