Filling the Gaps in Canada’s Rail Network
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Guelph and Waterloo Region — two of Southern Ontario’s fast growing regions — are connected by several rail lines, and yet they still do not feature a frequent rail service between them. Let’s talk about one project that plans to address this.
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36 Comments
hahah so Canada = GTA?
Watching this as a BCer filled with soul-crushing envy. I wish we had gaps, and not complete and utter lack.
Hey what do you think about Egypt
We have some new transit in the Cairo metropolitan area and would love to hear your opinion
Any westbound train leaving Guelph station has to contend with multiple street crossings. Unless and until a solution to that presents itself, it's all just a pipe dream.
Why build infrastructure when we can import 1 million Indians?
This is one of the things that drives me up the wall. There used to be a megabus that went from hamilton, through cambridge, and into KW but it shut down during the pandemic. Now its been replaced by the 17 go bus that goes from Hamilton, through milton, up to guelph and then on to KW, which is an insane routw that takes over 2 hours most days. It takes longer to take the bus from Hamilton to KW than it does to go from hamilton to Toronto. There is no reason for this bus to go from guelph to KW as there is already a train service that does the same route.
If GO needs a route from hamilton to milton and guelph then they should make it a double circuit that has two buses going opposite direction in a circuit from hamilton to cambridge to KW to Guelph to Milton and then back to Hamilton and vice versa.
Its maddening that the current 17 route is what they landed on. Shamefully bad!
dude, no idea if this true but it looks like you lost a bunch of weight. looking good bud!
I wish they would find a way to make the go trains move faster.
get me a line that runs regularly through brantford Ill be happy. even more happy if they get something like UP to go to Vaughn Mills/Canada's Wonderland.
Anything east of Toronto is just forgotten about, it's pathetic. update highways in the Toronto area to 8-10 lanes where here the 401 is still 4 lanes and accidents happen ALL the time due to the high volume of trucks and traffic funneled down from those massive highways. It's a joke. Belleville barely gets VIA service, and even that is laughable, so it only leaves us with driving on shitty infrastructure.
C’mon man. You live in Toronto and yet not even 8 seconds in you pronounce it with the second T. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined. Literally unwatchable.
What postgraduate study programs would you consider for working in the field such as transportation planning/urban planning policies for the government?
Thanks for the video, Reece!
Have you done a video on the rail service on Vancouver Island yet? I’d be interested to see your take on it.
VIA Rail used to run rail service on Vancouver Island but they stopped in 2006. Since that time, cities connected on the railway have exploded in population. Greater Victoria has gone from 350K residents to 450K, the Cowichan Valley has gone from 75K to 95K, and Nanaimo has gone from 142K to 183K (source: Government of British Columbia).
Most of the rail has just been sitting there for decades doing nothing, which does make maintenance and repair worrisome. According to the Island Corridor Foundation, an organisation dedicated to restoring rail on the Island, the project was deemed economically viable in 2012, but that was obviously a while ago and things have changed a lot since then.
One way to phase in the project could be opening a regional link between Langford and Victoria first. The stations already exist and both are conveniently downtown. They could also help ease congestion on Trans-Canada Highway corridor, one of the busiest in British Columbia, which currently has buses going between Langford and Victoria on dedicated lanes every 15 minutes (more frequent in peak hours). For those of us who live in the region and rely on transit, this would make such a difference.
Anyway, if you have time, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the project!
My bus finally after 4 years has gotten 30 minute service back during the day……….. It's the small wins for us outside the gta Golden horseshoe i guess 😜
To be honest, I don't understand how we don't have more high speed rail. Of all the countries where it would probably be most useful if affordable.
CN Rail will halt service when they get ready for a raise😂
I think it should stop at the iconic Cambridge ONroute
I think the should extend GO trains to London to Toronto
Guelph Jumpscare 😱😱😱
Grew up in Guelph and have family in Camrbridge. Used to commute on occasion to Toronto for work from Guelph central. I feel like this video was made for me.
HELL YES, we seriously need GO Trains routes or just local express train services that don't all go through Toronto Union Station.
My list of non-Toronto centric train routes (all using EXISTING rail right-of-ways) would be:
– Cambridge-Kitchener-Guleph Delta Express Loop: Cambridge Central (Coronation@Dundas) > Preston (Duke@Bishop) > Hespeler (Queen@Winston) > Guelph Central GO > Victoria North (Bingemans Center@Victoria) > Kitchener GO > Mill Station ION (Ottawa@Mill) > Preston (Duke@Bishop) > Cambridge Central (Coronation@Dundas)
– Toronto North Line: Long Branch GO > Queensways@Kipling > Kipling GO > Jane@StClair > Dufferin@Dupont > Casa Loma (Spadina@Dupont/Dupont TTC)> Summerhill TTC > Ontario Science Center (Eglington@Don Mills) > Lawrence@Victoria Park > Agincourt GO (Sheppard@Midland/Kennady)
– Halton Express: Burlington GO > Millcroft (Upper Middle@Appleby) > Milton South (Derry@Bronte) > Milton GO
– Brantford Express: West Harbour GO > Dundas Valley (Sydeham/Livingstone) > Brantford VIA Station
– Milton-Cambridge Express: Milton GO > Kelso/Glen Eden (Special peak hours)> Cambellville > Mountsberg (Special peak hours during Summer) > Cambridge Central (Coronation@Dundas)
– Hamilton-Guelph Express: West Harbor GO > Waterdown (Mill@Dundas) > Flamboro (@Carlisle) > Cambellville > Guelph Central GO
Ideally the Orangeville-Brampton Line would on this list too, but theres just not enough population density in the direction of Orangeville to justify it as anything more than a Ontario Northlander style route that runs maybe once or twice a day at most.
Need a GO train line connecting the Tri Cities and Hamilton. Its absurd that there is NO DIRECT transit connection between Hamilton (pop.570K) and Waterloo Region (pop. 673K)
I work at pinebush and live in Waterloo. It is a 1 hour 25 minute commute…it feels ridiculous to have a "region" where Cambridge is less accessible than Guelph most of the time. Love to see this, hopefully Cambridge will follow through. Seems VERY car-centric there overall, which makes me a tad sad.
Thank you for the mention Reece! We want better service across Southern Ontario and advocating for more frequent rail service in the Waterloo/Guelph region is absolutely a considerable factor in our mission. In the short term, we’ll continue to advocate for what we can do to improve bus services and connections for riders!
Wow… you really lost weight.
Good for you.
☮
1:24 "The University of Waterloo" – That's Laurier in the photo. 🤣
In the late 1990’s there was an hourly two way Greyhound bus from KW to Guelph and onto Toronto. GO is now catching up to what used to exist.
Videos always get the transit juices flowing.
Now look at Oshawa to Peterborough…which is equally needed
BRAMPTON MENTIONED!!!!
"Galt is the center of Cambridge". ** People from Hespler and Preston grab their pitchforks **
We could get this done real fast if we get Doug Ford to have a friend at any of these train companies.
The biggest obstacle to improved public transit in Ontario– and the ROC– are politicians who see it merely as a way to launder public money to their financial contributors in the construction industry. Over time and over budget is a norm that we have been conditioned to accept, where it should result in the dismissal of the civil servants in charge, a banning from government contracts for the contractor, while at the same time triggering a forensic audit by the O.P.P. financial crimes division. If they have one.
1:20 this Laurier campus bud
Those red trains in the video just scream "I'm a Regiobahn."
3:32 But the canopies don't extend out enough to keep you from getting wet when it's raining.
4:22
I hear a lot of fantasies about trains every 15 minutes, but no explanation of how there would be enough demand especially with self-driving (at least on freeways) cars about to hit.
6:33 Battery trains sound like a terrible idea. If you want to convince a skeptic you need much data on the costs.