Ontario adds 300 GO train trips per week to GTA routes

The Ontario government says it is adding 300 GO train trips per week to routes across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), Metrolinx's largest service expansion in more than a decade.

Additional trips on the West Lakeshore, East Lakeshore, Milton, Stouffville and Kitchener lines will begin April 28, Premier Doug Ford said at a news conference Monday.

Changes riders can expect include:

• Weekend train service has increased from every 30 minutes to every 15 minutes during the day and evening on Lakeshore's westbound and eastbound lines between the Oakville GO, Union and Durham College Oshawa GO stations.
• Additional morning and evening train trips during weekday rush hours between Milton GO and Union Station.
• Every second UP Express train runs nonstop between Union Station and Pearson Airport seven days a week.
• Evening train service seven days a week on the Stouffville line.
• Thirty minute weekday lunchtime and evening services on the Kitchener line between Bramalea GO and Union Station.

Ford will speak in Milton, where the special election will be held

Ford announced the upcoming GO service expansion at the rail yard in Milton, where voters will choose a new MPP in the May 2 election.

The seat has been vacant since former Ford cabinet minister Parm Gill resigned to run for the federal Conservative Party.

In his speech, Ford said his government is “1,000 percent committed” to bringing 24/7 GO service to Milton, something local leaders in the growing suburb have long called for.

Ford said the province needs help with federal funding to build a fully segregated passenger rail line to expand service.

“We call on the federal government to join us in a true cost-sharing partnership,” Ford said.

In 2021, the federal Liberal government said it would cover part of the cost to make 24-hour dual service to Milton a reality, but the province has argued a major commitment is needed for such a massive project.

The Milton Corridor is the fourth busiest line on the GO rail network.

The opposition declared the election campaign

In a statement released by the provincial Liberal Party, candidate Galen Naidoo identified Harris Ford as an opponent of improved GO service in Milton and attributed his “dramatic change of heart” to next month's vote.

“There has been a Conservative MPP in this riding since 2018 and it was only when the seat was at stake that Doug Ford managed to get Milton on the map,” said Naidu Harris, also the federal Liberals' community affairs manager. Deputy Adam van Coverden.

Naidu Harris also noted that the Ford government had abandoned a planned expansion of the Milton GO station in 2020 and that a promise to build a second station in the area had not been fulfilled.

NDP Leader Marit Stiles also said a re-election could prompt the announcement, saying both Conservative and Liberal governments are quick to make promises but don't always keep them.

“As in the case of the Kitchener-Waterloo two-way daytime GO, we sometimes wait 12 years or more to see results,” Stiles told reporters at Queen's Park.

“I don't think these kinds of announcements carry a lot of weight. I don't think it's a bit of fluff. But we're going to hold the government to account and continue to look for more information.”

Stiles said changes to the UP Express mean commuters will have to wait longer to board trains at Dundas West and Weston stations.

Green Party MPP Aislynn Clancy, who represents the riding of Kitchener Centre, has slammed the Ford government for excluding the Kitchener area from the GO expansion.

“None of the hundreds of trips added to the weekly GO schedule will bring relief to the residents of Kitchener, Georgetown, Acton and Guelph who have been underserved for years?” Clancy said in a statement.

“The Kitchener line had round-the-clock round trip times 10 years ago. Already, the GO buses that run between Kitchener and Bramalea are so popular that they regularly fill up and have to leave people on the platform. “