TORONTO — A group of companies put forward a plan on Thursday for a new light rail network linking key parts of Canada’s largest city, promising to ease the congestion that plagues Toronto’s suburban roadways, according to Reuters.
The firms, in a C$2.5 billion ($1.6 billion) proposal, want to build 106 kilometres (66 miles) of commuter rail lines, running tracks in existing rail corridors and power line routes in the Greater Toronto Area.
The project would be funded with public and private cash and would take 10 years to build, providing better connections to Toronto’s main airport and to suburbs, now poorly served by public transport to the center of town.
“Our goal is to make the SmartRide LRT (light rail transport) plan a part of the ongoing debate about how we can best fix the transportation gridlock that will continue to cripple the GTA unless we make some strategic, long-term investments,” Bill Pearson, executive vice-president of Aecon Group Inc. (Toronto:ARE.TO – News), said in a statement.
Aecon, Canada’s largest publicly traded construction company, is one of three partners in the scheme, which follows on from a provincial government plea for new transportation initiatives in the Toronto area.
Other big partners in the proposal are French-based Alstom Transport (Paris:ALSO.PA – News), a supplier of light rail vehicles, and Borealis, an independent Canadian money manager.
“This project is out there. It merits further consideration. We need to get light rail transit on the public policy agenda so that people can begin to feel it, touch it and know what it is all about,” said Sheila James, a spokeswoman for the consortium.
Ontario’s provincial government would be asked to help fund the project.
“We will be reviewing their application as we do any others that come to us,” Ministry of Transportation spokesman Bob Nichols said.
Last year the province said C$3.25 billion of provincial money would be spent over the next decade to improve transit networks.
“The province’s plan is to encourage municipalities and the federal government to contribute a like amount,” said Nichols.
The partners said their plans are patterned on light rail networks in cities like Paris, Hong Kong, Amsterdam and San Francisco.
At present the Toronto Transit Commission operates a 144 km (90 mile) subway network, coupled to a 6.4 km (4 mile) light rail line, both of which link with bus and streetcar routes.
Provincially owned GO Transit operates a 360-km (225-mile) commuter rail service connecting downtown Toronto to suburban and bedroom communities.
The TTC’s operating budget is 80 percent funded by rider fares and 20 percent by governments. Funding for transit in Montreal and many U.S. cities is closer to a even split between rider fares and government subsidies.
The Greater Toronto Area has a population of about five million, which is expected to grow to more than seven million in the next three decades.