Passenger Rail Station Location Analysis: Factors Influencing Sustainable Placement in Canadian Cities

 

Ruhina Farooqui 
Md Nasim Hossain
Balwant Singh
Sukhveer Singh 
Manpreet Kaur 
Mazyar Zahedi-Seresht

 

Sep 19, 2025

 

Executive Summary

Passenger rail stations are more than leisure points on a map; they are points of urban decisions that have resounding outcomes for decades. When in the appropriate location, they create inclusive accessibility; they create compactness; they create responsible property value increases; and they create a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Placed poorly, they become expensive underperformers. This study examines which factors most strongly influence where stations should be located and why. It focuses on Canadian contexts—Vancouver’s SkyTrain and Toronto’s GO Transit—while drawing practical lessons from international exemplars such as Tokyo, Lyon, Munich, and Seoul.

 

We evaluate four interlinked factors: population density and urban form; accessibility and multimodal integration; economic impacts; and environmental considerations. Using GIS-style analysis, we simulate walk-access catchments of 400 m and 800 m around key stations (Figures: Vancouver and Toronto catchment maps) and link them to modeled indicators: annual ridership growth, property value premiums by distance, CO₂ reductions from mode shift, and capital/operating cost scenarios.

 

The findings indicate a coherent strategy. Stations located in dense, mixed-use, multimodal nodes provide the most ridership return and strongest social return. Property values typically rise 5–20% within walking catchments; this is a lever for responsible, inclusion-minded Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) when paired with affordability tools. Electrified or progressively decarbonized operations generate meaningful climate benefits—our modeled scenario shows annual CO₂ reductions reaching 35,000 tons by 2040—and support Canada’s Transportation 2030 and CleanBC targets.

 

We propose a pragmatic path forward: use GIS to prioritize locations with high walk-access potential and multimodal connectivity; protect long-time residents via inclusionary housing in TOD zones; electrify corridors in phases; and structure projects to share risk and reward via performance-tied public–private partnerships. These are human decisions with technical discipline behind them; based on data, but driven by how people in fact move, live and work.