While Toronto’s battle over light rail expansion has consumed public attention the past two months, it’s easy to forget that the suburban GTA and Hamilton are also desperately in need of transit upgrades. Roads are gridlocked, rush-hour buses are packed and the population is exploding, but a lack of capacity and little rapid transit mean relatively few people are inclined to leave their cars at home.
Ridership on suburban buses and trains is growing every year, but pales in comparison to Toronto. The TTC has nearly three times as many riders as all nine other transit systems in the GTA and Hamilton combined. Toronto’s streetcar network alone, for example, carries more people than the entire GO system. However, the population of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton region is expected to grow by some two million people, most of whom will settle outside Toronto, by 2031.
Tejas Aivalli, a transit rider who lives near Mavis Road and Dundas Street in western Mississauga, uses a simple example to illustrate the current situation.
“On the TTC subway, suits are as common as jeans. But on Mississauga buses, it’s all jeans,” he said. “As soon as you can buy a car, you get out.”
Metrolinx, the provincial agency co-ordinating transit in the GTA and Hamilton, has an ambitious plan to vastly expand the network. Among other things, it proposes light rail lines in Hamilton and Peel Region, bus rapid transit systems in Mississauga, York and Halton and all-day service in both directions on all GO train lines.
Many of these projects, however, remain unfunded and it is not clear where the money will come from. This concern is even more pressing given the bleak financial picture at cash-strapped Queen’s Park.
If Metrolinx is to achieve its aims, it will have to use other methods to raise the cash. It is still reviewing its options and will propose a funding strategy to the province and municipalities by June, 2013. After that, it is not known when any measures will be implemented.
“We’re looking at all the tools that are used in the different systems around the world,” said Bruce McCuaig, the agency’s chief executive officer. “Depending on where you go, there are road-based fees, tolls and taxes to fund this kind of infrastructure.”
Despite these hurdles, funding is in place and construction under way on a handful of projects in the 905, including three bus rapid transit lines, a premium-fare express train from Pearson Airport to Union Station and the expansion of the station to allow for the added ridership that all-day GO train service will entail.
GO network
Metrolinx plans to run faster and more frequent GO trains between Hamilton and Oshawa, and from Union Station to Brampton, likely by electrifying the lines, but the money for the upgrade is not yet committed. It will also expand all-day, two-way train service to Hamilton by mid-2015. It is not known when the other lines will see all-day service.
The province began the process of integrating fares between the transit agencies by introducing the Presto smart card and offering discounts on some local transit services for GO riders. There are no firm plans for full fare integration.
Peel
Construction has started on the Mississauga Transitway, a bus-only road parallel to Highway 403 and Eglinton Avenue that will allow GO and MiWay buses to cross the city from Winston Churchill Drive to Renforth Drive, near Pearson International Airport, without having to stop for other traffic. The Transitway, which includes several stations, is set to open in 2013.
The region is also planning a light rail line that will link Port Credit in southern Mississauga with downtown Brampton, running mostly in dedicated lanes down the centre of Hurontario Street. The project is in the design phase and should be ready to seek funding by 2014, said Jeff Wright, director of Mississauga’s transportation project office. Hurontario, which contains Mississauga’s busiest bus route, is heavily congested.
