Exciting News! The Kitchener GO line is being permanently extended to Stratford, with 1 daily round trip 7 days a week starting on July 6th. We have been calling for permanent GO service even since the pilot ended over 2 years ago.
news.ontario.ca/en/release/1...
Tunnelling on the Ontario Line is officially begun. The downtown tunnels are expected to take 2 years to construct and finish sometime in 2028.
The 1km of bus lane implemented as part of RapidTO Queens Quay East has significantly decreased runtime variability and travel times and increased ridership on route 114. We must roll out RapidTO city wide, no matter the political implication.
🚀 Canadians have been reaching for the stars, but we're still grappling with the basics like building public transit infrastructure affordably. By reforming procurement, strengthening in-house expertise, and adopting global best practices, we can bring costs down & build the transit we need.
Figure 3 from linked report, titled “Route Average Speed by Average Stop Spacing - TTC Streetcars and Peer Cities."
Notable chart included in a new TTC Board report about improving streetcar speeds, comparing stop distance and average speeds on Toronto routes versus surface rail routes in other cities. secure.toronto.ca/council/agen...
Having full fare integration, which means taking GO within Toronto would cost the same as a TTC fare (compared to double if you take it downtown from Scarborough), can save 30-45 minutes on trips downtown and other parts of the city for Scarborough residents. 7/x
In the meantime, there are two ways to improve transit immediately in Scarborough which are not talked about enough. Bus lanes on every major corridor need to happen ASAP. The city is taking too long implementing rapidTO on these corridors. 6/x
The EELRT needs to be fast, frequent and reliable, and more or even full grade separation is possible if we can get costs under control to make a better transit project. The last thing we want is another poorly implemented LRT like what happened on Finch West. 5/7
The mayor has directed staff to explore more options for grade separation which is good, but it'll be hard to get funding for a project that'll be even more expensive than what it is currently. The city needs to change the way it delivers transit projects to drive down cost. 4/7
The first problem with this project is cost, it is estimated to be $4.65 billion for 18km or $260million/km. At that price other countries (or Toronto in the past) builds subways. The Sheppard Subway (massively overbudget at the time) was $360million/km ($2026) 3/7
The project in its current form will not substantially improve the transit experience asides from ride quality. So how do we design a project, and think differently about transit in Scarborough to improve it? 2/7
Discussion about the not yet funded Eglinton East LRT has heated up. This project is often framed as bringing Scarborough the transit it finally deserves, but will it really? The LRT will be slower and less frequent than existing bus lanes. 1/7
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNGb...
Under Construction Line 1 Ottawa East/West light metro Extension: $2.8 billion (2026 dollars), 28km, 3.4km of tunnel, 17 stations, $100 million/km
Waterfront East LRT: $3 billion, $790million/km, 3.8km ($900m Union expansion, $1.3B street running section, $400m Cherry connection)
Sheppard Subway: $2 billion (2026 dollars), $360 million/km, 5.5km, fully tunneled
Waterfront East LRT: $3 billion, $790million/km,
3.8km
It's important to recognize the Waterfront East LRT is estimated to cost nearly 2x more than any Metrolinx LRT project. At 800million/km it's more comparable in price to Metrolinx subway projects. This could very well be the most expensive LRT project in the world.
www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...
Not only did the hours of operation for Line 5 get extended earlier this week, trains are now running at the full 80km/h top speed in the tunnels. The speed restriction through underground stations has also increased from 30km/h to 45km/h
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/....
ICYMI: The Sheppard Subway Extension needs to serve Downsview Airport!
Metrolinx is planning an extension of Line 4 — but without the right alignment, we risk missing a critical opportunity to connect transit to one of Toronto’s largest future communities.
Link in bio. 🔗
In case you missed it, we wrote a similar article about the planned Finch West LRT extension to Woodbine GO. The TOD design and the under construction GO station seem to be overlooking the extension and could make transfers from LRT to GO much worse: moretransitso.substack.com/p/woodbine-g...
We are planning on extending the Sheppard Subway, there is an opportunity to think bigger and extend the line cheap and efficiently to Toronto's largest development. While the site is currently empty and before housing is built. Read our new article below: moretransitso.substack.com/p/the-sheppa...?
As part of today's announcement, the province and feds will be working together to further explore GO 2.0
MTSO will continute to advocate for cheaper construction during the planning and design phase. We will work to make sure this new line is fast, frequent, modern and doesn't make the same mistakes as our recent LRT projects and our infamously slow streetcar network. 5/5
A huge barrier to getting this project funded was the high price tag, we need to aggressively reduce construction costs in our region. The city who is managing the construction of this project will be on the hook for any cost overruns. 4/5
Significantly expanding the streetcar platforms under Union will be difficult and expensive, but it shouldn't be a multi billion dollar project. An additional subway platform at Union was built for $137 million in 2014. 3/5
We're excited that this project is finally happening, but we need to point out that $3 billion is absurdly expensive for a 4 kilometer streetcar route that has specifically been protected for with bridges and a right of way in the Portlands. 2/5
The Waterfront LRT is finally funded! We have been advocating for this project to be funded ASAP so that the transit is in place for people to use before the area is developed. The city, province and feds will each contribute $1 billion and completion is expected in 2032. 1/5
Bradford's motion to commit to begin installing platform edge doors with a pilot project starting no later than Q4 2027 CARRIES 19-4.
As we have mentioned plenty of times before, the TTC plans to install platform edge doors at a cost 10x higher than projects in Europe. This is one of the biggest barriers to installation of PEDs across the network.
Good news! City council has committed to start construction to install platform screen doors by Fall 2027, as well as develop a 10 year funded plan for installation at Bloor-Yonge and other Line 1 stations for the 2027 budget.
This is the wrong way to think about this. The SmartTrack stations are fundamentally a good idea for the city’s public transport network. The question is why $1.5BN wasn’t enough to deliver five stations where all but one only had two platform tracks and why we have no communication from Metrolinx.
Today FastTrackTO is officially launching and releasing our 10 point plan to modernize the Toronto Streetcar network. An iconic symbol of the city that could be fantastic with some achievable, common sense and low cost changes. The plan if implemented would transform the city.
fast-track.to
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