by Johathan Sher - LONDON FREE  PRESS  Pssst Londoners: do you want a glimpse of where high-speed rail might go through the city? Location of tracks, number of trains and cost of a ticket: All are laid out in a report on ambitious plans to cut in half the time it takes to go from London to Toronto. “This looks to be an unusually easy route for a high-speed rail line, about as easy as you can get, in fact, both in terms of construction, and community,” wrote Michael Schabas, a rail consultant with First Class Partnerships, whose team wrote the report for Ontario’s Transportation Ministry. Trains should be stored and maintained in London, possible at the Electro-Motive Diesel plant on Oxford St. that closed in 2012, he wrote. Ontario officials announced last week they were sufficiently convinced to take the first major step by conducting an environmental assessment. The assessment may take six years, but in the meantime, the early report has created a buzz at city hall. “High-sp...

It is good news that the Ontario Liberal government are moving forward with high speed rail plans with the Environmental Assessment stage. There is some concern as the press release was done a Friday which is the worst time to get any publicity out of the announcement. Some cynics would say this is another HSR study to add the pile already existing in Ontario. We like to think this announcement is a positive step forward. Steven Del Duca, Minister of Transportation states, “We are moving forward with an environmental assessment process for a high-speed rail line that would connect Windsor, London, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Toronto. The high-speed rail line would improve travel options, reduce travel times and support economic development across the province.” Read the whole press release here - http://news.ontario.ca/mto/en/2014/12/ontario-moving-forward-with-high-speed-rail.html

High Speed Rail Canada is the only source in Canada to obtain all the information relating to high speed rail past and present studies on high speed rail. In October they released the previously unavailable  France national Railway SNCF (Société nationale des chemins de fer français - National society of French railway) and partners on High Speed Rail Socio-Economic Study between Windsor and Quebec City. Now High Speed Rail Canada is going to release FCPWorld Toronto-Kitchener-London High Speed Rail Preliminary Business Plan Study that was completed for the Ministry of Transportation. The study will be released in early November 2014. Like all other studies it will be available on our Google drive link from our website. Then Transportation Minister Glen Murray stated in May 2014, " A proposed high-speed rail link between Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo and London would see 56 trains a day, or 28 each way, with fares around $40, according to Glen Murray, Ontario's Trans...