Former federal transportation minister David Collenette to lead Ontario's high-speed rail project
The former Liberal cabinet minister was named a special adviser for the project in 2015
Former federal transportation minister, David Collenette will take the lead to bring high-speed rail to Ontario.
Ontario Transport Minister Kathryn McGarry and Kitchener Centre MPP Daiene Vernile announced Tuesday that Collenette will chair the provincial government's high-speed advisory team.
This comes as work is set to begin on a $15 million-dollar environmental assessment to study the feasibility of high-speed rail between Kitchener-Waterloo and London this spring.
That assessment is expected to take 18 months to two years to complete.
"As a country, we have to realize that this is the way the world is going", Collenette told CBC Radio's Afternoon Drive.
"You build these high-speed rail links not because it's the fashionable thing to do. It's because it's the most economical way to move high volumes of people quickly. And the economic development that that spurs is incredible."
The first high-speed rail line between London and Toronto could be running by 2025, with the London-to-Windsor connection to follow by 2031.
Collenette expects train fare to cost 20 per cent more than existing rail options in Southwestern Ontario.
Before being appointed the project lead, Collenette has served as a special advisor to the high-speed rail advisory team since 2015.
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