Elevator coming down for GO train parking lot
Joan Ransberry, Staff Writer, Apr 29, 2004
The old Stouffville Co-op grain elevator building in downtown Stouffville will kiss the wrecker's ball in June as part of an expansion plan by GO Transit.
Schell Lumber bought the Co-op on Edward Street and is using the store as part of its commercial operation. Meanwhile, GO Transit took ownership of the adjacent land where the grain elevator sits.
GO will demolish the landmark to make way for more GO train parking spots, spokesperson Ed Shea said.
The 143-space parking lot at the Stouffville train station will be enlarged by 110 spaces at a cost of $650,000, he said. The expanded lot will open in September.
When the grain elevator building is gone, "it'll be the end of an era," Ruth Burkholder, president of the Whitchurch-Stouffville Historical Society, said.
"If it's not going to be used for any purpose, I don't see it standing there and rotting," she said. "The community has changed. We don't have the farming that we use to have. This is a sign of the times."
More parking spots for train riders are needed now, Mr. Shea said. "We're overparked at the station now."
GO is also building a new train layover station at the Tenth Line and Bethesda Road.
This $8-million project involves upgrading about three kilometres of tracks from the Stouffville station to the new layover spot.
The layover station will be large enough to house four trains overnight or on weekends, Mr. Shea said.
Construction began in March and is slated for completion in November.
"So much growth is expected in the area, GO is proposing to expand services," he said.
GO is not, however, announcing when more transit services will be introduced to Whitchurch-Stouffville. "There is no time line yet," Mr. Shea said.
Construction of the layover station will not interfere with the York-Durham Heritage Railway's 2004 schedule, tourist train spokesperson Ken Harding said.
The new tracks will be in place by the time the heritage railway begins its season June 6.
The train travels from Stouffville to Uxbridge on tracks owned by GO.
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