Fast train proposed for Canada's Toronto-Windsor corridor

Ottawa - 20 May 2017: The government of Canada's most populous province, Ontario, announced Friday plans for a fast train service connecting Toronto to Windsor, across the border from Detroit, Michigan.

An initial Can$15 million (US$11 million) has been earmarked for an environmental assessment of the project, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said.

This follows a feasibility study launched in 2015.

Of the two options examined, the preferred one would see a 365-kilometer (227 miles) electric train corridor built with the help of private funds to accommodate trains moving at speeds of up to 250 kilometers per hour -- cutting the current travel time by more than two hours.

The total cost of this option would be Can$7.5 billion and would include construction of seven train stations, including one at Toronto airport -- the busiest in the country.

The first leg of the route between Toronto and London, Ontario would be completed by 2025, and an extension to Windsor by 2031.

More than 60 percent of Ontario's economic activity takes place along this corridor, which is home to about seven million people, Wynne noted.

Over the past three decades several high speed train lines have been proposed between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. But none were ever acted on.