A $1 billion cash injection for GO Transit aimed at speeding up and smoothing out the ride for 60,000 daily commuters will roll out today.

Under a joint federal-provincial-municipal agreement to be announced in Mississauga, 12 separate projects will begin in the coming months, including the refurbishing of Union Station, the addition of tracks on the Georgetown and Barrie lines and improvement of tracks on the Lakeshore lines.

The money will also go toward modernizing the signalling service, a long-time problem. Commuters have experienced long delays in winter when signalling and switching devices have frozen.

The federal government first promised to boost spending on GO Transit in March 2003, but no deals were signed under the Canada Strategic Infrastructure Fund.

Sources say provincial Public Infrastructure Minister David Caplan has been pushing for a deal to be signed and has taken the lead on the issue in search of the money.

Under the deal, the federal and provincial governments will each spend $385 million, while municipal governments will contribute $235 million.

Caplan will be joined for the announcement by federal Human Resources and Skills Development Minister Joe Volpe, who is the government's front man for Toronto-area issues, and provincial Transportation Minister Harinder Takhar.

Municipal officials, including Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, will also attend.

A provincial source said that while the Liberal government is eager to get expansion work underway as part of a plan to manage spiralling growth in the GTA, the existing GO Transit system is in desperate need of basic maintenance upgrades first and much of today's funding announcement will go toward shoring up the system.

"Everywhere we looked and were anxious to do something, we found an infrastructure deficit after years of neglect and funding shortfalls. It's chronic," said the source.

A large chunk of the funding will be spent on deferred maintenance.

For 2004, work will also get underway on environmental assessments and planning for track expansion.

The source said making the existing system dependable is the first step in easing problems for commuters.

"Dependability and reliability are key. We have to start there. People have to choose it every day because it is faster than driving," the insider said.

GO Transit trains reached capacity several years ago and the existing tracks can't accommodate more or larger trains because many of the lines are shared with VIA Rail, Amtrak, Canadian National railroad and Canadian Pacific Railway.

The bulk of the improvements are not expected to be completed until 2011 and will increase train ridership capacity from the current 60,000 rush-hour limit to 78,000.