[URBAN NOTE] "'On the Waterfront': Transit 'reset' options"

[rfmcdonald]

Robert Mackenzie's extended Transit Toronto post looks at transit futures for the Toronto waterfront.

Rapid growth in several neighbourhoods at or near the water’s edge — including Mimico, Humber Bay Shores, Liberty Village, Fort York, King/Spadina, City Place, South Core and King / Parliament — is significantly transforming the waterfront. The City is already planning to expand several more waterfront areas, including Lower Yonge, North Keating, the Port Lands, South of Eastern, the East Bayfront and West Don Lands.

Throughout the years, transit planning along the waterfront has been inconsistent, incomplete or non-existent. For example:
•Waterfront Light Rail Transit Line environmental assessment, 1995;
•Central Waterfront Secondary Plan, 2003;
•Lake Shore Boulevard West light rail transit study, 2008 - 2009: incomplete;
•“Closing the Gap” environmental assessment (reviewing transit options to connect Dufferin Street with Park Lawn Road), 2008: incomplete;
•Extending streetcar service to Dufferin Street environmental assessment modification, 2008: approved (but never implemented);
•Bremner / Fort York alternative alignment environmental assessment, 2008: incomplete.
•Waterfront East light rail transit line environmental assessment, 2010: approved (but never implemented);
•East Bayfront Transit Implementation Study, 2013;
•Various plans to improve transit along the waterfront east of Yonge Street, including the North Keating, Port Lands, South of Eastern, the East Bayfront and West Don Lands communities.

(Note how many of these studies ground to a halt during the regime of late mayor Rob Ford who disdained any form of rapid transit other than underground subway trains and had only slight interest in improving the central area.)

This hodgepodge of plans and proposals has resulted in a lack of any comprehensive plan for a transit network to handle transit for a growing residential population on the waterfront and travel from beyond the area to and from recreational destinations and post-secondary institutions. That’s why City Council directed the three agencies to study ways to “reset” plans for waterfront transit services during its meeting of November 3 and 4, 2015. (The City’s Planning division took the lead in the study.)

Despite the lack of co-ordination in planning, better transit is essential as the City projects both population and employment in the area to continue to grow. The current transit service is totally inadequate to handle to expected number of commuters into and out of what may be the fastest growing areas of Toronto over the next 25 years.