‘People will not be sleeping anymore’: Vaughan community braces for Metrolinx night work

Residents of a Vaughan neighbourhood are being warned long-term Go Train track work could be moved into the overnight hours.

On the corner of his quiet crescent in the Vaughan community of Maple, Peter Stamos watches a dusty dump truck rumble out of the construction site next door.

Stamos has owned his suburban home since 1964, and 61 years later is dealing with the disruption of ongoing GO Train track work along the Barrie Line that runs adjacent to his property.

“You can hear the glasses in the dining room shaking,” Stamos says from his front porch.

“The entire home vibrates.”

The noise has been difficult to live with, he says, but he’s worried that what’s to come could be worse. A new Metrolinx construction policy, set to take effect on the neighboring rail corridor in September, could move the ongoing track work into the overnight hours.

“I’m going to have to move into a hotel,” Stamos says. “Seriously.”

“People will not be sleeping anymore, until the work is completed,” Marilyn Iafrate, the councillor representing the Maple community, told CTV News Toronto. “And we just don’t understand why.”

Under the new Metrolinx ‘Red Zone Green Zone’ program, stricter controls will dictate when maintenance and construction can be done—in some cases, prohibiting work while the line is open and trains are passing by.

“This new program enables safer conditions for workers, commuters, and communities and allows crews to work in a protected environment without frequent interruptions from passing trains,” a Metrolinx spokesperson said in a statement.

The new policy will not automatically mean the work will only be done overnight, Metrolinx said, but it will notify communities and implement mitigation measures “where feasible” when nighttime work is required.

“Metrolinx has been doing the work here for three years with the train running, and there’s been no issue whatsoever,” said Iafrate, who has formally called on the transit agency to not proceed with overnight track work in her community.

Residents who live near the Maple GO station were recently awoken to unauthorized overnight work that Metrolinx says was done by their contractor without prior approval or proper notification to the community. The agency issued a stop-work order and officials are now reassessing the work plan for the area.

“Everybody around here was calling, ‘What the heck is going on? Can’t sleep all night,’” Iafrate said.

“There are the trucks coming and going … there are the lights to light up the area because it’s night. There are the back-up alarms from the trucks that are just pinging the whole time, all night long. It is absolutely crazy.”

But, not all residents are frustrated.

Tim Lourie, who lives across the street from the GO tracks, says the work is the price of progress.

“Every time we hear about the subways taking so long to be able to build ... well, if you put impediments in place to be able to build them, it’s going to take forever,” he said.

Stamos, though, insists nighttime noise would drive him out of his home.

“You can only take so much abuse, right?”