KITCHENER — An expansion of GO trains could see faster, two-way commuter service reach Kitchener by 2025, if the province endorses a proposal costing more than $1 billion.

"I'm really encouraged," Waterloo regional chair Karen Redman said. "This is transformative."

Trains currently go in just one direction, toward Toronto early in the day and back from Toronto later. Daily ridership in Kitchener is marginal at fewer than 300 passengers.

Economic promoters argue that frequent, two-way commuter service will move thousands more workers to their jobs, helping to sell investors on the Waterloo Region-Toronto corridor as a technology hub.

"We're trying to attract investment and talent that could settle anywhere in the globe," Redman said.

Metrolinx, the provincial agency that operates GO trains, is to consider the new proposal Nov. 22. It calls for:

• Two trains per hour in weekday peak periods, morning and afternoon, running both ways between the Kitchener station and Union Station in Toronto.

• One train per hour in weekday off-peak periods, running both ways.

• One train every two hours on weekends, running both ways. There are currently no trains on weekends.

Diesel-fueled trains would operate as an express service on faster tracks, shaving 20 minutes off the current two-hour trip between Kitchener and downtown Toronto.

The proposal adds a park-and-ride station near Breslau, east of Kitchener. Trains reaching Kitchener would skip five stations between Bramalea and Union Station.

"Customers will get to where they're going faster, and allow more time for their professional, social and recreational activities," states a business case for the proposal.

The expansion needs five years to complete and could open in stages. It could launch by 2025, pending approvals.

"We're looking at it as good news," said Art Sinclair, vice-president of the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce. "We've always said we wanted a firm plan with timelines."

Providing commuter trains to move more workers between here and Toronto is "a significant economic development opportunity," he said. "It's going to make the Waterloo Region-Toronto corridor a leading global centre for innovation and knowledge economy-based research."

Planners estimate local ridership on GO trains would soar to just over 3,000 daily passengers by 2031.

That's up from just 282 daily passengers using the Kitchener station today, a ridership that accounts for only two per cent of passengers at 11 stops on the commuter line.

Most future passengers would use a new park-and-ride station near Breslau, a facility proposed but not built when GO trains launched in downtown Kitchener in 2011.

The plan at that time was to build 700 parking spaces just east of Breslau, on Greenhouse Road near Highway 7, and eventually expand to 1,050 parking spaces.

Redman and Sinclair see the proposed Breslau station as essential. They expect ridership to grow as commuter trains get faster and more frequent.

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"People take public transit when it goes where they want to go, when they want to go, and at a price they feel is justified," Redman said.

Sinclair figures a connection could be made between a future GO station and the Waterloo regional airport. Both would be near Breslau.

Freight and passenger trains would continue to share tracks under new terms to be negotiated with railway firm CN, which owns part of the track on the route.

Planners are asking Metrolinx to reject an alternate plan to separate freight and passenger trains. This would have been achieved by building a 30-kilometre bypass for freight trains between Bramalea and Georgetown.

While this separation would provide greater control and reliability for commuters, costs are higher and the project is more difficult.

The Progressive Conservative government said last year it intends to shelve the bypass option, estimated at $3.7 billion to launch plus a further $1.1 billion to maintain and operate over 60 years.

By comparison, the new plan estimates launch costs at $927 million to buy land and upgrade tracks and facilities. A further $970 million would be spent over six decades on operations and maintenance.

Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney is looking forward to recommendations from Metrolinx to provide more service, a spokesperson said.

Passenger revenue would pay a fraction of expansion costs, providing Metrolinx with a poor financial return. But the proposal is deemed to provide broader social benefits that are worth its costs.

These benefits include economic, environmental and safety gains for drivers, transit passengers and the public.

Along with a new Breslau-area station, the proposal requires upgrades to tracks, crossings and grade separations on tracks owned by CN and by Metrolinx. This includes additional passing tracks, better drainage and better crossings.

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