WASHINGTON — Amtrak’s 2020 budget request includes a proposal to restore service between Detroit and Toronto, although it makes no estimate of the funding necessary to start the service.
Curbed Detroit noted the line item, part of a table of “Funding Needs Above the Authorized Level,” which the report says “represents many of Amtrak’s priorities, but at this time it is meant to be illustrative.” It is one of two additions to service in the 2020 budget proposal, the other being extension and additional frequency for the Fort Worth, Texas-Oklahoma City Heartland Flyer to Newton, Kan.
“Amtrak is exploring places it can modernize and expand its services and network,” Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari told Curbed Detroit in an email. “A Chicago/Western Michigan–Detroit–Toronto corridor is one of the services where we see promise.”
Amtrak last served Toronto from Michigan with the Chicago-Port Huron-Toronto International Limited, later simply the International. That joint operation with VIA Rail Canada ended in April 2004. The last Detroit-Toronto train ran in the 1960s.
