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Metrolinx is planning to construct a diesel train storage facility in the Lower Don Valley, with disastrous impact on habitats and parkland, including:

• Extensive destruction of natural habitat to allow the construction of a reactivated rail corridor, large access and service roads, maintenance facilities, crew parking, retaining walls, security barriers, and 24/7 lighting.
• Physical encroachment on the Lower Don Trail and negative impacts on views of the Valley and the iconic Prince Edward Viaduct.
• Introduction of staff, service, and emergency vehicle traffic through the lower valley, along with road maintenance impacts.
• Extensive damage from construction laydown areas and activities, including rebuilding a river crossing in a culturally and environmentally sensitive area, that has not been widely disclosed nor subject to public environmental assessment or consultation.

The environmental assessment done on Metrolinx’s preliminary layover design consistently minimizes or understates the damage the facility will cause, and leaves a myriad of issues unresolved, subject to best efforts at mitigation (hardly reassuring), or ignored altogether.

Metrolinx has previously rebuffed the City of Toronto’s request for information on alternative locations and for detailed renderings of the preliminary facility plans. The public is entitled to a thorough and transparent review of alternatives to the current layover proposal, ensuring that transit system factors are not considered in isolation, but are balanced against the City’s environmental and cultural priorities. The public knows the value of our precious greenspaces: they are priceless and irreplaceable resources not to be exploited for the sake of expedience.

If realised this project would set a woeful precedent for the City’s few remaining natural assets. We urge Metrolinx to take the time to properly engage with the City and public over their plans for the Lower Don River Valley. Our goal is to stop Metrolinx from taking irreversible steps that simply do not make sense. Donations to this campaign will support activities that will inform the public as to what has been proposed for their much-valued public park by Metrolinx, and that will engage with key stakeholders including the City, Province, and Federal Governments.

Using the Lower Don Valley to park GO Trains . . . seriously?!? We can do better, and we must do better. PLEASE HELP US BUILD THE PARK AND CONSERVE PRECIOUS GREEN SPACE FOR GENERATIONS TO COME.