This makes me nervous. As with the Mimico station renovation on the Lakeshore West corridor, where a private developer was selected to build the new station, I suspect this is what will happen in Courtice and Bowmanville since the letter outlines that Grimsby will only go ahead once a third party investor has been found.
The Toronto Star also reported this may be the new normal for regional transportation infrastructure where shovels haven't yet met dirt.
I have mixed feelings about this. The area where the Courtice station is to be built could benefit from this kind of partnership as it's in the middle of a field with no subdivisions or amenities within a 5 km radius. In Bowmanville, it's a different situation where the area is over-developed and traffic would be greatly impacted if say, a condo were to built on the station site. In Oshawa, the new station is to be built where a Knob Hill Farms grocery store once stood. The area would benefit from housing, especially if it's rental housing.
This all sounds great in theory but how long do we wait? That's the billion dollar question no one in the Ford government is willing to answer.
1 comment:
I don't like this either. It should be a PPP where feasible, otherwise a lot of places are not going to get train service.
We need transit stations and new service, not entertainment and dining hubs. It always has the shadow of a builder non-compliance, builder incompetence, the builder going bankrupt or something hanging over the project. Burlington anyone?
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