Flooding disrupted service on GO Transit’s Richmond Hill line and resulted in the closure of a stretch of Bayview Avenue for nearly two hours on Thursday afternoon.

The 3:10 p.m. train from Union Station to Richmond Hill was cancelled after a portion of the tracks on the lower part of the line were flooded when the swelling Don River rose above its banks.

The 4:30 p.m. train did leave Union Station as scheduled but took an alternate route due to the flooding and skipped Oriole and Old Cummer GO stations as a result.

GO Transit says the 5 p.m. train will, however, return to its regular routing after the water on the tracks subsided.

“People may say ‘Well the rain stopped. Why isn’t it (the water levels) going down?’ but it gets into the grass and then continues to go into the river and the river continues to rise until such time it can then start to flow out,” Metrolinx spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins told CP24 earlier on Thursday afternoon.

GO Transit was warning those on its Richmond Hill line to expect delays of 30 to 40 minutes due to the decision to utilize an alternate route.

The flooding didn’t just affect rail lines either.

Bayview Avenue was completely closed between Pottery Road and Rosedale Valley Road due to flooding, though the roadway reopened at around 4:45 p.m. after a two-hour closure.

At one point, there were reports that a number of vehicles were stuck on the roadway due to the water levels.

“I thought I’d seen everything,” one driver who was waylaid by the flooding told CP24. “I don’t know why the police weren’t there to stop people from going through.”

There were a number of other flooding-related closures in place as well, including Rosedale Valley Road between Park Road and Bayview Avenue and River Street from Gerrard Street to Bayview Avenue.

One southbound lane was also closed on the Don Valley Parkway at Don Mills Road due to flooding.

Meanwhile, the TTC says that its144 Downtown/Don Valley Express bus is diverting around the closure both northbound and southbound.

The closures come after a cluster of showers and thunderstorms moved across the city earlier Thursday.

During the inclement weather, Environment Canada had issued a rainfall warning in anticipation of some parts of the GTA being hit with 50 to 60 millimetres.

That warning was lifted at around 12:30 p.m., by which point the rain had mostly subsided. There is not any more rain in the forecast for later this afternoon and this evening.

While Friday is expected to be sunny all day with a high of 28, rain is expected back in the forecast this weekend.