Lakeshore East is one of the seven commuter rail lines of GO Transit in the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada.

[2] It is ten minutes younger than its twin; although the first train from Pickering bound for Toronto left at 6:00 am that day, a 5:50 am departure from Oakville on Lakeshore West beat it into the record books.

Just prior to the opening of GO service, CN had moved much of its freight operations from downtown areas to the new MacMillan Yard north of the city.

This offloaded the majority of traffic from the Kingston Sub between Pickering Junction and Union, allowing ample scheduling room for GO service.

GO ALRT would have used a new electric train car running on a dedicated right-of-way between Pickering and its terminus to the east of Harmony Road on the far eastern edge of Oshawa.

It ran along the original ALRT layout to Whitby, but abandoned the 401 overpass and instead continued along the CN lines to the current Oshawa GO Station on the far western edge of town.

[3] Until 29 December 2006, weekend and holiday trains still ended in Pickering,[4] but service is now offered along the entire route every day of the year.

In December 1993, GO Transit initiated a program for the eastward expansion of the Lakeshore East line, for which it received approval in 1994.

[5] Metrolinx purchased the Kingston Sub between Pickering Junction and Union on 31 March 2011[6] and now completely owns the Lakeshore East corridor.

The extension would be almost 20 kilometres (12 mi) long,[12] and have four new stations: Thornton's Corners East, Ritson Road, Courtice, and Bowmanville.

As part of this, the agency identified an express all-day service between Hamilton and Oshawa (via Toronto Union) as one of its top 15 priorities.

[17][18] Continued growth of the Oshawa area has led to renewed calls for expansion of the Lakeshore East line, this time all the way to Bowmanville.

[14] The expansion project would cost about $730 million and include new signal infrastructure, seven new bridges, and upgrades to at-grade level crossings.