Progress being made with massive GTA transit expansion plan amid calls for improvement

As many people in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area travel for the holidays, one thing is clear: How we get around today on transit in southcentral Ontario will be vastly different a decade from now.

For commuters like Shelagh Pizey-Allen, that change can’t come soon enough.

“If you’re riding transit right now in Toronto, if you hear the sound of a subway you’re going to be racing through the station because when the next one comes, it’s not always reliable,” she said.

Pizey-Allen is a key organizer with TTCriders, an advocacy group that pushes for better transit service in Toronto.

“It’s really frustrating because all that time adds up like we’re talking about hours every month because of service reductions … people are not just taking one mode of transit, they’re often transferring from bus to streetcar to subway,” she said.

Many local transit routes have had longer wait times in recent years, meaning packed buses and trains. In Toronto, Pizey-Allen attributed some of that to cuts made at the TTC under former mayor John Tory’s administration. In August under Mayor Olivia Chow’s administration, some of those cuts were reversed, for now, through temporary savings since the Eglinton Crosstown and Finch West LRT lines were delayed.

She also said transit service isn’t keeping pace with passenger demand during off-peak hours. This echoed observations found in a study earlier this year by the University of Toronto and Mobility Justice.

“That’s why you’re seeing full buses right now in the middle of the afternoon … late at night. This is a time when shift workers are commuting, but also people are getting their groceries and we need more space on buses for that,” Pizey-Allen said, adding congestion on local roads is compounding the problem.

“There’s only so much road space for people to move around in Toronto, so we absolutely need rapid transit to move more people.”

The call for better, higher-order transit services comes at a time when the Ontario government is spending $70 billion on transportation over the coming decade.

Ontario Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria took over the portfolio in September. He has been charged with overhauling how we get around by taking actions in the short term and advancing projects in the long term.

“It’s really about making sure that we can connect people in a meaningful way, that saves them time, allows them to spend more time with their families,” he told CityNews during a recent interview.

“For too long, I think previous governments promised a lot but never delivered.

“We have to build world-class transit in a city like Toronto, and we’re making sure that we’re learning as we build. We’re looking at what people and countries are doing internationally to make sure we have the best practices in Ontario.”

Beginning in early 2024, it’ll get cheaper to travel for commuters who utilize the TTC and GO Transit. The Ontario government will discount local fares for commuters who use both systems. If transferring to or from a GO Transit bus or train, riders won’t be charged the TTC fare.

“That’s a part of making sure that this province is integrated, that our transit systems are integrated, and that transit is easier to use,” Sarkaria said, adding it could save up to $1,500 for commuters who rely on both systems.

When it comes to new light rail transit, Line 5 Eglinton Crosstown and Line 6 Finch West could be operational by the end of 2024. However, there are several other projects with shovels in the ground that are set to be built within the next 10 years:

• Union Station expansion by creating a new south concourse

• All-day, two-way GO Transit train service on several corridors along with new stations

• The Ontario Line across Toronto

• A new east-west LRT line in Hamilton

• A new north-south LRT line running between Mississauga and south Brampton

• Extension of the TTC’s Yonge line north into York Region

• Extension of the TTC’s Bloor-Danforth line further north into Scarborough

• New bus rapid transit lanes across the GTHA

David Cooper, a principal with Leading Mobility and a transportation planner, applauded the Ontario government’s push to build transit, adding it’s good for economic development too.

“What’s happening to transit is quite exciting. We had a whole missing generation of very little transit construction in the early 2000s,” he said.

“Developers like rails, and the reason why they like rail is because there’s certainty. There’s a certainty from the sense of the infrastructure, certainty from the sense of a high-quality level of ridership.”

However, he said there’s still room for improvement — especially getting people west to east in the Toronto area. He said there needs to be an extension of Line 4 Sheppard in some form along with fixing a back-logged King Street in downtown Toronto.

“Before the pandemic, we had 80,000 people a day on King Street — that is unheard of to have that level of people taking a surface transit service,” he said.

“We need to get people moving to jobs and right now that is not working.”

Pizey-Allen agreed both of those expansion projects are needed too, adding the Waterfront East and Eglinton East LRT projects need to be funded and built as well to enhance the overall network and respond to ridership demands. She also reiterated past calls for the province to fund the creation of a busway along the former Line 3 Scarborough RT corridor to help speed up bus travel until the Scarborough subway extension project is completed in 2030.

“It’s good for the climate, it’s good for congestion and … fixing gridlock,” she said.

This is the first of a five-part series called ‘Transit 2024,’ which looks at several of the Ontario government’s major GTA transit expansion projects. CityNews will have updates on the Ontario Line, the Finch West LRT, the Hazel McCallion LRT and the GO Transit expansion program.