What’s in a Name? – Allandale Station vs Barrie Waterfront
For circulation to Barrie City council and staff September 20, 2010:
Why would anyone at city hall engineer a name change that does not respect history, heritage and people?
A professional consultant hired by the city of Barrie recently addressed the lack of suitable directional signage that fails to inform people that we even have a waterfront or how to get there. New signage will soon be in place to fix these short-comings and oversights. This solution to rebranding Barrie’s jewel of a waterfront and advertising this attribute is the right thing to do, not changing the name of the future GO station to Barrie Waterfront. If there are people in Barrie that do not know that we have a waterfront shame on each of us and our councilors for not informing them.
Many Barrie residents are incredulous that another decision has jumped the tracks, circumvented public input and consultation. For a few years the working names of the planned GO stations in Barrie were South Barrie and North Barrie. Several months ago Metrolinx unofficially changed the future northern station working name to Allandale Station.
They changed the project working name to avoid confusion using the name Barrie twice. The choice of Allandale Station was common sense and respected the neighbourhood and building beside the future platform. This change was precipitated because of safety, emergency and logistical reasons.
Library and internet sources have an abundance of references regarding the historic Allandale neighbourhood of Barrie. Its heritage and history is beyond refute and holds great weight and credibility. The South Barrie GO station has already established itself for a number of years. Its name implies there is another station north of it, or will be in the future. With the utmost respect for the history of this area of Barrie, there is no need to change this station’s name to St. Paul’s.
It makes sense that one of the two Barrie GO station names utilizes the name of the municipality it resides in. This is an established naming protocol and practice throughout the GO rail system. It does not make sense under the current circumstances to change the station name to St. Paul’s. Such a change would cause confusion to travelers who would not be aware that they had in fact arrived in Barrie or that it is not a new station, just renamed.
With the approval of Heritage Barrie and City Council, ERA Architects’ have already established that the station will be restored to the 1905 era standards. This includes the restoration of the Grand Trunk Railway station sign of Allandale. Work is already underway in the next stage of restoration despite missteps over the last few years and as recently as a few weeks ago.
Neither Heritage Barrie or the Barrie Historical Association can or will allow anything else to be put on the restored building because of the guidelines that are in place to preserve its heritage and that of this neighbourhood. Some may argue that only the platform would be called Barrie Waterfront and the station would still be called Allandale Station. Such a choice would cause further confusion to users – Metrolinx does not use two names at any other stations in the system.
Very simply, city officials cannot change the name of the building and therefore the future GO station.
There are currently 59 GO train stops in the 7 current Metrolinx rail routes. Only two of them refer to a geographic location – eg. Etobicoke North & Barrie South. Three refer to educational or travel destinations. 6 Refer to major streets and 18 share the name of the municipality they serve. The vast majority of station names, 30 of the 59, reflect the neighbourhood they serve using a historical link to the area’s past. These names echo the area, communities, villages, and towns of bygone days. The names thereby respect the heritage, history and people of the
past and present.
City Council endorsed the Historic Neighbourhood Strategy initiative that engaged many people across the city of Barrie over the last year, culminating in a report that council recently accepted. Allandale residents were some of the most engaged of the 6 historic neighourhoods and this process was to set and establish a precedence for a new approach to planning in our city. Consult the people first before major decisions are made.
Council has yet to conduct consultations of residents and interest groups to determine the future possible uses of the restored train station buildings. On the top of many peoples’ list is using part of the station as a station. What a novel thought! In conversations with GO officials last year I suggested that each of the 12 future platform waiting areas could be named and designed to reflect and respect historical facts, people or events of this area. I was told
that GO was open to this possibility and that future public meetings would address the many concerns and ideas that people held.
These meetings have simply not happened though repeatedly Allandale residents have requested them. Council’s credibility and that of the Historic Neighbourhood Strategy initiative hinges on the decision of the name of the new GO station. Call it what it is – Allandale Station. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.
I humbly ask council to make a formal motion to keep the new GO station’s name as Allandale Station, just as Metrolinx was planning on and what people want.
