GO Expansion, previously known as GO Regional Express Rail (RER), is a project to improve

GO Transit GO Transit is a regional public transit system serving the Greater Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. With its hub at Union Station in Toronto, GO Transit's green-and-white trains and buses serve a population of more than seven millio ...

train service by adding all-day, two-way service to the inner portions of the

Barrie line Barrie is one of the seven train lines of the GO Transit system in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Union Station in Toronto in a generally northward direction to Barrie, and includes ten stations along its route. From ...

Kitchener line Kitchener is one of the seven train lines of the GO Transit system in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It extends westward from Union Station in Toronto to Kitchener, though most trains originate and terminate in Brampton in off-peak ...

and the Stouffville line, and by increasing frequency of train service on various lines to every 15 minutes or better on five of the corridors. This would be achieved with the electrification of at least part of the

Lakeshore East line Lakeshore East is one of the seven commuter rail lines of GO Transit in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Union Station in Toronto to in Durham Region. Buses from Oshawa connect to communities further east in Newcastle, B ...

Lakeshore West line Lakeshore West is one of the seven train lines of the GO Transit system in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Union Station in Toronto to Hamilton, with occasional trips extending to St. Catharines and Niagara Falls. Hi ...

, Barrie line, Kitchener line and Stouffville line. GO Expansion is one of the Big Move rapid transit projects. With GO Expansion, GO Transit will increase the number of train trips per week from 1,500 (as of 2015) to about 2,200 by 2020 and expand to 10,500 weekly trips upon completion. Most of the extra trips will be in off-peak hours and on weekends. The expanded services, new infrastructure and electrification is projected to roll out in phases between 2025 and 2030. The 10-year regional express rail plan will cost $13.5 billion and will require of new track, including new bridges and tunnels.

History

Background

GO Transit has historically offered two-way, all-day service along its

Lakeshore East Lakeshore East is a master-planned mixed use urban development being built by the Magellan Development Group in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located in the northeastern part of the Loop, wh ...

and

s, while only providing peak rush hour service on its other lines. ''The Big Move'' outlined the building of express and regional rail service improvements across the existing GO Transit network. Other improvements included extensions to

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

and

Bowmanville Bowmanville is a town of approximately 40,000 people located in the Municipality of Clarington, Durham Region, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately east of Toronto, and east of Oshawa along Highway 2. Bowmanville was first incorporated as a to ...

, as well as new GO Transit corridors to

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

, Seaton and Locust Hill. As part of the

2011 Ontario general election The 2011 Ontario general election was held on October 6, 2011, to elect members of the 40th Legislative Assembly of Ontario. The Ontario Liberal Party was elected to a minority government, with the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Pa ...

, Ontario premier

Dalton McGuinty Dalton James Patrick McGuinty Jr. (born July 19, 1955) is a former Canadian politician who served as the 24th premier of Ontario from 2003 to 2013. He was the first Liberal leader to win two majority governments since Mitchell Hepburn nea ...

also made a campaign pledge to provide two-way, all-day train service on all corridors. This vision of two-way, full-day train service on all corridors eventually included

electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...

of the system and was renamed Regional Express Rail. As part of the Phase 2 announcement, Metrolinx stated that the Kitchener and Lakeshore lines would be electrified, as well as the Union Pearson Express. With GO Expansion, Metrolinx expects to nearly triple ridership to 175 million riders per year by about 2031 from 65.7 million in 2015.

GO Expansion

On March 31, 2017, the federal government announced it would contribute $1.9 billion of the estimated $13.5 billion cost of GO Expansion. The

will receive at least $750 million of the federal funding for infrastructure upgrades including of new track. The

, Lakeshore East line, and Lakeshore West line will share the balance of the federal funding for upgrades and of new track. On February 23, 2022, Metrolinx announced that the preferred bidder for the contract was ONxpress Transportation Partners, a consortium that includes

Aecon Aecon Group Inc. is a construction company in Canada, providing services to private and public sector clients across its three core segments of Infrastructure, Industrial, and Concessions. Aecon produces construction materials including asphal ...

FCC Construcción The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avelia ...

, and

Deutsche Bahn The (; abbreviated as DB or DB AG) is the national railway company of Germany. Headquartered in the Bahntower in Berlin, it is a joint-stock company ( AG). The Federal Republic of Germany is its single shareholder. describes itself as the se ...

, among others. Under its $1.6-billion contract, ONxpress will complete Phase 1 of the GO Expansion project, which includes designing key infrastructure such as signalling systems and upgrades to

Hydro One Hydro One Limited is an electricity transmission and distribution utility serving the Canadian province of Ontario. Hydro One traces its history to the early 20th century and the establishment of the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario ( ...

power infrastructure. Phase 1 also includes determining the full scope of the project. The consortium will also start construction for grade separations at rail and road crossings. The contract was finalized on April 19, 2022; Alstom announced it will be implementing the European Rail Traffic Management System for the signalling on the upgraded network, the first use of that standard in North America.

Electrification

GO Expansion goals would be achieved with the electrification of core sections of the GO Transit train system while also expanding the use of diesel service in others, as follows: * The

between

Aldershot Aldershot () is a town in Hampshire, England. It lies on heathland in the extreme northeast corner of the county, southwest of London. The area is administered by Rushmoor Borough Council. The town has a population of 37,131, while the Alders ...

and

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

* The

between

Oshawa Oshawa ( , also ; 2021 population 175,383; CMA 415,311) is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of Downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the G ...

and Union Station * The

between Bramalea and Union Station, including the

Union Pearson Express The Union Pearson Express (UP Express or UPX) is an airport rail link connecting Union Station in Downtown Toronto to Toronto Pearson International Airport. The UP Express began operation on 6 June 2015, in time for the 2015 Pan American Games. ...

service * The

between Allandale Waterfront (Barrie) and Union Station * The Stouffville line between Old Elm and Union Station With electrification, service on the Lakeshore West line could possibly be as frequent as every three-and-a-half minutes during peak periods. GO Expansion will operate 4-car, bi-level

electric multiple unit An electric multiple unit or EMU is a multiple-unit train consisting of self-propelled carriages using electricity as the motive power. An EMU requires no separate locomotive, as electric traction motors are incorporated within one or a numbe ...

(EMU) sets which would be coupled to form 8- and 12-car trains. To reduce

operating cost Operating costs or operational costs, are the expenses which are related to the operation of a business, or to the operation of a device, component, piece of equipment or facility. They are the cost of resources used by an organization just to main ...

s, smaller 4-car trains will run during periods of lighter demand, such as on weekends. GO Transit's existing fleet of unpowered bi-level cars will be used to operate many peak services but will be pulled by electric locomotives, in a similar manner to

SEPTA Regional Rail The SEPTA Regional Rail system is a commuter rail network owned by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority and serving the Philadelphia Metropolitan area. The system has 13 branches and more than 150 active stations in Philadelphi ...

. EMUs cost less to operate than 12-car diesel trains and have faster acceleration. Journey times can be reduced significantly with

electric traction A railway electrification system supplies electric power to railway trains and trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply. Electric railways use either electric locomotives (hauling passengers or freight in separate cars), ele ...

depending on the route, stopping pattern, and equipment. Because electric trains can accelerate and decelerate faster at stations, trip times could be reduced on average by 10 minutes with a maximum reduction of up to 20 to 30 minutes. The electrified network will ultimately extend to , with six

traction substation A traction substation, traction current converter plant, rectifier station or traction power substation (TPSS) is an electrical substation that converts electric power from the form provided by the electrical power industry for public utility ...

s and 11 traction distribution facilities (switching or parallelling stations). construction for the electrification of lines is to begin in 2023, with partial implementation in 2025 and 2026 and full completion in 2032. The project entails the electrification of over of track, including of new track.

Proposed frequencies

In 2022, Metrolinx estimated that with GO Expansion, GO Transit would have the ability to run up to three times more trains than the 3,500 trains per week it ran in 2019. The busiest routes could operate between 8 and 18 trains per hour. Trains at GO stations such as Exhibition, Bloor and East Harbour could have a frequency of every 3 minutes and a 5-minute frequency at stations such as

Burlington Burlington may refer to: Places Canada Geography * Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador * Burlington, Nova Scotia * Burlington, Ontario, the most populous city with the name "Burlington" * Burlington, Prince Edward Island * Burlington Bay, no ...

and Pickering. Evening and weekend service could be as frequent as every 6 to 15 minutes. The following more modest frequencies were projected in 2015.

Two-way all-day service

GO Expansion will see many sections of GO train lines receiving two-way all-day service. Sections proposed to get two-way all-day 15-minute or better are: * Lakeshore West line between Burlington and Union Station * Lakeshore East line between Oshawa and Union Station * Kitchener line between Bramalea and Union Station * Barrie line between

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

and Union Station * Stouffville line between Unionville and Union Station Sections proposed to get two-way all-day 30-minute service are: * Kitchener line between Mount Pleasant and Union Station (every 15 minutes in peak period) Sections proposed to get two-way all-day 60-minute service are: * Lakeshore West line between West Harbour and Union Station (already in effect since August 7, 2021) * Lakeshore West line between Hamilton GO Centre and Union Station * Kitchener line between Kitchener and Union Station (every 30 minutes in peak period) * Barrie line between Allandale Waterfront (Barrie) and Union Station * Stouffville line between Mount Joy (Markham) and Union Station

Peak direction service

Go Expansion will also see more frequent weekday, peak-direction service on the following routes: * Every 15 minutes on the Lakeshore West line between Hamilton GO Centre and Union Station * Every 15 minutes on the

Milton line The Milton line is one of the seven train lines of the GO Transit system in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Union Station in Toronto to Milton, by way of Mississauga. History The Canadian Pacific Railway strongly ...

* Every 30 minutes on the Barrie line between Allandale Waterfront (Barrie) and Union Station * Every 15 minutes on the

Richmond Hill line Richmond Hill is one of the seven train lines of the GO Transit system in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It operates between Union Station in Toronto to Bloomington GO Station in the north in Richmond Hill. Trains on the line opera ...

* Every 20 minutes on the Stouffville line between Old Elm and Union Station

Express service

Stations between Oakville and Hamilton on the Lakeshore West line, between Bramalea and Kitchener on the Kitchener line, and between Pickering and Oshawa on the Lakeshore East line are proposed to receive express service to and from Union Station.

Signalling

As part of GO Expansion, Metrolinx will deploy

ERTMS The European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS) is the system of standards for management and interoperation of signalling for railways by the European Union (EU). It is conducted by the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA) and is the ...

level 1 in order to provide more frequent service, marking the first implementation of ERTMS in North America.

New stations

Metrolinx plans to build several new stations as part of GO Expansion, including , , , , and .

SmartTrack

SmartTrack started out as a proposed Regional Express Rail surface service to run mostly within the City of Toronto. It was proposed by

John Tory John Howard Tory (born May 28, 1954) is a Canadian politician who has served as the 65th and current mayor of Toronto since 2014. After a career as a lawyer, political strategist and businessman, Tory ran as a mayoral candidate in the 2003 ...

during his successful mayoral campaign in 2014. The SmartTrack proposal depends on electrification of the Stouffville and Kitchener corridors where SmartTrack service would run. As a part of the agreement reached between Metrolinx and the City of Toronto, five stations will be built within the City of Toronto and are expected to open by 2026; these are , , (Liberty Village), East Harbour, and .