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The Liberal Party is pledging to bring a GO train line to Collingwood, but they haven’t yet laid track on whether the pledge is actually possible.
As part of the provincial Liberals' transit platform released on Sunday, party leader Bonnie Crombie is promising to extend the GO line to a few places currently untouched by the GO map, including a stop in Collingwood.
“Everybody knows we have such poor transit and I hear it at the door all the time,” said Ted Crysler, the Liberal candidate for Simcoe-Grey.
“This is a way to connect people, not only to Barrie, but to Toronto and the greater Toronto and Hamilton area. There's a lot of economic spin-off,” he added. “It's fantastic news for our little area of southern Ontario.”
Touted by the party as “delivering on Doug Ford’s broken transit promises,” the plan would expand GO train service to Brantford, Cambridge via Guelph, Bolton via Vaughan, Collingwood via Barrie, and through Toronto via the Midtown Line. The Allandale Waterfront GO station currently marks the end of the Barrie Line.
The plan also includes suggestions to make transit safer by hiring 300 additional special constables, reopen the London GO extension, bring two-way, all-day GO service to Niagara, Milton, and Kitchener-Waterloo and support a federally funded, high-speed passenger rail between Toronto, Peterborough and Ottawa.
The pledge doesn’t include any information on costing or feasibility. When asked about costing and feasibility, Crysler said the plan would be more flushed out should the Liberals form the next provincial government.
“That would have to come after the election,” he said. “We don't have that level of specificity. I'm just very excited that they're even thinking about it.”
He said the pledge would be a top priority for him should he be elected, as he believes Simcoe-Grey is very disconnected.
“Where there's a will, there's a way. If I'm the MPP, you're going to have a will to get the way,” said Crysler.
When reached on Tuesday regarding the announcement, Progressive Conservative candidate Brian Saunderson said he had no comment on the Liberals' pledge.
Green Party candidate Allan Kuhn said that a GO train line to Collingwood would be an "awesome" endeavour, and notes that the Greens have a fully costed transit platform that pledges to immediately expand all-day, two-way GO service, as well with more frequent trains.
"Collingwood would immediately be connected, along with the rest of the region including small rural communities, with a clean, affordable, accessible inter-city electric bus service," said Kuhn. "We are offering an immediate solution that not only builds community, but offers tangible climate action."
NDP candidate Benten Tinkler did not respond to a request for comment for this story by publication time.