All Posts by Transport Action Ontario

Optimizing the Role of Railways in Building Canada’s Economy

By Transport Action Ontario | Intercity Rail and Bus , Latest News , Northern Ontario

Transport Action Ontario has written to the Premiers of Ontario and Alberta expressing our delight that both governments are considering expansion of rail services in Canada for resource development and increased interprovincial trade. Based on our observations from the decades of diminution of rail infrastructure under largely investor-focused, mainly foreign ownership, we provided the Premiers with a number of pragmatic suggestions including:

1. New and expanded infrastructure should be under public ownership.
2. Use crown corporations such as Ontario Northland Transportation Commission to develop the projects.
3. Consider indigenous partnerships.
4. Minimize U.S. capital and supplies.
5. Comparisons with highway alternatives should include long term and externalized costs.
6. Include consideration of passenger rail service and international rail tourism.
7. Public investment on privately-owned rail corridors must be included to increase resiliency and capacity on a mutually beneficial basis.
8. Provinces should “rail bank” all rail infrastructure considered surplus by private operators.

Our letter can be viewed below.

Photo: CN freight train passing Brantford station.

Mapping Canada’s Intercommunity Bus Routes

By Transport Action Ontario | Intercity Rail and Bus , Latest News

Transport Action Canada (TAC) is supporting and working with geographer Sean Marshall to improve Canadians’ knowledge about where intercommunity bus routes operate and where there are gaps in the bus and train network.

Sean presented an update of his work at the TAC Annual General Meeting in Kingston, Ontario on April 5, 2025.  He discussed:

• The importance of intercommunity buses
• Changes between 1983 and now
• Mapping Canada’s intercommunity bus links – features and challenges

His presentation is attached to this posting.

The map can be viewed at: https://www.transportaction.ca/canada-intercity-transportation-map/

We encourage operators to send us their updates, and the map will be updated at least quarterly.  

This is only a first step in improving Canada’s intercommunity bus network.  Transport Action’s plan is to continue to advocate for filling gaps in routes, using joint stations (ideally with VIA Rail and local transit operators), schedule coordination between carriers, central booking of tickets and through-ticketing.  We are also working with other on-line bus services like BusBud and Betterez to integrate platforms to provide complete planning and travel information in one website location.

Photograph: Prevost H3-45 motorcoach by Jason Lawrence CC BY 2.0

VIA Rail cost reduction best achieved by revenue boost

By Transport Action Ontario | Intercity Rail and Bus , Latest News

In early July, the Canadian government directed virtually all ministers to find ambitious internal savings and reduce program spending by 15% in the next 3 years. This includes VIA Rail.

However, in the case of VIA, we believe that achieving a 15% reduction in the federal subsidy should not be accomplished by service cuts, as they would decimate the operation. Instead, the much better approach is to increase passenger numbers and revenue so that the subsidy is reduced. The two top ways to do this is for the Ministry of Transport to intervene on the two disputes that VIA has with CN – grade crossing restrictions in the corridor and renewal of the Train Service Agreement.

On July 21, 2025 we wrote to Minister Freeland making these points and referring her to our earlier letter of June 6 for more details. Our July letter can be viewed below.

Transit Updates Within the City of Toronto

By Transport Action Ontario | Latest News , Urban Transit

The City of Toronto experienced a flurry of interesting transit news items in June.  This posting summarizes many of them.  For further information, contact us at ontario@transportaction.ca.

RAPID TRANSIT PROJECTS

• A bombshell article in The Trillium revealed information about a significant “descoping” of the GO Expansion project.  See our post of June 27 for more details.
• Operational control of the soon-to-open Eglinton Crosstown LRT has been transferred to TTC, which will initiate final acceptance testing soon.
• Construction has started on the East Harbour transit hub.  This station will serve GO Lakeshore East, GO Stouffville and the Ontario Line subway.  It is expected to become the second busiest transit station in Greater Toronto, after Union Station.
• After 6 years of study, construction has started on Woodbine GO station on the Kitchener GO line.  It will replace Etobicoke North, which lacks capacity to accommodate future growth on the line.  Woodbine Entertainment Group is providing up to $170 Million to support construction.  According to the Province, the new station will create new links between Pearson Airport, UPX, GO Trains and bus service from TTC, MiWay, York Region and Brampton Transit.
• With the commercial close of the Stations, Rail and Systems contract, the construction and lifecycle maintenance costs of the 7.8-km 3-stop Scarborough Subway Extension (SSE) has been revealed to be $10.2 Billion, or $1.3 B/km.  This is twice the capital cost assumed in the Metrolinx Preliminary Design Business Case in 2020! Difficult soil conditions have slowed the SSE tunnel boring machine.  Tunneling was expected to be completed in 4Q-24, but only about 2 km of the tunneling has been completed.
• Contract award for the Yonge North Subway Extension Advance Tunneling project is expected this summer.

TTC MATTERS

• Vigorous debate continues on whether Bathurst and Dufferin Streets (south of Eglinton Ave)  should be reconfigured from the current two-lanes for general purpose traffic/parking in each direction to one dedicated bus lane, one general purpose lane and no parking in each direction Heavy lobbying is underway both for and against.  A decision is expected in July.
• The TTC board is contemplating a pilot test of platform edge doors in subway stations.  Benefits include passenger safety, fewer issues with “trespassers on track” or “debris on track”, and more efficient heating/cooling of stations.  Cost to implement at a legacy station would be about $40 – 60 Million per station, or about $4 Billion in total.  Staff will develop a pilot test plan for one station, possibly Dundas (TMU) Station.
• As part of Toronto’s strategic parking framework, TTC is considering lowering transit fares during certain times (festivals, events) to reduce traffic congestion during big events.

Photo: Two TTC streetcars pass a steel frame building being erected for Ontario Line works at Osgoode.

GO Expansion Undergoes Major “Descoping”

By Transport Action Ontario | Latest News , Urban Transit

Transport Action Ontario (TAO) has long supported the GO Expansion project, slated to provide 15-minute all-day two-way electrified passenger rail service on core portions of 5 GO lines, plus improved service on the remainder of the network.  In fact, our organization proposed something very similar in 2013 called Regional Rapid Rail,  two years prior to the first provincial announcement.  GO Expansion was modeled after the German S-Bahn or Paris RER approach, and caused excitement across North America.

In 2022, Metrolinx signed a Progressive DBOM contract with ONxpress, a consortium of 4 large engineering and transportation firms.  A 30-month development phase was targeted to produce a firm implementation plan by the end of 2024.  Additionally, a related consortium, ONxpress Operations Inc (OOI), consisting of Deutsche Bahn and Aecon, was contracted to take over operations and maintenance of the GO rail network starting January, 2025.  Meanwhile, about $10 B of early works construction (stations, tracks, grade crossings) continued.

Therefore TAO was very concerned when news of problems recently emerged.  In a bombshell article on June 10, 2025, the on-line magazine The Trillium reported that GO Expansion had been “descoped” due to budget constraints, and the operating contract with OOI had been terminated to due “fundamental differences of opinion”.  Metrolinx will now focus on a “minimum viable product”, which apparently consists of electrifying the two Lakeshore lines by 2038, with the Barrie, Kitchener and Stouffville lines to follow sometime later in Phase 2.  No further details on scope and timing of incremental service improvements (even if modest) on any of the 5 lines was available.

At the Metrolinx board meeting of June 26, the termination of the OOI contract was confirmed.  It was also revealed that the development phase of the work had concluded in December and that Metrolinx had accepted a Design and Construction Proposal. New deliverables for the consortium have been issued, including construction on track and stations and deployment of signals based on ETCS Level 2.  However, again no details were provided.

The lack of details on upcoming construction, as well as any upcoming service improvements, is frustrating and throws uncertainty into large transit-oriented development proposals all across Greater Toronto.  What is this “minimum viable product”? With nearly $10 B of early works completed, TAO believes that some sorts of service improvements, eg 30-minute all-day two-way diesel service on the Barrie, Kitchener and Stouffville lines, cannot be hard to achieve.  We are also disappointed that the bold vision for European-style regional rail appears to have died. 

TAO will be advocating with the Province and Metrolinx to promptly provide details for the public on the Design and Construction Proposal.