How close is two-way, all-day GO train service between Kitchener and Toronto?
Work continues incrementally on infrastructure to provide service that previous Liberal government promised would be running by 2024
By
Cheyenne Bholla
Record Reporter
KITCHENER — Almost 10 years after the previous provincial government first promised two-way, all-day GO service to Waterloo Region, work continues but it’s still not clear when the service will be implemented.
In 2016, Metrolinx first extended GO train service between Toronto’s Union Station and Kitchener, with two morning and two afternoon trains. That same year, Kathleen Wynne, the Liberal premier at the time, promised to have two-way, all-day service running by 2024.
As 2024 approaches, the current Conservative government under Premier Doug Ford is moving forward with the “largest transit expansion plan in Canadian history,” a spokesperson says.
“In the past few years, we have increased service to Halton Hills, Guelph and Kitchener by nearly 45 per cent with new midday and late-night options for commuters,” said Dakota Brasier, a Ministry of Transportation spokesperson.
Work has recently been done in Guelph.
Rehabilitation of retaining walls and the repair and replacement of two bridges were completed in December. Work on the retaining walls had to first be completed before a second track could be replaced. Retaining walls hold back the dirt so that Metrolinx can expand the corridor.
Construction of a second passing track in Breslau is ongoing, and construction of a maintenance storage track near Rockwood will begin this year, said Brasier.
In May 2022, Metrolinx, the provincial agency in charge of GO service, announced a contract with Dagmar Construction Inc. to build a second platform at Guelph Central GO Station, a new storage track for maintenance vehicles and a 2.6-kilometre passing track in Breslau.
The passing track, one of three to be constructed along the Kitchener Line, would allow trains travelling in opposite directions to pass each other between Kitchener and Guelph. This work is set to be completed in early 2024.
Trains now have to share a single track with freight traffic, slowing down service because passenger trains have to wait on a siding until freight trains pass.
Improvements at Bloor GO Station and West Toronto Railpath are also set to finish in 2025 as part of the bigger project.
The massive two-way, all-day transit project requires a capital investment of at least $806 million and would see trains between Kitchener and Union Station every hour — 30 minutes during peak times.
Brian Prudham, a partner with Momentum Developments, said in a recent interview that two-way, all-day GO service would be “single largest game-changing project” that could help out a company like his.
Although he said business is good, more transportation options would further open the Kitchener housing market to the Greater Toronto Area.
“All-day GO opens up options for folks to spend a bit less on housing in K-W while offering the employment opportunities of Toronto,” said Prudham.
“It creates a deeper amenity base for K-W dwellers as a one-hour train ride to Toronto at any time of day means access to professional sports and world city attractions in the arts/culture and festival/event realm.”
In 2016, the Wynne Liberals also pledged $43 million to the Region of Waterloo to develop a transit hub at King and Victoria streets in Kitchener, creating a centre that would connect light rail transit, Grand River Transit buses, GO trains and Via Rail trains.
Regional spokesperson Lynsey Slupeiks said the region will provide an update on the hub when a report is released, possibly as early as February.
Work on the
transit hub, including new platforms for GO trains, is proceeding in downtown Kitchener, but the construction of a new transit hub building has been on hold as the region worked to line up the rest of the funding needed for the $106-million project, beyond the $43 million the province has agreed to pay.
With more limited GO trains today, the vast majority to trips between Waterloo Region and the Greater Toronto Area are still by car.
Commuters, shoppers, students and others took 64,000 daily trips in both directions, but GO trains accounted for only 1,000 daily trips — just under two per cent, according to Ministry of Transportation data from 2016.
The 2016 census found 18,205 people commuting in both directions between this region and the Greater Toronto Area. Only 10 per cent of these commuters (1,850 people) used public transit including GO trains and buses. Cars, trucks and vans carried 86 per cent of commuters.
The use of public transit — and the number of commuters to and from the GTA — decreased after the pandemic hit.
In 2021 commuting fell as many employees worked from home in the pandemic. The census found 15,620 commuters moving in both directions between this region and the Greater Toronto Area. Only six per cent (695 people) used public transit while 93 per cent commuted by car, truck or van.
With files from Jeff Outhit
https://www.therecord.com/authors.bholla_cheyenne.html
Cheyenne Bholla is a Waterloo Region-based reporter at The Record. Reach her via email: cbholla@therecord.com
