Metrolinx buys 53-km track section, touts Kitchener GO upgrades

Provincial transportation agency Metrolinxhaspurchased a 53-kilometre section of CN rail track from Kitchener to Georgetown, as well as land in Kitchener for a future layover facility.

The purchase is the next step towards building two-way, all-day GO train service between Kitchener and Toronto.

The section in question runs from Georgetown to Kitchener and is used by GO trains on the Kitchener line. CNRail said in a release it sold the track for $76 million.

MPP Daiene Vernile saidthe purchase allows the Metrolinx to make upgrades to the existing track and control operations.

"Along the track now, we are having to move aside when you have cargo moving along," she said at a Wednesdayannouncement at the Kitchener train station.

"Now that Metrolinx has acquired ...the track between here and Georgetown, it is going to be the passenger trains that take priority."

A section of the Kitchener line between Bramalea and Georgetown is still owned by CN, however.

Metrolinx couldn't say when additional track purchases, includingthe stretch betweenGeorgetown and Bramalea would be made. The agency has committed to doubling current service frequency between Toronto and Kitchener by 2016.

It has also said it will bring all-day two-way GO service to the corridor, although there is still no firm date for when that might be implemented.