VIA Rail reverses decision to stop serving Guildwood Station in Scarborough

VIA Rail reversed its decision to stop serving Guildwood Station in Scarborough, announcing Friday it will continue service when transitioning to its winter schedule starting October 25.

The reversal came after significant pushback from local officials. Scarborough-Guildwood Councillor Paul Ainslie called on VIA Rail to reverse the plan on September 16, arguing that Guildwood Station is "an essential transportation asset that connects Scarborough residents to communities across Ontario and Canada." Ainslie said removing service would make travel less convenient and increase travel times.

"When your options for VIA service are either Union station or Oshawa and you're in Scarborough, you know that is not an option," Ainslie said. He noted that VIA Rail's rationale — that passengers could use GO Transit instead — did not make sense for someone needing to travel east. "To say to me 'we want you to take a train on another service, GO Transit, to go west, so you can go east,' is ludicrous."

Liberal MPs representing Scarborough ridings sent a news release Friday calling on VIA Rail to restore full service at Guildwood Station. They said VIA Rail initially planned to cut all service at the station but that they intervened and restored partial service. The MPs called the decision "opaque and lacking in transparency" without any public consultations or notice.

VIA Rail said earlier this month it was announcing service changes across the Quebec City-Windsor corridor, including cancelling an early morning train from Ottawa to Toronto starting October 25. The company initially said stopping Guildwood and Malton station service would improve overall travel times given their proximity to Toronto Union Station and easy access to GO Transit and local transit.