GO Train adds weekend service on Kitchener line for reading week

GO Transit is offering extra train service between Kitchener and Toronto – for two weekends only.

On Feb. 17 and Feb. 25, four additional trains have been added between Kitchener’s GO Station and Toronto’s Union Station.

The service is typically only available on weekdays but was changed to accommodate what is expected to be a busy time.

GO Transit says the added routes are to help students get back and fourth during the winter reading week.

“It means more work opportunities,” said Katie Traynor with the Waterloo Undergrad Student Association. “It means more social activities and opportunities for students to meet their families and just enjoy other aspects of social life outside of university.”

These expanded weekend routes were also available during the fall reading week back in October.

The change has sparked renewing calls for consistent weekend train service between the two cities.

Experts say the weekend bus options that connect to other train lines are not as efficient.

“It’s still a very, very busy service. Especially at peak times, which are heading into Toronto Friday evenings or Saturday mornings, and coming back to Kitchener Sunday evenings. There are regularly people who can’t get on those buses because they’re full,” explained Brian Doucet of the University of Waterloo’s School of Planning.

Doucet adds that train track ownership and the number of tracks installed are possible hurdles but additional routes should still be possible.

“From what I understand in the infrastructure, there’s nothing from stopping a basic service from running all the way from Kitchener to Toronto seven days a week,” he said. “By a basic service, that would be a train about every three hours – that’s what the track permits.”

Metrolink statement

According to Metrolinx, the governing body for GO Transit, CN has given the company permission to use a portion of the tracks to operate the extra trains.

In and email to CTV News, Metrolinx provided the following statement:

“Additional service is being implemented on the Kitchener line to accommodate students who will be returning home and back to school for and after the winter reading week. Transforming the Kitchener line into a two-way, all-day rapid transit line is a massive undertaking made up of many different packages of work, that once complete, will fit together seamlessly to deliver increased service and connections from Union Station to Kitchener GO. 

Currently Metrolinx has increased GO Train service by four trips per day on weekdays, meaning customers now have 10 Toronto-bound trips from Guelph GO and 10 Guelph-bound trips from Union Station to pick from. In April 2023, weekend bus service was extended to Waterloo, which neighbours Guelph.

Additional trips were also added in June and September 2023, delivering a total of 55 trips on weekends. GO Bus Route 17 was also added in April 2023, a new hourly weekday direct bus service that offers 32 trips between Waterloo-Guelph-Hamilton – connecting four post-secondary institutions year-round.”