The GO train was late leaving the Kitchener station but there were few complaints heard from the hundreds on hand for the free introductory rides to Guelph and back.
GO Transit was offering free rides Sunday on a special train that will operate between its new Kitchener and Guelph stations. The train will make four trips -- two in each direction -- between the cities beginning in Kitchener at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Passenger Steve Pauser says he will be a frequent passenger to Toronto.
"We needed this for a real long time, saves a lot of traffic going to Toronto, saves gas for everybody, time consuming especially for me i love to go to Toronto downtown' says Pauser.
With the extension of the Georgetown GO train line to Kitchener, the line will be renamed the Kitchener GO train line. In addition to the new stops at Kitchener and Guelph, GO is adjusting some other service times affecting train and connecting bus routes.
Kitchener centre MPP John Milloy is happy to finally see a GO train in Kitchener "I say we've been waiting what about thirty years to finally have this happen"
The regular Monday to Friday service starts tomorrow morning and critics say the GO should be running trains on weekends. The crowd here today indicates the critics might be right
A local public transit advocacy group says university and college student commuters alone justify adding Friday night and weekend trains.
Tri Cities Transit spokesperson Tim Mollison says "There's a huge student contingent here that's not going to benefit at all from this GO transit is wasting its money on extra buses every Friday that it could be using one train for or two trains for to move people around"
Kitchener MPP says adding more trains will take time and money. "Listen its going to take several years our long term vision is to have seven day a week, both day service throughout the GO system, we've got to build ridership we also have infrastructure changes and upgrades that need to be done"
The GO trains will leave the Kitchener via station at 5:52 and 7:10 a.m. The return trains leave union station at 4:45 p.m. and 5:45 for the two hour trip.
GO now averages more than fifty trips to and from the K-W area each day, with more than seven hundred riders.
