It’s not the common refrain of “two-way, all-day” service, but Waterloo Region will be getting more GO trains – eventually.
Friday, the province released details of what it calls the “largest infrastructure investment in Ontario’s history.”
Factoring in revenue from the sale of 60 per cent of Hydro One, the province says it plans to spend $130 million on public infrastructure over the next 10 years, with $31.5 billion of that going to what it calls “priority projects.”
Local politicians and business leaders have long lobbied for “two-way, all-day” GO train service between Waterloo Region and Toronto.
The phrase “two-way, all-day” shows up once in the province’s press release touting its infrastructure plans – for an express rail line running to Aurora.
The release’s promises for Waterloo Region are less extravagant, with the province touting one-way service between Kitchener and Toronto every 30 minutes during peak travel periods, as well as an otherwise undefined “express service” between Kitchener and Union Station.
In an interview, Kitchener Centre Liberal MPP Daiene Vernile said Kitchener remained a “very high priority” for the province’s transportation strategy.
“We are working on it,” she said.
Currently, two trains leave Kitchener for Toronto in the morning, and two run in the opposite direction in the afternoon.
Before the 2014 election, Premier Kathleen Wynne announced that four more trips would be added to that schedule by the end of 2016.
Vernile said Friday that those trips remains in the plans, with a fifth morning run and fifth evening run to be added by 2020, and the rail line to Kitchener to be electrified in 10 years.
Michael Harris, the Progressive Conservative MPP for Kitchener-Conestoga, told CTV News he didn’t expect to see “two-way, all-day” GO train service to Waterloo Region under any timetable.
“I absolutely do not believe that the initial commitment that was made … will ever come to fruition,” he said.
Other projects featuring in Friday’s announcement include a new track for GO Transit’s Barrie line, which will allow for nearly three times as many rail trips in that area as are currently scheduled.
Construction of that track is expected to be complete in 2017.