Waterloo MPP leading charge for GO expansion in Waterloo Region
Posted Jun 12, 2023 02:38:50 PM.
Last Updated Jun 12, 2023 02:54:47 PM.
A local Member of Provincial Parliament is leading the charge in trying to get expanded GO train service in the Region of Waterloo.
NDP’s Waterloo representative Catherine Fife said “The people of Waterloo region need and deserve, all-day, every-day, two-way GO trains from Kitchener to Toronto.”
She discussed the topic on the Mike Farwell Show Monday.
“The time has come for this government to prioritize the Kitchener line.”
Weekend service is what’s needed most according to Fife. She said when trains don’t run on the weekend, it’s taking some people three hours to get to the region from Toronto due to the demand. Issues arise when the buses that run in place of the trains reach capacity, which forces some people to wait for the next bus.
In a discussion with Ontario’s Minister of Transportation Caroline Mulroney in Queen’s Park, she told Mulroney that Waterloo Region has reached its tipping point.
She believes that it affects the region’s current and potential students the most.
“I feel right now that students in this region have really taken up the cause. They have been trying to get to either the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier or Conestoga [College] from the Toronto area and the options are so poor.”
Fife adds that she is actively working with students on a petition that aims to urge the provincial government to take action. Regional Council voted to send a letter to the provincial government regarding the region’s need for expanded GO service last week.
For added incentive, Fife cited Ian McLean, President and CEO of the Greater K.W. Chamber of Commerce, who said an expansion to local GO service would “deliver, by some estimates, up to 170,000 new jobs and billions in new direct investment from the private sector.”
In a release from the Ontario NDP, they said that Fife will fight alongside her community until they secure an expansion.
