Doug Ford’s flip-flop on UP Express draws mockery from opposition

“Once again, this is a government that doesn’t think before they act. They didn’t talk to transit riders,” Stiles charged.

While in Milton on Monday to boast of a 15 per cent expansion in GO Train service, Ford and Sarkaria revealed UP Express service at Bloor and Weston would be cut to every 30 minutes, from 15, by Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency.

Unlike Ford’s high-profile reversal of controversial plans to open the Greenbelt for more housing, there was no apology.

“This is our government’s plan to get people moving,” Sarkaria said of 300 new weekly trips on GO trains after Stiles accused him of trying to “pass off service cuts on the UP Express as an improvement.”

The minister ducked reporters after the exchange in the legislature’s daily question period. 

Monday’s announcement sparked immediate criticisms and a petition, given that the TTC’s Dundas West subway stop regularly feeds passengers to UP Express trains at Bloor, and because Weston is an under-serviced area for public transit. 

Observers also questioned why service would be reduced when Metrolinx is building a tunnel to connect the Dundas West subway stop to the UP Express station across the street. Completion is expected in 2026.

“I’m hoping Metrolinx has learned their lesson, that when you take service … away from people they’re going to be rightfully outraged,” said Green Leader Mike Schreiner.

“I don’t even understand why the government tried to meddle with that,” he added. 

Yet another about-face in addition to U-turns on the Greenbelt, the dissolution of Peel Region, urban boundary changes and minister’s zoning orders do not build trust in the premier’s Progressive Conservatives, said Liberal House Leader John Fraser.

“Taking away transit and giving it back the next day, it just doesn’t give people confidence that this government knows what it’s doing.”

The reduced service for Bloor and Weston stations was to begin April 28.

“While the intention was to provide a faster option for people travelling between Union and Pearson, I’ve heard riders’ concerns,” Sarkaria wrote Tuesday night on X (formerly Twitter).

Metrolinx had not publicly revealed concerns the 25-minute ride from Union to Pearson is too long. Its website proclaims: “With only two brief stops at Bloor and Weston GO stations, UP Express is the fastest and most reliable way to get in and out of the city.”

Opposition parties said they want a promises that UP Express service at Weston won’t be cut when a new station opens a short distance to the south at Mount Dennis, once the Eglinton Crosstown light rail transit line begins running after years of delays. 

“The people of Weston deserve a commitment from the minister that this kind of thing is not going to happen to them again,” said Stiles.

Scheduling depends on ridership, demand and available resources, and final scheduling will be determined closer to when the Crosstown opens, Metrolinx spokesperson Andrea Ernesaks told the Star.

“However, we understand how important transit services are to those living in the Weston station area.”

The Weston station is in the riding of York South-Weston represented by MPP Michael Ford, the premier’s nephew and minister of citizenship and multiculturalism. His constituency office is across directly Weston Road from the station, just south of Lawrence Avenue.

The UP Express flip-flop came amid May 2 byelection campaigns in Milton and Lambton-Kent-Middlesex and a new Progressive Conservative advertising campaign.

It features the premier hinting at his change of heart on the Greenbelt, which followed an $8.28-billion land swap scandal now under investigation by the RCMP.

“You can’t always get it right,” Ford acknowledged in the one-minute TV spot. “Let me tell you, when I don’t, I hear from the people.”