Former transport minister to head up high-speed rail study
LONDON, ONT. The province has tapped a former federal transportation minister to bring high-speed rail to Southwestern Ontario by 2025.
David Collenette, a Liberal cabinet minister under three former prime ministers, will lead the provincial government’s high-speed rail advisory team as the landmark project moves forward.
The former Toronto MP retired from politics in 2004 and also held veterans affairs and national defence cabinet posts in his 30-year political career.
Collenette was the province’s special adviser for high speed rail. He was tasked in 2015 to provide a preliminary business case and financing models, evaluate systems in other countries and work with the private and public sectors as well as Indigenous groups.
Collenette’s report on high speed rail was released on the same day in May 2017 that Premier Kathleen held a news conference in London to announce the province will build a high-speed rail line linking Windsor and Toronto. Ontario Transport Minister Kathryn McGarry and Kitchener Centre MPP Daiene Vernile announced Collenette’s appointment Tuesday in Waterloo.
Last year, the government began early design work for the estimated $20-billion high-speed rail line between Windsor and Toronto and is spending $15 million on an environmental assessment study. The formal environmental assessment is expected to begin this spring, according to the province’s website.
Under the Liberals’ plan, the first high-speed rail line between London and Toronto could be running by 2025. The London-to-Windsor connection would follow by 2031.
The high-speed rail line will serve a region that’s home to more than seven million people. The province has proposed stops in Windsor, Chatham, London, KitchenerWaterloo, Guelph and Toronto Union Station, with a connection to Pearson International Airport.
The trains would travel up to 250 kilometres per hour on a combination of existing track and new dedicated rail lines.
Travel time between Windsor to Toronto would be cut from over four hours by car to just over two hours by high-speed train. A trip between London and Toronto would take roughly 73 minutes.