Mississauga’s mayor-elect says bringing long-awaited new GO train service to the city is among his top priorities as he prepares to take office next month.
Tens of thousands of Mississauga residents and workers and thousands more in Milton have been waiting years for expanded train service on a key GO line serving both municipalities.
Two-way, all-day train service along the Milton GO route, which includes stops at a number of Mississauga stations en route to Toronto and back again, appeared to be closer to reality with word from Ontario Premier Doug Ford in early 2024 that the province was firmly behind the plan.
In pledging his government’s support at the time for the enhanced GO train service in Mississauga and Milton, Ford called on the federal government “to be a full funding partner” in the initiative.
Ottawa did come to the table in 2021 with a commitment to fund 50 per cent of the estimated $1-billion Milton GO improvement plan.
However, the project remains in the discussion stage and a funding agreement has yet to be worked out.
Following his decisive mayoral victory on Monday night, Mississauga mayor-elect Alvin Tedjo (he’ll be sworn in Nov. 16) pledged at a press conference Tuesday morning to aggressively pursue the Milton GO line expansion.
“We need to make sure that we’re getting funding for two-way, all-day GO here in the city of Mississauga along the Milton line,” Tedjo told reporters and residents at Celebration Square, adding “we have a lot of municipal priorities that we’re going to advance … (there are a) lot of things we need to be talking to the provincial government about.”
Tedjo said numerous times during a hotly contested mayoral campaign that Mississauga residents are pounding the table for better transit services in addition to lower taxes, safer neighbourhoods and affordability in their daily lives.
Back in early 2024, Ontario government officials tabled significant GO train expansion plans that “will deliver all-day, two-way GO rail service along the Milton GO rail corridor by building a fully separated passenger rail line.
“The Milton GO rail corridor is the fourth-busiest line on the GO network and serves as a vital transit connection between Milton, Mississauga and the rest of the Greater Golden Horseshoe,” the province added at the time.
Also part of the plan, the province said, is to reinstate train trips, improve stations with new customer amenities (such as expanding the south parking lot and a pedestrian bridge at Milton GO station) and advance the planning and design work to support future two-way, all-day service.
“Everyone in Ontario deserves access to reliable transit options that connect them to good-paying jobs and housing,” Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria said at the time, adding Milton GO rail corridor improvements are “essential next steps in our mission to get commuters where they need to go, when they need to be there.”
Nearly one year later, in January 2025, the province asked its transit agency, Metrolinx, to massively expand GO train service in southern Ontario.
Premier Ford and Sarkaria released a letter at that time to Metrolinx asking the agency to “explore the next generation of GO passenger train” service in the Greater Golden Horseshoe area. Calling the proposal — a long-standing one frequently floated by the City of Mississauga — GO 2.0, the province asked Metrolinx to work towards converting train lines currently used for freight to passenger rail.
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