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Niagara housing prices are rising faster than anywhere else in Canada, and the boom looks set to continue in lockstep with improved transportation links to the GTA.

Metrolinx kicked off the GO Train service to the area in January, and it’s been well received by locals such as Dianne Franklin, a life-long resident of St. Catharines, who for nearly 10 years drove to downtown Toronto twice a week to manage special-events catering at a large hotel.

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“I used to rack up 25,000 kilometres a year,” she says, noting the train now allows her to rest or work during the commute. “There’s no place like home, especially when you don’t have to drive there during rush hour.”

She’s not the only one excited about the new service to Stoney Creek, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls, which comes with plans for more frequent trains and a new station in Grimsby. With Metrolinx estimating that Niagara’s population of about 500,000 will more than double by 2041, developers and planning authorities have great expectations for the housing market on the peninsula that extends from Grimsby in the northwest to Fort Erie in the southeast.