Citing concerns about diesel train fumes, Toronto’s board of health is urging that GO’s Georgetown service expansion and the Union Station to Pearson Airport rail link be switched to electric power even before it begins operations.
GO has already announced it will begin a study of electrifying its entire rail network this summer, but the latest plans don’t foresee a full conversion away from diesel for another 15 years.
The expanded line and air-rail link led by Metrolinx is expected to be ready in 2013, and would mean 250 to 450 diesel trains passing daily on the corridor, up from today’s 50.
Diesel emissions have been linked to cancer, particularly of the lung, a fact that drew many people who live along the line to yesterday’s board of health meeting.
Coun. Gord Perks called the expansion plans “the clearest case of the wrong way (to do) public transit I have ever seen.”
