Toronto may have a Union Station East of its own in the works, but the City of Pickering could be the one to claim the title if plans to create its own iteration of Toronto's largest transit hub come to fruition.

A Request for Proposal (RFP) issued earlier this month solicited corridor designs for a new high-frequency rail station in the Durham Region locale, given that the area within 30km of the suggested sites is due to expand by a staggering million residents by 2040.

Though the concept is still very much in its nascence, advocates from Friends of Pickering Airport, a group that has been pushing for a second international airport in the city of about 100,000, feel that the project could become something much more than what has been outlined.

"What can we decipher from this RFP about our mass transit future? Or is the RFP too narrow in scope?" the group asked in a post on Monday.

"The Durham-Pickering RFP must look beyond an HFR station and its associated corridor development. Its outlook needs to be broader."

If you live in the Durham Region, Union East station will forever change how you move.#Transit #cdnpoli #Durham #GoBus #UnionStation #PickeringAirport #TTC #Toronto #GTAA #GTA https://t.co/PhmbbP3GQf

— Pickering airport (@PickeringAirprt) October 31, 2023

Noting the Greater Toronto Airports Authority's hope to create a second major transit hub in the west end of T.O. — which it, of course, is dubbing Union Station West — the volunteers passionately put forth the idea of the same in the east, which would be based around a new airport in North Pickering.

The "intermodal transit hub" could link HFR, LRT, GO and local buses, and the potential future airport in the Green River hamlet near York Durham Line, Highway 7 and Highway 407 — which is one of three locations listed in the RFP, a document the group calls "just the first step on the path to building Union East Station."

"A new mass transit hub that will help the region grow in an environmentally friendly, efficient manner. Enhancing our transit systems and improving our quality of life," it writes.

It adds that the RFP's deadlines of July 2024 for 3D models and September 2024 for renderings from bidders "appear to dovetail well into the expected Transport Canada study and follow on Pickering Airport RFP in 2025."