Waterloo MPP reacts to expanded GO service

GO train service on weekends in Waterloo Region is becoming a reality, but only for a couple of weeks.

Kitchener GO announced special service for the Winter Reading Week. MPP for Waterloo Catherine Fife told CityNews 570 in an interview that it’s a great step, but it’s not enough.

“This lends itself to the bigger question,” said Fife. “Why have we been waiting so long and if they can provide weekend trains and weekend service for two weekends of the year, why can’t they provide that service for the remainder of the year?”

Two-way all-day GO service has long been sought after by students and other transit riders in Waterloo Region.

As it stands, trains run during the week, but any locals making the trip to or from Toronto on weekends has to take a bus.

She tells me some students have experienced a four-hour one way trip on the GO bus from Toronto to the University of Waterloo on weekends.

“The students who are trying to get back to school every weekend, it is a complete ordeal for them,” said Fife. “For one student, on one occasion, it was almost a four-hour one-way commute from Toronto to get to the University of Waterloo.”

Fife said Kitchener GO also needs more frequent and reliable service during the week.

“Kitchener is really working from a deficit position because our station is quite crowded,” said Fife. “It does not have the capabilities to accommodate the ridership that wants to get on that train and go into the Greater Toronto Area.”

She added that express trains from Waterloo Region to Toronto have also been discussed.

Fife has pressured the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to invest in local GO service. She has a petition addressed to the legislature for all day two-way go trains.