Source Link: Windsor Star

Tuesday’s federal budget acknowledged the importance of pumping money into Via Rail to make passenger service more comfortable and reliable in Ontario and Quebec.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty promised an additional $407 million in cash to upgrade infrastructure and make the necessary capital improvements.

But he fell woefully short of making the long-term investment in high-speed rail that would put Windsor in the loop, and that’s unfortunate. It has long been accepted that the only logical way to improve rail travel is to create a seamless high-speed route in the corridor from Essex County to Quebec City. Instead, he chose to focus on creating a “triple-track” system between Montreal and Toronto.

Flaherty boasted it would provide for two additional express trains between those two cities and reduce the trip times, “thereby making it possible to travel between these major metropolitan centres in approximately four hours.

“Trip times between Ottawa and Toronto,” he said, “will also be reduced by up to 30 minutes.”

That’s all well and good for those “metropolitan” travellers, but it won’t help those people living in the rest of southwestern Ontario. Nowhere is that oversight more obvious than in Windsor, which sees throngs of travellers from Michigan and Ohio flock to its antiquated station each year.

Those people are eager to explore the sights and sounds along the rail route, often stopping in Stratford and London on their way to Toronto, Montreal and Quebec City. They bring with them plenty of cash and a willingness to spend it.

Ironically, Flaherty acknowledged Windsor as one of Via’s “key” stations, right up there with Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. That tells us someone in the non-partisan rail caucus knows full well how important this area is to creating a quick and efficient rail corridor. There’s no question it should have been included in the project to link together major centres.

And while he did say there would be funds to “modernize” our station, Flaherty did not specify what we could expect. We trust it will be a traveller friendly new one to replace what’s become a tired old eyesore.

Along with this, the government must rethink its infrastructure plan so that it includes high-speed rail — which has been endorsed by the Ontario and Quebec governments. Any modernization project should include upgrading the rail line now, not later.