Premier Davis GOes to Brampton

While Pickering to Hamilton has been served by GO trains since 1967, Canada’s centennial year, an initial fleet of 40 coaches and nine engine cars soon had to be doubled to keep up with demand. During 1971 Tory election campaigning, Brampton MP and resident Premier Bill Davis promised development of a Georgetown line. Finally, in December 1973, the promise was a reality. Four new engines and 30 “new aluminium cars” were purchased, making six trips to Toronto daily. The service runs on CN rail lines, which were double-tracked in the 1960s, in anticipation of fifty freight trains daily through Brampton.

Beginnings of GO Transit

The year was 1964, and commuting began to take its toll on the townsfolk of Port Credit, Lorne Park, and Clarkson (now all Mississauga). The municipalities asked the provincial government to launch a study, looking at commuter transportation services. The Government of Ontario Transit, dubbed "GO-Transit" for short, was launched in 1967 as a result. The country's first made-to-order commuter service, it initially ran from Hamilton in the west to Pickering in the east, on CN lines initially laid by the Toronto Hamilton Railway in the 1860s. In 1973, the trains would finally arrive in Brampton, as the premier promised.

Failed suburban railway

Sir Adam Beck, the first chairman of Ontario Hydro, had the dream of connecting Toronto to the rest of southern Ontario. The year was 1917, and Beck quickly laid out plans for the Toronto Suburban Railway system. One of the many “radials” in his plan would head out from Toronto, through Churchville, Eldorado Park, and Huttonville. These towns have since annexed by Brampton. But Sir Beck had his dreams cut short, as the plans were soon taken over and sat on by Canadian National Railway. By 1931, the company officially scrapped the concept. Finally, in 1967, GO Transit service began.