Make high-speed rail and all-day GO an election issue
It’s the key to unlocking economic gridlock along the Toronto-Waterloo Region Corridor
Citizens, students and businesses across Waterloo Region are clear about the need for fast, frequent rail service to Toronto.
This is not a partisan issue, but rather a community issue.
As Ontario prepares to go to the polls, we should demand that any political party or candidate looking to represent us support improved transportation as a key part of their platform.
The two projects currently on the table are the long-discussed two-way all-day GO train service and the more recently proposed high-speed rail project.
The reality is that these aren’t opposing projects, but subsequent steps in building the connectivity necessary to grow businesses in Waterloo Region and Guelph, providing alternatives to the never-ending traffic on the 401, and improving residents’ overall quality of life.
The first step is through the proposed GO Regional Express Rail.
By purchasing the 30 kilometres of track still owned by CN Rail, and electrifying and improving the track, we can provide frequent, two-way, all-day access between Waterloo Region, Guelph and Toronto.
In addition to the immediate benefits, this also opens the possibility for a future higher-speed rail service along this route that supplements the regional express rail trips with faster access to both Toronto Pearson International Airport and downtown Toronto, as well as locations farther west such as London.
Waterloo Region has the fastest-growing tech sector in the country, and equally impressive financial services companies and academic institutions.
That growth brings with it the need for talented employees — there are an estimated 3,000 unfilled tech jobs, and companies and academic institutions alike are struggling to fill the high-skilled positions they need to succeed.
Considering that almost 90 per cent of provincial job growth over the last year has occurred in the Greater Toronto Area, this amounts to a massive missed opportunity to encourage economic growth in mid-sized cities.
Right now, companies are forced to charter cars and buses to shuttle employees between offices in the corridor.
At Manulife, there are a couple of hundred employees travelling up and down the 401 every day, and companies such as Shopify and Google deploy private buses to move employees between offices.
This traffic gridlock impacts people in every industry, from salespeople to truck drivers, to those trying to attend meetings, and those who need to commute every day.
If we want to continue to grow our local economy and provide greater employment opportunities throughout Ontario, this is obviously not a sustainable solution.
However, better transit isn’t only about economic opportunities.
It’s about better access to medical services for the elderly, and the thousands of parents who have to travel to Sick Kids hospital each year to be with their children.
It’s about connecting the more than 40,000 university students from Guelph, Laurier and Waterloo who belong to online ridesharing groups so that they can find ways to get home, or to their job placements.
And it’s about providing everyone the opportunity to jump on a train in downtown Kitchener and arrive at Pearson airport or downtown Toronto without the stress of the current commute — which was once not much more than an hour, but can now regularly stretch to a few hours.
Residents in rural areas have raised concerns about the Kitchener-to-London stretch of the higher-speed rail line, as they worry it will cut off communities and fail to provide additional transit options.
As the environmental assessment process begins, the consultations along the route provide an opportunity to address many of these concerns by listening and working with all citizens.
For instance, solutions proposed could include sufficient over- and underpasses built along the rail corridor, and co-ordinating service with Via Rail and private bus companies to benefit and enhance the services they offer.
While these consultations may be difficult, they are critical and tough choices.
There are straightforward solutions available, and improved transit will help ensure economic growth in both mid-size cities and rural communities throughout southwestern Ontario.
As we head to the polls, we should be urging all political parties to fast-track two-way all-day GO service, and to firmly commit to getting shovels in the ground on the higher-speed rail project, which is the key to unlocking economic opportunities along the Toronto-Waterloo Region Corridor.