[URBAN NOTE] On a big bang approach to mass transit in the Greater Toronto Area

[rfmcdonald]

What Toronto's rapid transit network could look like in 15 years, according to recommendations from the city of Toronto and the TTC. The Crosstown LRT would be extended west to the airport jobs hub and northeast to the Scarborough campus of U of T. The subway would reach the Scarborough City Centre. Emerging neighbourhoods along the eastern waterfront would be connected via LRT. The first phase of the relief line would carry riders south from Pape Station along Queen St. at Nathan Phillips Square. More Torontonians would hop on the Stouffville and Kitchener GO lines via SmartTrack.

The above inspiring map appeared twice on my Feedly feed. The first appearance was made via blogTO's Amy Grief, then via Tess Kalinowski's Toronto Star article "Planners want public’s input on ‘motherlode’ of GTA transit". (The caption comes from Kalinowski's article.)

Toronto’s chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat calls it the “motherlode” of transit. She’s referring to plans that will add miles of rapid transit to the city and surrounding region in the next 15 years and beyond, connecting communities in ways that have been dreamed about for a generation.

The veil comes off the next phase of expansion at a series of meetings around the city and region starting Tuesday.

It’s an unprecedented public consultation incorporating seven provincial and city-led projects — from SmartTrack and electrified GO service, to a relief subway along Queen St. and a 17-stop eastern extension of the Crosstown LRT.

The scope of the meetings reflects the mega-expansion going on in transit in Toronto and the surrounding municipalities, said Keesmaat.

But a new network-based approach to planning is also finally come to the fore. It will transform the way we live and move in the Toronto region, she said.

“Historically the city advances one project at a time, and the thinking is, when that project is built then we’ll start planning for the next project,” said Keesmaat.

But it was clear that approach wouldn’t allow Toronto to catch up on the 20-plus years in which there was no transit investment.

There was a realization, she said, “That to address the backlog in transit infrastructure we need to be advancing a whole series of projects at one time in parallel.”

I'm all for this if it gets the job done. Toronto, obviously, does need to invest in its transit future. Desperately.