New Report: Transit over Traffic – Hard Truths for Addressing Gridlock in the GTHA

By Transport Action Ontario | Highways and Bridges , Latest News , Major Reports , Urban Transit

Transport Action Ontario and Environmental Defence Canada have jointly published a major report on addressing gridlock in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). It makes the case that spending $80 billion on mega-highways like Highway 413 and the Highway 401 tunnel will make commutes worse, not better. Decades of experience across North America show that expanding urban highways (non-tolled) just induces more traffic. For the same $80 billion price tag, Ontario could build 400 km of new rapid transit.

The report makes the case that the best way to reduce gridlock is to reallocate highway funding to transit builds and also double transit service so people can “show up and go” without checking schedules. Cities where 30% of rush hour trips are by public transit have proven that this approach works to ease road congestion.

The report also uses Highway 413 as a case study – and demonstrates that putting $14 billion (the estimated capital cost of this highway) towards public transit investment instead of the highway would move more than double the number of commuters per hour.

The report recommends 5 bold actions:

• Redirect capital funding from mega-highways to transit
• Increase transit operating funding
• Reverse car-enabling subsidies
• Reduce tolls on Highway 407 for trucks as part of a region-wide road pricing scheme
• Stop urban sprawl

The report can be viewed here:

Adding a “Steel Road” to the Gravel Road Corridor for the Ring of Fire

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

Transport Action Ontario has sent a letter to the three First Nations that are leading the environmental assessments (EAs) on construction and operation of a gravel access road to the Ring of Fire. Our letter urged that the EAs include a heavy-haul rail line in the rail corridor, due to the strong business and social case.

Our letter can be viewed below.

Renaming GTHA Rapid Transit Stations

By Transport Action Ontario | Latest News , Urban Transit

The continued expansion of Greater Toronto’s rapid transit system has resulted in numerous cases where station names are problematic, including interchange stations having two names, or cases where the names of stations are duplicated elsewhere in the system. This causes confusion for residents and visitors.

Transport Action Ontario, together with More Transit Southern Ontario (mtso) and TTCRiders have submitted a paper to Metrolinx identifying most of the problematic names and providing renaming recommendations. The paper will be reviewed by Metrolinx staff.

Our paper can be viewed here:

Finch West LRT to open December7, 2025

By Transport Action Ontario | Latest News , Urban Transit

Metrolinx and the TTC have announced that the long overdue Toronto Finch West LRT (Line 6) will open for revenue service on December 7, 2025. It will be Toronto’s first new rail line since 2002. The line runs largely above-ground in the median of Finch Ave. from Finch West subway station to Humber College, a distance of 11 km. There are 18 stops (16 at grade). Finch Ave. was widened as needed to maintain at least 2 general-purpose traffic lanes in each direction, plus cycling lanes. A maintenance and storage facility was also constructed.

The line was constructed by Mosaic Transit Group under a $2.5 billion DBFM contract signed in 2018, including 30 years of maintenance. The project was substantially delayed from its first planned completion date of 2021, due to numerous issues including the Covid pandemic, vehicle delivery issues and litigation.

Like York’s VIVA system, fare payment is off-vehicle, which will be new to TTC streetcar and bus passengers. The anticipated service level is 6.5 minute headways during peak hours and 10-12 minute headways off-peak, which is longer than the current bus headways (i.e. longer waits). The round trip travel time is scheduled for 97.5 minutes, which compares to the scheduled bus round trip time over the same distance of 100 minutes (AM peak) and 122 minutes (PM peak). It remains to be seen if more transit signal priority can be negotiated with the City to improve upon these times.

Presentation at Transportation Mobility Conference

By Transport Action Ontario | Community Transit , Highways and Bridges , Urban Transit

Transport Action Ontario board members recently presented at a Transportation Mobility Conference hosted by MPP Andrea Hazell, the Ontario Liberal Party transportation critic. We are always pleased to discuss transportation in a non-partisan manner to elected officials of any party.

The conference covered a broad range of topics, including community benefits, progress at the TTC, rural transportation and Canadian urban transit. Our presentation discussed transportation challenges and remedies in two Ontario regions – Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) and southwestern Ontario. The GTHA portion discussed the cost of congestion, current Ontario actions and bold actions needed to reduce GTHA gridlock. The southwestern Ontario portion discussed transportation metrics and recent initiatives. The presentation was well received and is attached below.