It’s full speed ahead for Ontario’s proposed high-speed rail system, but with early plans for the Kitchener-to-London leg continuing to divide the region’s voters, the issue could be a central theme in the looming provincial election, at least in Southwestern Ontario.

The province kicked off a $15-million study of the impacts of laying down high-speed rail lines between Kitchener and London, the next phase of a plan one expert called “a winning issue for the government.”

The Toronto-to-Windsdor rail corridor is a lifeline for Southwestern Ontario, but rural voters have raised concerns rail lines will carve up their communities and stall emergency vehicles.

Despite the backlash from the region’s Tory strongholds, Zac Spicer, a political scientist with the University of Toronto’s Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance, said it’s easy for opposition parties to back the initial study of high-speed rail.

The Progressive Conservatives “can take a proactive but cautious approach and say ‘we’re going to keep studying this thing, but we’re going to make sure it works for everyone.’ They have a little more street cred out there to say ‘we understand your ridings better than the Liberals do,’ ” Spicer said.

Ontario voters head to the polls in three months, and the Progressive Conservative party is days away from choosing its new leader.

The proposed hihg-speed rail system would make London to Toronto a 73-minute trip as early as 2025. The corridor could be extended to Windsor by about 2031, during a second building phase.

Between Kitchener-Waterloo to Toronto, high-speed rail would use existing track built for GO Transit. The provincial Ministry of Transportation is in talks with Metrolinx for that part of the route, but it won’t take the same kind of investigation as London, where there is no infrastructure for high-speed rail.

Four rural communities in Southwestern Ontario — including one in Middlesex County and two in Oxford County — have urged the province to look at alternatives, including “high performance rail” that would use passenger rail lines and allow vehicles to cross the tracks.

Kelly Elliott, a Thames Centre councillor who’s part of a steering group formed by the four rural areas, said the goal isn’t to kill high-speed rail altogether.

“We know that using high-­performance rail or high-frequency rail or enhanced Via would provide the same benefit for the city of London but won’t impact our rural communities and small towns . . . like high-speed rail.”

The Liberals have championed high-speed rail before, including around the time of the last provincial election, Spicer said.

“It’s a vote-getter for the Liberals.”

mstacey@postmedia.com

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High-speed rail