Ontario’s new transportation minister has said she will make it a priority to look into bringing GO train service to her home riding, despite the fact ridership on the existing GO bus line there is the lowest in the region, and logistical challenges make upgrading to rail service a distant possibility.

Hours after being appointed to lead the ministry Wednesday, Kathryn McGarry told the Waterloo Region Record that as one of her first orders of business she would examine the possibility of extending GO train service to Cambridge, in the riding she has represented as Liberal MPP since the 2014 election.

“I am looking forward to having that as one of my first briefings; I think the team here is aware that is something that I want to dig down into the details and see what the updated news will be,” she said.

Cambridge’s leaders have long advocated for a GO train stop in the city, which has a population of about 135,000. Current GO rail service on the Milton corridor stops in Milton, roughly 40 kilometres to the east, and local leaders believe Cambridge is underserved compared to nearby municipalities like Waterloo and Guelph.

The push has the support of Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig, who signalled his belief that having the MPP from his hometown at the helm the transportation ministry could improve the city’s chances of landing a new station.

Craig called McGarry the morning news of her appointment broke, and later in the day posted a photo to Twitter of a toy GO train and a handwritten note above it that read “Hope.”

“What it means for Cambridge is that we now have the strongest advocate we can have in terms of transportation issues,” Craig told the Record of McGarry’s appointment, adding that “the major thing on the plate for all of us . . . is the GO train expansion to Cambridge.”

GO Transit is run by Metrolinx, an arms-length agency that reports to McGarry’s ministry. Since 2016, it has operated a GO bus service between Cambridge and Milton, with 12 trips a day timed to connect with train service at Milton station.

According to a Metrolinx spokesperson, the bus service is the lowest performing route on the GO network. Average weekday ridership is 55 people, with 1,200 passengers using the service each month. A month’s worth of riders would not be enough to fill a single GO train, which has a capacity of up to 2,000 people.

While advocates for a Cambridge GO train station contend upgrading the bus line to rail would increase demand, a major obstacle is that the Canadian Pacific Railway owns the track on the Milton corridor and uses it for frequent freight service.

Metrolinx has an agreement with the company to operate GO trains as far as Milton, but not farther west. Until a new freight corridor is built that would allow freight service to be shifted off the Milton line, Metrolinx says it is “quite limited regarding expansion.”

Metrolinx did not include the Milton line or a potential Cambridge station in its extensive $13.5-billion Regional Express Rail (RER) GO expansion program, which will see more frequent service, electrified service, and more stations on most of the network’s lines.

In response to the Star’s questions about why the minister believes studying Cambridge GO train service should be a priority, a spokesperson said in an email that “as the MPP for Cambridge, the minister has already received numerous questions — including from reporters — on the topic of GO service to Cambridge. Naturally, she wants to be properly briefed on the topic.”

“All potential investment decisions are made according to evidence and business-case analysis,” he wrote.

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McGarry’s predecessor Steven Del Duca faced criticism after the Star revealed his ministry had interfered to pressure Metrolinx into changing the outcome of agency reports to recommend building a $100-million station in his riding of Vaughan.

As part of the cabinet shuffle that saw McGarry moved from the ministry of natural resources, Premier Kathleen Wynne appointed Del Duca minister of economic development.

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