A high-speed rail line connecting Toronto, Waterloo Region and London was announced Wednesday by Transportation Minister Glen Murray – but it’s several years and $2 billion or more away from being a reality.

Murray made the announcement Wednesday in front of the London Chamber of Commerce, one day before the delivery of a provincial budget that could trigger an election.

He said the rail line would support economic development and reduce travel times between the three centres.

"We have to build and imagine and dream and build things we have never built before, because the Americans have high speed rail coming to Buffalo soon,” he said.

Stops on the line would include London, Waterloo Region, Pearson International Airport and Union Station in downtown Toronto.

Murray said the trains would travel at 320 km/h, with 28 daily trains running along the line and a 48-minute travel time between Kitchener and Union Station

Travelling between Kitchener and the airport would take “30 to 40 minutes,” he said, while the full Toronto-to-London route would be a 71-minute run.

According to a Ministry of Transportation press release, no preferred technology for the line has been selected, nor has an exact route been chosen.

Work on an environmental assessment could begin this fall, but trains may not begin running until 2025.

Funding for the $2-billion-plus project would come from a $29-billion transit and infrastructure fund announced by the Liberals earlier this year, but Murray said he hoped the federal government would take on some of the costs.

The announcement met a tepid response from Progressive Conservative transportation critic Jeff Yurek, who said he doesn’t think it will ever come to fruition.

“I think our focus should be on getting the economy back on track and getting jobs back into the marketplace throughout Ontario,” Yurek said.

Murray’s announcement comes one day before the Liberals deliver their budget in Queen’s Park – a budget which neither opposition party has pledged to support and which could, if defeated, send the province into an election.

In addition to $29 billion for transit, items already announced as part of the budget include a $2.5-billion fund for corporate grants, $1 billion for the Ring of Fire mining project, wage increases for licensed childcare and personal support workers, and partial coverage of in vitro fertilization treatments.

With files from CTV London and The Canadian Press