October 23, 2010
JEFF OUTHIT
Ridership on GO Transit buses has more than tripled in less than a year as university students embrace intercity transit.

Now there’s word GO Transit may soon launch a plan of some sort to extend commuter trains to Kitchener.

GO buses launched last November, to help build ridership toward trains. Buses stop at Waterloo universities as well as in Kitchener and Cambridge.

Most buses go to Mississauga. Some go to the Milton GO train station. Buses do not go directly to Union Station in Toronto.

Their first month, GO buses carried 6,500 passengers. In September they carried over 20,000. Extra buses have been added to meet demand, in particular to carry students away from Waterloo on Fridays.

This is good news for students. But working commuters won’t abandon their cars until they have reliable trains.

Ontario’s approved plan calls for four trains a day out of Kitchener in the morning, with four trains returning in the afternoon and evening.

The proposal, costing $153 million to launch, is still without provincial funding, GO spokesperson Vanessa Thomas said. She would not elaborate on alternate rail plans and said the provincial transit service is not currently considering extending trains from Milton to Cambridge.

However, a published report out of Guelph suggests GO Transit is preparing a plan B that could see one commuter train a day to Guelph starting in 2011.

Graham Vincent, regional director of transportation planning, said GO and Via Rail, the federal passenger service, are jointly discussing investments in passenger upgrades. Regional Chair Ken Seiling anticipates an announcement soon about commuter trains that could launch in Kitchener next September.

Effective commuter trains face several hurdles.

Tracks between Kitchener and Toronto are owned privately and used for freight. Improved passenger service remains derailed in part by an unresolved fee dispute between Via Rail and the track operator.

Also, GO trains would launch as slow trains. They would take up to two hours to travel 101 kilometres between Kitchener and Union Station, averaging an unappealing 50 km/h.

Constraints include a misaligned junction switch near Acton, a bottleneck over the Credit River, a sharp curve through Acton, and a single-track bottleneck through Guelph and Kitchener. Track upgrades would cost more than $300 million.

Stay tuned. It’s always one step forward, two steps sideways on the road to intercity transit