'Urgent need' to improve transit options in Cambridge, mayor tells province

Cambridge Mayor Jan Liggett has told the province there's an "urgent need for improved transportation alternatives" to and from her city and Waterloo region as a whole.

In a letter to Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria last month, Liggett said "the high level of congestion and the ongoing collisions on Highway 401 around Cambridge" are having a "major impact" on people getting to and from her city.

She said it's deterring people from visiting Cambridge for meetings and pleasure.

"This, in turn, is having a major economic impact," Liggett said in the letter.

"Improved inter-municipal transit options as well as the much-needed expanded rail service would help mitigate this situation," Liggett's letter said.

Liggett asks the province to look at extending GO train service on the Milton line to Cambridge and, because that wouldn't happen immediately, to provide direct Cambridge-to-Toronto GO bus service in the interim.

"There is a current multi-stop 2.5 hour route you can take to get to Toronto, which is not ideal for commuting," Liggett said, adding when Greyhound stopped operating buses in the area in 2021, it meant people who rely on buses had no other alternative but to take the lengthy GO bus rides to get to Toronto.

GO train advocacy in the city

This isn't the first time GO train service has been raised with the province. Previous mayor Doug Craig also advocated for GO train service to Cambridge. In a 2017 interview, Craig told CBC News he was "very discouraged" that the city had been advocating for GO trains for 15 years "and right now, we're on nobody's radar."

It's an issue local author and historian Paul Langan recently looked at in a self-published report on his website. Langan has used GO trains to go into Toronto but says he has to drive to the Aldershot station to catch one. His report looked at the last 40 years of GO train advocacy in the city.

Cambridge is "one of the largest cities in Ontario," he said, and "we're the only one with no transit into Toronto, let alone rail transit."

"It's just gotten to almost a ludicrous point," he said.

Langan says after reviewing past studies into the issue, he thinks it's a lack of political will.

"It didn't matter who our elected members of [provincial] parliament was or who the premier of the province was, it hasn't happened," he said.

"What's most frustrating now is we have a government that's a majority. They can just announce it … and say let's do it. But now there's more silence than ever."

Government improving Kitchener GO line

While Liggett's letter suggested extending the Milton GO line to Cambridge, the more feasible option that's been raised in recent years is connecting Cambridge to Guelph through something called the Fergus subdivision. It's a CN-owned line that is currently used for freight transport, but Langan says it's infrequent.

The Region of Waterloo started a study in 2021 to look at this potential link.

Connecting Cambridge to the Guelph train station would then give riders access to the Kitchener GO line, which has trains into Toronto on weekday mornings, and then two-way trains in the afternoon and evening.

CBC News reached out to Metrolinx and the Ministry of Transportation about the request by Liggett.

Metrolinx deferred to answers from the ministry. Ministry spokesperson Dakota Brasier did not directly answer questions about whether the province is considering GO trains for Cambridge.

Instead, Brasier's email noted the government has invested in public transit, including "more than $500 million toward expanding and improving service on the Kitchener line."

"Additional work is already underway to expand the Kitchener line for two-way, all-day rail service," Brasier wrote.

Region looks at options

The Region of Waterloo is preparing to host public information sessions early in the next year to get feedback on a new infrastructure proposal to connect Cambridge and Guelph by train, regional Chair Karen Redman told CBC News.

"This connection between Cambridge and Milton has been explored in 2014 and 2021. So we're looking at making a business case now between Cambridge and downtown Guelph through the Fergus subdivision and that'll connect a Kitchener GO line," Redman said.

"We're looking at the connectivity and several options none of this is new, but we're going to move forward with the business case."

Redman said in the past the region had good conversations with the province about improving the Kitchener GO line with Caroline Mulroney, who was the transportation minister until this past September.

Redman has yet to have a one-on-one conversation with Sarkaria, but says while the region has seen "more significant movement on two-way, all-day GO then in previous governments … we're not where we should be."

"We need more trains, we need more frequent trains and we need trains that both bring talent into the region and take people from the region to Toronto corridor if they want to go that way," Redman said. 

"It's the two-way aspect. It's very important for us. We hear it from employers all the time and it is part of one of the tools in our economic vibrancy kit."

She added the region believes now is a good time to add a connection to Cambridge given the improvements being made to the Kitchener GO line.

"We believe there's a higher potential for ridership to and from midline stations, in particular between Cambridge and Guelph," Redman added. "We're looking at the investments that have already been made by the province and GO to say, this will be an economic boom."