Category Archives for "Urban Transit"

Public Transit Policy Survey for Federal Parties

By Transport Action Ontario | Urban Transit

With the upcoming federal election, April 28, 2025, Transport Action Canada and numerous other transportation-related non-government organizations have developed a poll to be filled out by all political parties. It focusses on the Canada Public Transit Fund and on investment in transit and active transportation and shifting funding away from urban highway expansion. It was sent to all federal political parties on April 2.

The survey is attached below. Members and subscribers are encouraged to use the survey with their local candidates and submit any responses to the addresses indicated.

Annual Meetings – April 5, 2025

By Transport Action Ontario | Highways and Bridges , Intercity Rail and Bus , Latest News , Northern Ontario , Urban Transit

Transport Action Ontario (TAO) and Transport Action Canada (TAC) invite all members and supporters to join us for our annual public meeting on April 5, 2025, to be followed by the Annual General Meetings of both organizations. The meetings will be in hybrid format – in person in Kingston, Ontario and virtual using ZOOM, and will start at 1:00 pm.

The public meeting will feature key notes speakers Carl Fowler on cross-border passenger rail, Shawn Marshall on mapping Canada’s motorcoach network and a discussion of Kingston as a future regional hub for VIA Rail/Alto.

For further details and registration information for the public meeting, click here.

The public meeting will be followed by the Annual General Meetings for both organizations – between 3:00 pm and 3:45 pm for TAC and between 3:45 – 4:30 pm for TAO. Members in good standing have received separate invites for these sessions.

Transportation in the GTHA – Status and Outlook

By Transport Action Ontario | Highways and Bridges , Urban Transit

Transport Action Ontario recently presented a summary update of GTHA (Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area) transportation improvements and challenges to a Toronto-based seniors group. The presentation covered both public transit and expressways. It presents a useful snapshot of the current status of this vital public service, including:

• Massive anticipated population increase and high levels of congestion are driving the need for more transportation capacity. Province is responding with both a large transit expansion program and a major plan to build more expressways.
• Over $100 Billion of rapid transit capital investment since 2010, but more needed.
• Smaller projects underway to improve transit, including priority bus features and on-request transit.
• Federal government finally investing in VIA Rail, but operating challenges continue. New High Speed Rail (Alto) project has been announced, but is proceeding at very slow pace and very high cost.
• Road widenings/new expressways are not the answer. Put the funds into transit instead.
• Transit challenges include operational funding, reliability and escalating cost of construction.

The update can be viewed below.

GTHA Transit Summit, Sept. 4, 2024

By Transport Action Ontario | Events , Urban Transit

Don’t forget to register for an exciting and informative GTHA Transit Summit, presented by our colleagues at Transport Futures. There is a huge amount of transit expansion underway in the GTHA, but many challenges remain, both on the operating and capital construction sides. A variety of interesting speakers will address these issues, including Phil Verster of Metrolinx and Josh Colle of the Toronto Transit Commission.

Access the summit website here for a full schedule and list of speakers.

Transport Action Ontario (TAO) is a sponsor of this event, and TAO members in good standing will receive a 10% discount off the registration fee. Use promo code TAOTC5.

Early-bird registration rates last until August 8, so register soon.

The GTHA Transit Summit is being held on September 4, 2024 at the Toronto Metropolitan University’s Ted Rogers School of Business Commons Conference Hall. The venue is located on the 7^th floor of 55 Dundas Street West – east of Bay Street on the south side of Dundas.

Reducing Risk in Transit Projects

By Transport Action Ontario | Latest News , Urban Transit

There is a massive amount of transit investment underway in Canada.  Greater Toronto alone has about $80B of projects underway; while Ottawa has three LRT projects ongoing and another one on the drawing board.  However, as described in our post of January 12, 2024 “Capital Cost Escalation of Canadian Transit Projects”, costs are skyrocketing and solutions need to be found.

There is also concern that, despite generous contract prices, many Canadian projects are still going over budget/over time.  This is despite many of them using P3 contracts (public-private-partnership), allegedly created to reduce likelihood of over budget/over time.  Fiasco projects like Eglinton Crosstown LRT and Ottawa Confederation Line inspire little confidence.

Industry leaders are starting to react to this over budget/over time problem.  A group of leading Canadian transit industry leaders has formed a group called “Future of Infrastructure Group” (FIG) and produced a report called “Reducing Risk in Transit Projects”.  Ontario and federal contributors to the report included City of Toronto, TTC, University of Toronto, Infrastructure Ontario, Metrolinx, Infrastructure Canada, Transport Canada, Canada Infrastructure Bank and of course dozens of Ontario-based private companies.

The report focusses on allocating and mitigating risk in projects, which should lead to reduced costs, better timelines, less disputes/claims and better quality of contractors.  The report discusses different contracting models that appear to show promise, including:

• Eglinton Crosstown West – smart incentive mechanisms and took a diligent approach to proactively addressing risk
• Union Station Enhancement Project – a very complex project.  Uses an alliance contracting model that has lead to zero litigation to date

The report can be viewed here. 

Photo: Construction work continues at South Keys, two years after the expected reopening date of the Trillium Line.