Cambridge has great hope for commuter train to GTA

Of course, Cambridge should have been the first to get GO trains all along.

After all, more people who commute to and from the Greater Toronto Area are from Cambridge than anywhere else in Waterloo Region.

Yet Kitchener was first to get GO trains. Cambridge waited and waited, while Highway 401 got more and more clogged with traffic.

On Friday a glimmer of hope came from the Ontario Liberal government.

Transportation Minister and Cambridge MPP Kathryn McGarry announced a two-year study of commuter train service between the Hespeler section of Cambridge and Guelph. From there, riders could connect to the existing GO line to Toronto.

This plan, it turns out, is a more efficient way to provide trains for Cambridge than the more direct Galt-to-Milton line. CN Rail owns the Guelph-to-Hespeler line and is more willing to sell it for commuter rail use.

The $200,000 cost of the feasibility study would be split between the Region of Waterloo and the province.

Let’s start by putting this in perspective. It has to be said: If the Ontario Liberal government was a person, it would be lying on the floor and you’d be anxiously checking for a pulse. It’s so deep--

ly unpopular, one month before an election, that you wonder if it’s grasping at straws with promises like this just to stay alive.

It’s fair to ask: If the Ontario Liberals were interested in building commuter rail between Cambridge and Toronto, why didn’t they put the wheels in motion a long time ago? As New Democratic Party Leader Andrea Horwath has said, the Liberals have had 15 years in power, and they’ve had plenty of time to build the society they want. Another way to put this into perspective is by looking at the amount of money being pledged.

Also in Cambridge on Friday were Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Kathleen Wynne, who announced that $220 million in government funds would be given to profitable car manufacturer Toyota. What an irony that the $200,000 being spent to study building a commuter rail line so we can reduce our carbon footprint is a tiny fraction — less than 0.1 per cent, in fact — of the amount being given to a company that makes vehicles that add to our carbon footprint. But all that said, the Liberal government also deserves credit for seeing a need and responding to it.

“It’s a good deal,” said Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig.

The feasibility study would investigate what repairs are needed to the tracks, and how many commuters would use the service. Once that happens, and the idea picks up momentum, it won’t really matter whether the Liberals are in or out. The next government will still face the problem of congested roads, polluted air and frustrated commuters who know there’s a better way.

Thanks to today’s announcement, expectations are high about getting GO trains for Cambridge. They won’t be easily deflated.

Free-speech update: In Thursday’s column, I reported that the Laurier Society for Open Inquiry, a group founded by Wilfrid Laurier University graduate student Lindsay Shepherd, had been told to pay $5,473 in security costs to bring a controversial speaker to campus.

Shepherd started a crowdfunding initiative online. As I write this, 133 people had raised $5,009 toward the goal in just six hours. It looks likely that Wednesday’s talk by Mount Royal University professor Frances Widdowson, will go ahead. The topic is: “Does University Indigenization Threaten Open Inquiry?”