• Council approved an additional $348,500 to advance Stouffville’s whistle cessation project.
  • Upgrades are required before Metrolinx will stop whistles at the Hoover Park and Reeves Way crossings.
  • Expected project costs have more than doubled to over $790,000 due to expanded scope and rail safety requirements.
  • The increase will be funded through 2025 capital budget savings, avoiding any direct tax levy impact.
  • Cancelling the project would have resulted in sunk costs and higher future restart expenses.
  • Construction is expected to begin in the coming months.

 

Stouffville has approved an additional $348,500 to move forward with its delayed whistle cessation project, clearing a key hurdle after years of planning, rising costs, and coordination challenges with provincial transit agency Metrolinx.

Council signed off on the funding during its April 15 meeting, allowing construction to proceed at the Hoover Park Drive and Reeves Way Boulevard rail crossings. The safety and infrastructure upgrades must be completed before Metrolinx will permit trains to stop sounding their whistles through both areas.

Initially considered as early as 2014, according to Councillor Sue Sherban, the project received its first Town approval in 2019. It has since faced increasing complexity tied to Metrolinx safety protocols and operational constraints. Limited work windows within the rail corridor, along with mandatory flagging procedures to manage train and vehicle movements, have contributed to delays and higher costs.

“The scope of work needed to satisfy Metrolinx’s operational and safety requirements is significantly more complex than initially anticipated,” reads a report presented this week. “As a result, Staff have determined that additional costs are required to complete the project in a manner that fully aligns with rail safety requirements and allows construction to proceed.”

Planned improvements include reconstructed accessible sidewalks, maze gates, pavement markings, new signage, and the removal of the existing rail hump at the Hoover Park Drive crossing. All aspects of the project must be approved and monitored by Metrolinx, Staff noted, further adding to its duration.

Financial pressures became more clear earlier this year, when Staff reported less than $59,000 remained in the project budget. A $221,000 contract was awarded to Lyncon Construction in April 2025, and recent analysis shows roughly $63,000 of the Town’s nearly $380,000 initial allocation is unspent.

With additional costs projected at more than $412,000, the whistle cessation line item has climbed to just over $790,000. Construction, originally expected to begin last year, is now anticipated to start in the coming months.

Despite the increase, the Town will cover the added expense through savings identified in its 2025 capital budget, avoiding any direct impact on the tax levy. The report notes final costs could still decrease if construction proceeds without further complications.

Council was also warned that rejecting the funding would have effectively cancelled the project. Terminating the existing contract would have resulted in roughly $50,000 in sunk costs, while restarting the initiative in the future would likely come at a significantly higher price.

Complicating matters further, the lead time required for Metrolinx flagging services is soon to grow from nine weeks to 22 weeks. Staff cautioned that this extended notice period could affect not only whistle cessation projects, but also other major projects within Metrolinx’s right-of-way, including the planned Main Street reconstruction.

While whistles are expected to cease at Hoover Park and Reeves Way, the Town must complete Main Street reconstruction before whistle cessation can be approved at the Stouffville GO station crossing.

“This has been a long time coming,” Sherban said during Council’s Wednesday meeting.  She raised concerns about escalating costs, saying “I’m a little disappointed [in] another level of government consistently moving the mark as to what we need to do in order to implement this whistle cessation.”

Sherban added she now expects the project to proceed without further delays. “I want to commend Staff for working hard on this, negotiating, and finding ways for us to be able to close this off.”