Toronto LRT Information Blog

The Cities of Brampton and Mississauga want to build a light rail transit (LRT) line, as a key part of the future vision for the busy Hurontario / Main Street corridor.

Metrolinx has identified a rapid transit line between Port Credit and downtown Brampton as one of its priority projects for the first 15 years of “The Big Move”, its regional transportation plan.

City staff want you to participate in planning the line and helping to shape decisions, as the project develops.

The Cities are hosting two open houses, where you can meet the design team for the project. They’re experts with international experience, who will develop concepts and alternatives for the project.

During the events, you can talk to project and City staff, see information from the project’s master plan and view early proposals for LRT service. You’ll also learn how you can continue to participate in the process, as the project proceeds.

The events take place:

• Wednesday, April 25
  From 3 until 8 p.m.,
  Mississauga Civic Centre, The Great Hall,
  300 City Centre Drive
• Thursday, April 26
  From 3 until 8 p.m.,
  Brampton City Hall, Atrium,
  2 Wellington Street West

More information can be found here.

In a previous posting, I quipped, “Perhaps if anything is not going to go ahead, Metrolinx could shift the funding to build VIVA Phase 3 (LRT lines) at this time in York Region!”

Well, it seems York Region is snoozing because the Toronto Star is reporting that Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion is saying that if Toronto Mayor Rob Ford doesn’t want the funding for Transit City, Mississauga will be only too happy to take the province’s money to build light rail transit.

One thing in the article that should be noted is this: “Above ground LRT costs about a third as much as subways — the TTC estimates about $100 million per kilometre compared to about $300 million for tunneling.” That is a bit of an overstatement of the costs of LRT construction that includes a fair bit of over-engineering in the Transit City plan, necessary or otherwise, including the underground part of the Eglinton line and the underground connection with the Sheppard subway on the Sheppard East line. Transit City’s own costs for median construction is only just over half that at about $50 million per kilometre, but Mississauga has the benefit of being able to use more side-of-the-road alignments that can use ballasted tie construction to bring that cost down to only $30-35 million per kilometre.