Fairway Station facing accessibility issues since launch of ION

Residents of our community, especially GRT users, have pointed out issues of inaccessibility at a few of the stations.

Paula Saunders is a member of the Grand River Accessibility Advisory Committee. She has worked to improve the experience of GRT stations for everyone in the region.

“We will never build something that's totally accessible, it can't be done, because everyone has different abilities and disabilities. But what we're trying to do is come up with a universal design that works for most of the people, most of the time.”

She also has ways to improve the stations.

“A safe, accessible route for people to get from the buses or from the ION station, over to the mall.”

One of the issues happens when coming off buses at Wilson Avenue and attempting to cross over to the mall.

“A lot of people were walking up the roadway that is behind Leon's, which to me, is a safety hazard with trucks pulling in and out etcetera. If you go the other way and cross over onto the ION station, once you reach the end of the sidewalk, you're confronted with traffic coming in five different directions.”

Regional councillor Tom Galloway is the Chair of the Planning and Works Committee. He acknowledges that Fairway station is currently quite convoluted.

“We're going to make some fixes to it. Not just for accessibility, but for all passengers. There needs to be some better coordination of walking routes between the bus terminal and the ION station itself.”

He recognizes that changes must be made but notes a barrier they faced when constructing the station.

“Along the entire route, there are some design issues coming to light now and some modifications need to be made. Now that we actually own the system, we didn't own it until June 20, we can either use Keolis to make those fixes or we can hire different contractors to do it at a more appropriate price and through a change order.”

Saunders has also suggested putting a temporary crosswalk from Fairway station over to the mall.