Lakeshore West line

The Lakeshore West line is one of the seven passenger rail lines of the GO Transit system in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada. It extends from Union Station in Toronto to Hamilton, along the shore of Lake Ontario. Some train trips extend past Hamilton to St. Catharines and Niagara Falls. It is the busiest of all the lines in the GO system. The first train, numbered 946 left at 5:50 am from Oakville bound for Toronto, ten minutes before service began out of Pickering. During the three-year experiment, all day GO Train service ran hourly from Oakville to Pickering with limited rush hour train service to Hamilton. The experiment proved to be extremely popular; GO Transit carried a million riders during its first four months, and averaged 15,000 per day soon after.

Service began running west from Union, stopping at Mimico, Long Branch, Port Credit, Lorne Park, Clarkson, and Oakville. Rush-hour trains ran to Bronte, Burlington and Hamilton, at the former CN railway station at James Street.

GO trains started serving the Canadian National Exhibition in August 1967 from an older platform just west of the Dufferin Street bridge over the Lakeshore West line and the Queen Elizabeth Way. For the 1968 Exhibition season, temporary booths were set up to handle passengers, which topped 24,000 on the season's busiest day. This prompted the need for a proper station with additional capacity, and by the 1968 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, the current Exhibition GO Station was built and put in service.

A third track was added between Sixteen Mile creek and the Port Credit station. Combined with additional work undertaken since the early 1990s, this gives the Lakeshore West line at least three tracks from Union Station through to Bayview Junction.

In 2009 as a pilot project, GO began operating express trains to Via Rail stations in St. Catharines and Niagara Falls on weekends and holidays during Niagara Region's busy summer tourist season. The service was provided again during the 2010 season, and was officially made permanently recurring starting in 2011. In 2019, the weekend express service began operating year-round, and on May 23, 2023, year-round weekday service to Niagara Falls was enhanced, with two additional round trips per day to Niagara Falls.

West Harbour GO Station opened in July 2015, serving as a second Hamilton terminus for rush-hour train service. In August 2021, all-day service was extended to this station.

On January 7, 2019, one weekday round-trip was extended beyond West Harbour station to Niagara Falls.

On April 28, 2024 as part of a larger increase in GO Train service, Metrolinx introduced 15-minute weekend service from Oakville GO and Union Station.

Service

thumb|A Lakeshore West westbound train past [[Exhibition GO Station|Exhibition at the Roncesvalles pedestrian bridge]]

On weekdays, local service operates every 30 minutes east of Aldershot and every 60 minutes at West Harbour. In addition, eleven daily express trains operate during peak and off-peak periods, of which four operate between Toronto and Hamilton GO Centre,

Route 15 connects Aldershot to Brantford, via McMaster University
Route 16 provides regular express service directly between Hamilton GO Centre and Union Station
Route 18 consists of various service patterns between Hamilton and Union Station

Future

As part of the 2008 Metrolinx regional transportation plan entitled The Big Move, the agency identified an express all-day service between Hamilton and Oshawa (via Toronto Union) as one of its top 15 priorities. This project, formally dubbed GO Expansion is expected to reduce some trip times by 20%.

GO Expansion will involve electrifying the Lakeshore West line up to Burlington GO Station, and introduce electrified rail services that will operate up to every 3.5 minutes during peak hour, as well as expanding off-peak service beyond Aldershot GO Station into Hamilton and beyond to Niagara Falls. GO Expansion also involves upgrading multiple stations to include enhanced passenger accommodations, as well as raising the platforms at all GO Stations on the line to be the same height as the coaches, removing the need to step up into the coach and making all sections of the trains accessible.

In early 2019, Niagara Falls, New York officials expressed interest in having GO Transit expand rail service over the border to the Niagara Falls station in New York. Metrolinx stated that there are specific restrictions when a train leaves Ontario, or any province in Canada, that require a different set of inspection criteria and standards in order to legally enter the United States which would make a stop at the station difficult.

In June 2020, Metrolinx released a business case for a proposed station near Humber Bay, named Park Lawn GO Station. The station will be integrated with a residential development being constructed at the same time.

Niagara Region

Metrolinx is currently planning to expand rail service between Hamilton and Niagara Falls. The project includes three new stations, two upgraded stations, and more than 25 kilometres of new track.

In 2015, Confederation GO Station (in East Hamilton, near Stoney Creek) was announced with a completion date of 2019. Construction on the rail station began in 2022 and opened in 2025.

In June 2016, Ontario Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca announced that regular service would be extended to Grimsby, with the Grimsby GO Station expected to open in 2021. In 2023, enhanced service was then-expected to begin to the St. Catharines and Niagara Falls Via Rail stations which will be upgraded to support increased GO service. Ahead of the 2025 Ontario general election, all major political parties promised to build the Grimsby GO station if elected.

In March 2022, Metrolinx released an initial business case for a proposed Beamsville GO Station within the Town of Lincoln. It would be located on the west side of Ontario Street in Beamsville along the rail line. Metrolinx expects the proposed station would increase GO Transit ridership by 48,000 trips annually by 2041 including 7,000 to 8,000 tourists annually. The proposed station could possibly include customer parking, a pick-up and drop-off area, bicycle parking, and an area for local and regional public transit buses.

Ownership

In order to facilitate service expansions, GO Transit's parent agency Metrolinx has gradually acquired portions of the Lakeshore West corridor from the freight railway companies Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC). Most of the Lakeshore West line operates along the Oakville subdivision, which was entirely owned by CN prior to 1998.

On March 31, 2010, GO acquired its first segment of the Oakville subdivision, between Union Station and 30th Street in Etobicoke (just west of GO's Willowbrook Rail Maintenance Facility). On March 27, 2012, GO purchased a second segment immediately to the west, extending its ownership to a point just west of Fourth Line in Oakville. On March 22, 2013, Metrolinx purchased a third segment extending its ownership westward to a point just west of Burlington station, where the CN Halton Subdivision joins the line.

In addition to the Union Station Rail Corridor, these three segments represent Metrolinx's current ownership of the line. CN continues to own the tracks between Burlington and the Desjardins Canal, as well as the Grimsby subdivision that carries trains into Niagara Region. CPKC owns the tracks between the Desjardins Canal and Hamilton GO Centre.

Station list

Most off-peak local trains, as well as some peak trains, continue as part of the Lakeshore East line after stopping at Union Station, with no train change required.

{| class="wikitable"

! colspan="2"| Service legend

| Local

| Operates at all times

| Peak express

| Operates on weekday peak periods in the peak direction

| Off-peak express

| Operates outside of peak periods

{| class="wikitable"

! rowspan="2"|Station

! rowspan="2"|Municipality

! colspan="3"|Services

! rowspan="2"|Connections

! rowspan="2"|Notes

! Local !! Peak express !! Off-peak express

| Union

| rowspan="4" | Toronto

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

| Canadian/Corridor/Maple Leaf TTC

|Through service to the Lakeshore East line

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

|style="background:#; text-align: center"||

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

| TTC

| Future connection to Ontario Line

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

|style="background:#; text-align: center"||

| TTC

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

|style="background:#; text-align: center"||

| TTC MiWay

| rowspan="2" |Mississauga

| style="background:#; text-align: center" |

| style="background:#; text-align: center" |<nowiki>|</nowiki>

| style="background:#; text-align: center" |

| MiWay

| Future connection to Hurontario LRT

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

|style="background:#; text-align: center"||

| MiWay Oakville Transit

|rowspan=2| Oakville

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

| Corridor/Maple Leaf Oakville Transit

|Rail service every 15 minutes runs east of this station

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

|style="background:#; text-align: center"||

| Oakville Transit

|rowspan=3| Burlington

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

|style="background:#; text-align: center"||

| Burlington Transit Oakville Transit

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

| Burlington Transit

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

| Corridor/Maple Leaf Burlington Transit Hamilton Street Railway

|Rail service every 30 minutes runs east of this station

|rowspan=3| Hamilton

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

| Hamilton Street Railway

| Terminus of Hamilton branch Bus service only during off-peak, future pedestrian connection to Hamilton LRT

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

| Hamilton Street Railway

| Rail service every 60 minutes runs east of this station

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

| Hamilton Street Railway

| St. Catharines

| rowspan="2" |

| style="background:#; text-align: center" |

| Maple Leaf St. Catharines Transit

| rowspan="2" | Limited rail service of three trains per day to these stations

| Niagara Falls

|style="background:#; text-align: center"|

| Maple Leaf Niagara Falls Transit WEGO Niagara Falls Visitor Transportation

alt=Stopping patterns of Lakeshore West line as of May 2025|thumb|785x785px|Stopping patterns of Lakeshore West line as of May 2025.

Lakeshore West line

Service

Future

Niagara Region

Ownership

Station list

References

General references

Bibliography

External links