Plans for a GO Train station in downtown Guelph are missing one thing normally associated with such stations, namely parking, but city and GO officials say it can work.

GO Train stations are usually located outside downtown cores “with lots of parking,” but the plans for Guelph tie into a new direction of GO Transit, a GO official told a local meeting last week.

“This sort of fits into the next wave of what we are trying to do,” said Greg Ashbee.  This next wave, he said, aims to get people out of their cars and not have large asphalt areas at GO Train stations.

“We are always looking for opportunities for a mobility hub” that brings together all sorts of trains  and buses, as Guelph wants to do near the VIA station, Ashbee told a meeting of Heritage Guelph.

GO Transit wants to build a “Kiss and Ride” lot on the Hammill property on Farquhar Street south of  the tracks, which would be used both by GO and VIA train users. “Kiss and Ride” lots typically are  used by one-car families, where one person will drop off the other who is commuting and then will come back to pick up the returning partner after work, he said. Such lots have a number of lanes  were cars and their occupants can wait in line until a train arrives.

“It’s a way for people to have one  car, not two,” and it’s also a way to deal with lack of parking at a train station, said Ashbee, manager of infrastructure expansion planning at Metrolinx (formerly the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority), of which GO Transit is a division.

A new tunnel is to be built near the VIA station to make it easy for people to get to the train station  from the “Kiss and Ride” area. As well, an existing tunnel located further east is to be upgraded. There won’t be any parking in downtown Guelph dedicated to GO Transit commuters, so they will be encouraged to use the “Kiss and Ride,” take Guelph Transit buses to get to the station, or walk or  bike there, Ashbee said.

“It’s very hard to get people out of their cars,” Ashbee noted. Even in Oakville, where GO Transit subsidizes bus fares for train riders using city buses to get to the GO Train station, only 30% of train  riders get to the station this way, he said.

Ashbee added that GO Transit would likely offer similar city bus subsidies in Guelph to people using  Guelph transit buses to get to GO trains downtown. People who want to drive and park near he planned GO Train station in Guelph, which will be part of the existing VIA station, will have to pay to do so.

“There is room in the West Parade to accommodate GO” commuters, said Rick Henry, the city’s  manager of engineering services. The lack of dedicated GO parking in Guelph will be like the  situation at the GO stations in Hamilton and at Toronto’s Union and Danforth stations, Henry told the  meeting. GO Transit plans only limited rush-hour train station initially when it extends GO Train service west from Georgetown to Guelph and Kitchener, Ashbee said.