Gormley GO Station

Gormley
Location	Richmond Hill, Ontario
Coordinates	43°56′25″N 79°23′54″W / 43.94028°N 79.39833°W / 43.94028; -79.39833Coordinates: 43°56′25″N 79°23′54″W / 43.94028°N 79.39833°W / 43.94028; -79.39833
Owned by	Metrolinx
Other information
Fare zone	TBA
Services
Preceding station   GO Transit   Following station Richmond Hill toward Union 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^[2]construction of the station is underway.

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]

Construction of the new GO Station at Stouffville Road in Gormley is underway and it is expected to be completed by Fall 2017. 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