More GO trains 'not a real solution:' Thalmic CEO Stephen Lake

A prominent Waterloo Region technology magnate is slamming the Ontario Liberal government's efforts to establisha more robust commuter train service betweenKitchener andToronto, saying it's taking the government too long to build a service that doesn't even live up to the current needsof local people and business.

"I'm worried about this project now inspending so long to achieve what willnot be thatuseful for anybody," Thalmic Labs CEO Stephen Lake told The Morning Edition host Craig Norris Wednesday.

"We're talking about this intermediate step to be a big, huge thing to celebrate," he said. "Two-way all-day GO train service, again, is still two-hour train service, which really doesn't help the whole link between Toronto. You might as well hop on the 401 for a two-hour drive."

"We need trains that are going to bea reasonable time to get back and forth. Four hours each day if you're commuting back and forth, that's crazy."

Two-way GO stymied again

Lake's comments come afterKitchenerCentre Liberal MPPDaieneVernilesaid Monday that the two-way, all-day GO train service originallypromised by the Liberals by 2019, likely wouldn't be a reality until at least 2026 because of an ongoing dispute between the province and the Canadian National Railway over the use of company-owned track.

• Two-wayKitchenerGO train service thwarted by 30 km of track

It's the latest setback for a service that's long been on the wish list of local businesses and politicians, including former KitchenerMayor Carl Zehr who welcomedthe Liberal announcement as a "game-changer."

• All-day, 2-way GO train service from Waterloo Region to Toronto coming, says premier

"Not more incubators...not more talent programs... let's have proper transit to Toronto-Stephen Lake

"Probably the number onegovernmentalproblem we hear from startups here about what can the government do to help, it's not more incubators, it's not more talent programs, it's let's have proper transit to Toronto," Lakesaid Wednesday.

Lake said what exacerbates the situation is that the province has so far only provided GO train service from Kitchener to Toronto and not the other way around, which is what Waterloo Region startups are really after.

"It doesn't help the businesses here because the real problem we have is, how do we get the people we have from Toronto toKitchenerfor the companies in the region," he said.

Time the real toll on the 401

"It's a challenge keeping those people when they spend three hours a day on the road keeping them productive, motivated. They love working here, but it takes a toll when you're sitting on that 401 day-in, day-out."

"Toronto might as well be New York," he said. "Because when it's an hour and a half, two hours away it's a whole different city."

Lake said the province needs a reasonable goal that's what he calls "a real solution."

"That goal should be real solution which is not two-way, all-dayGO. It's how do we have a reasonably high speed link from Toronto to Kitchener-Waterloo, two-way, in a reasonable time frame."