Residents of the Kingsbridge Garden Circle neighbourhood are pushing for a Light Rail Transit stop to be built close to their homes.

Located along the Hurontario Street corridor, Kingsbridge Garden Circle is a densely populated area with a high volume of seniors, disabled persons and other marginalized groups. Brimming with high-rise apartment buildings and commercial plazas, residents say the area is one of the busiest in the city and should have received consideration when the City of Mississauga was planning route stops for the Hurontario LRT (HuLRT).

“If there isn’t a station built here, we’re talking more than 10,000 people living in this hub that would not be adequately served by transit,” said Grant Gorchynski, who has taken lead on the “LRT for Kingsbridge” campaign.

With 22 stops along the HuLRT route, the group is requesting the addition of a stop at the intersection of Kingsbridge Garden Circle and Hurontario Street.

The closest stops are proposed for Eglinton Avenue, roughly one kilometre away, and Robert Speck Parkway, nearly two kilometres from Kingsbridge Garden Circle.

“There are a lot of seniors living here and it’s difficult for them to go anywhere away from this place,” said Zaeem Qureshi, who lives in a nearby apartment complex.

Seniors also frequent the Emerald Business Centre, one of the largest medical hubs in he city, with 10 specialty services offered including chiropractors, physiotherapists, vein specialists and optometrists.

Coun. John Kovac said there is a strong business case to be made for constructing a stop at Kingsbridge, but that the work involved to add it to the route at this point would derail the entire project.

Metrolinx spokesperson Vanessa Barrasa told the News that stop locations were identified through the Hurontario-Main Street corridor master plan study that took place between 2008 and 2010 by the cities of Mississauga and Brampton. This was followed by a four-year environmental assessment that saw five rounds of public consultation.

“The inclusion of a new stop would require revisiting the environmental assessment process for the project and impact project data collected through numerous studies around traffic, timing for the headway, vehicle requirements and more,” she said.