VIA Rail has responded to a common request at SWOTA public meetings across the region by restoring the connection at London between the two early morning trains to Toronto via Brantford and via Kitchener-Waterloo.
Passengers from Windsor and Chatham can once again reach St. Marys, Stratford, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Guelph before 10 am, making same-day round trips possible. This connection had been lost following federal budget cuts in 2012.
Using both station platforms at London to provide convenient connections increases the number of possible city pairs for passengers at minimal cost, and is an important step in implementing VIA Rail’s vision of London as a hub for Southwestern Ontario, a vision shared in our Network Southwest plan for a fully integrated, easy to use, public transport network.
This will be a boost to regional tourism, and a boon for students at the three universities, as well as providing a vital alternative to driving on the 401 and into Kitchener at rush hour for business trips.
The schedule change also preserves the connection for Sarnia passengers to the Windsor-Toronto train that provides an earlier arrival time in Toronto, one of the first moves VIA Rail made to enhance services in response to suggestions from local passenger advocacy groups.
Recent schedule adjustments to improve connections through Toronto also allow passengers from Southwestern Ontario to reach Ottawa and Montreal up to 90 minutes earlier.