Rail negotiations keep Guelph, Kitchener out of Metrolinx expansion plans
NEWS Dec 06, 2018 by
Graeme McNaughton Guelph Mercury
Note: This story has been clarified from a previous version, following comment from Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster
The province’s transit agency got its first look at bringing faster, more frequent trains to GO Train stations across the province — but Guelph is not included.
“The item going to board this week on the GO Expansion program does not apply to the plans that are underway to provide two-way, all day service to Kitchener,” Phil Verster, Metrolinx’ s CEO, says in a statement emailed to the Mercury Tribune.
https://www.guelphmercury.com/news-...-door-for-two-way-all-day-go-service-by-2024/
“Increasing service and getting to two-way all day service to the Kitchener/Waterloo Region is a priority for us. We continue to make good progress on our work with CN on negotiating when we can add service on existing infrastructure.”
Verster added that more information on future service levels on the line will be coming in the next year to 18 months.
The program Verster referred to saw its
full business case presented to the Metrolinx board Thursday afternoon. That plan would turn GO Transit’s train lines across Ontario into a rapid rail system.
Under that system, trains would run every 15 minutes, with infrastructure upgrades bringing trains that run 30 per cent faster and are 50 per cent cheaper to operate, thanks to electrified tracks.
The business case projects that the Kitchener line would see this upgrade come between 2025 and 2030.
While that increased service is coming to the Kitchener line, where Guelph sits, the rapid transit stops in Brampton.
According to a
concept design included in the business case, Guelph would see one trip per hour to Toronto during peak morning hours, between 6 and 9 a.m., via a diesel-powered train. However, during that same time, six electric trains per hour would be going both ways between the Bramalea station in Brampton and Toronto’s Union Station.
A
second concept design, showing the amount of trips during off-peak hours, does not include Guelph.
In his email to the Mercury Tribune, Verster says the proposed extensions along the Kitchener line, which includes Guelph, are not incorporated in this business case as it falls under a different business case, funded as separate programs. There is also another hurdle in the way of expanding those services.
“The practical reason why these extensions are not included in this GO expansion business case is because these extensions are so dependent on the negotiations with CN and CP as Metrolinx does not fully own the tracks for the planned extensions including the extension to Kitchener,” he says.
“Until these are resolved, we cannot really schedule the completion date or properly determine the final scope of the program.”
The planned upgrades on the Kitchener line between Bramalea and Union, according to Metrolinx, is expected to cost $1.93 billion, with $930 million of that going towards corridor and fleet costs.
The remaining $1 billion would go towards operation and maintenance costs.
The discussion of bringing two-way, all-day GO train service to Guelph and on to Kitchener has been a longtime promise on the provincial level, with the Ontario Liberals pledging to bring that service within 10 years during the 2014 provincial election.
In March 2017, the federal government announced that it would be contributing $752 million to go toward improving rail infrastructure along the Toronto-Kitchener rail corridor on the way to all-day train service.
That money is to be used to build just over 40 kilometres of new track between the Mount Pleasant GO station in Brampton and Toronto’s Union Station, along with two grade separations, new parking areas, train layover areas and improvements to bridges.
Stations along the Toronto-Kitchener corridor would be getting funds for upgrades from that money as well.
While that money would not make a difference to those riding the rails today, former Waterloo Region chair Ken Seiling told the Waterloo Region Record at the time that “it’s really one part of the larger puzzle … that advances the ability to bring two-way GO trains to Kitchener.”
In May, Guelph councillors voted 9-2 in favour of joining Waterloo Region and the City of Kitchener on calling provincial party leaders to commit to bringing two-way, all-day GO service from Toronto through to Waterloo Region, with a stop in Guelph, by 2024.
