UrbanToronto is celebrating 20 YEARS throughout October with stories and images looking back over the last two decades. Today we continue our looks back at transit over the period, the third of three deep dives, this time focusing on the transit in the wider GTHA.
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After completing a review of the last twenty years of transit construction in the City of Toronto, and then the big changes at Union Station, it’s now time to turn our attention to transit expansion throughout the rest of the Greater Toronto region, including GO Transit expansion, new bus rapid transit projects, and new LRT lines in suburban climes.
In 2003, GO Transit was a much smaller entity, and was only re-assumed by the province of Ontario the year prior. Though its buses and trains extended throughout the City of Toronto and the regions of Halton, Peel, York, and Durham, it only had limited services to Hamilton, Bradford, Barrie, and Guelph. Outside of weekday peak periods, there was only hourly train service between Oshawa and Burlington; on weekends, this basic service only ran between Pickering and Burlington with connecting buses to Oshawa and Hamilton.
Suburban local transit service was also limited, especially outside of Hamilton and Mississauga, though there were some signs of progress: York Region’s five local transit agencies merged into a single regional transit agency in 2000; it began planning for a new bus rapid transit (BRT) service soon after forming.
GO System Map as of September, 2023, image courtesy of Metrolinx
GO Transit Expansion
With the exception of the Milton Line, a Canadian Pacific Railway-owned route that mainly serves Mississauga and Milton, every GO Transit corridor saw significant growth in service and/or length.
The Bradford Line became the Barrie Line in 2007, when the Barrie South station opened on December 17. The lengthy extension was possible because the provincial government prevented CN from ripping out that section of track after its route through Orillia was abandoned in 1996. The line was extended further to Allandale Waterfront – just south of Downtown Barrie – on January 29, 2012. East Gwillimbury Station was added in 2004. Limited off-peak and weekend train service began in 2016, with most trains terminating at Aurora, rather than Allandale.
The Stouffville Line was extended a short distance north of the historic town centre of Stouffville to Lincolnville in September 2008. Lincolnville station included a layover yard, allowing GO to run more trains on the busy corridor through Scarborough and Markham. Two new stations – Centennial and Mount Joy – opened on that line in 2004, with a new subway connection at Kennedy Station added in 2005. Weekday midday and evening service between Union and Unionville began in 2017, this service was extended to Mount Joy in 2019, along with weekend hourly train service, though construction in 2023 resulted in temporary replacement of off-peak trains with buses.
The Georgetown Line became the Kitchener Line on December 19, 2011, when two peak-hour trains were extended to serve the Guelph and Kitchener VIA stations on December 19, 2011. Additional stations were built at Mount Pleasant in 2005, and at Acton in 2013. In 2015, GO began operating hourly midday and evening service on weekdays between Union and Mount Pleasant; several off-peak weekday trains were extended to and from Kitchener. In April 2023, hourly weekend train service was finally added between Union and Mount Pleasant.
On the Lakeshore Line, a seasonal weekend Niagara Region train began operating in 2009, and quickly proved to be a hit. By 2019, there was daily service between Niagara Falls, St Catharines, and Toronto, including a rush-hour weekday run. A new station in Downtown Hamilton on the CN line allowed for additional rush hour trains to serve Steeltown starting in 2015; daily hourly service to the new West Harbour GO Station began in August 2021.
The Richmond Hill Line was extended northward to Gormley Station at Stouffville Road near Highway 404 on December 5, 2016, and an additional station, Bloomington, opened in June 2021. Unlike the Barrie, Stouffville, Kitchener, and Lakeshore lines, Richmond Hill remains rush-hours only, with limited supplemental bus service.
The expansion of off-peak and weekend train service on most corridors was made possible by significant investment in station improvements, new track, and several new grade separations, as well as the acquisition of several rail corridors from CN. With the exception of the Milton Line, the Kitchener Line between Georgetown and Bramalea Stations, the Lakeshore West line west of Burlington Station, and the Richmond Hill line in York Region, GO Transit’s parent agency, Metrolinx, now owns and maintains the tracks its trains run on.
A GO train crosses the Davenport Diamond Guideway during testing, Monday, April 3, 2023, image by UrbanToronto Forum contributor ProjectEnd
The first rail-rail grade separation was constructed at Snider Diamond in Vaughan in 2006, separating the Bradford/Barrie GO Line with CN’s busy Toronto freight bypass. A rail underpass at Hagerman Junction in Markham opened in 2008, while a massive grade separation of the Kitchener Line, built to accommodate both GO Transit expansion and the new UP Express service, opened in 2015. The Kitchener South project added two new mainline tracks through West Toronto, Weston, and North Etobicoke, while eliminating seven road crossings and an at-grade crossing of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 2023, Metrolinx opened the Davenport Diamond overpass, which carries trains over the CP mainline, with a new grade separation at Wallace Avenue. Work continues to complete the second track, as well as landscaping of new public space below.
Additional work is underway to further expand GO Transit service throughout the region, including a new fourth track between Union Station and Scarborough Junction to serve the Lakeshore East and Stouffville Corridors, a fourth track on the Kitchener/UP Express Corridor, a new Mount Dennis GO Station that will connect GO and UP Express with the Eglinton Line 5 Crosstown LRT, new passing tracks near Kitchener and Guelph, and new platforms throughout the system. This ongoing work is essential for counter-peak train service on the Kitchener, Barrie, and Stouffville lines, and weekend train service to Kitchener. The eventual goal is to offer frequent, electric rail service on the inner parts of its service area, with express diesel or dual-mode trains operating beyond to places like Kitchener, Barrie, and Niagara.
Electrification will allow GO Transit to open additional stations within the City of Toronto, with Mimico being an obvious infill station location. In the meantime, new stations are planned for King Street in Liberty Village, St Clair Avenue near Keele Street, Woodbine Racetrack, Finch Avenue near Kennedy Road, and at Eglinton Avenue at Caledonia Road, along with Ontario Line connections at Exhibition Station and a new transit hub at East Harbour, on the old Unilever lands. These additional stations will further the integration of GO Transit into Toronto’s public transport network.
A busy GO Transit Route 88C bus loads passengers in front of the Peterborough Bus Terminal in the city’s downtown core, image by Sean Marshall
GO Transit also expanded its bus services, with new routes extending far outside its traditional operating area. Before extending regular train service to Niagara Region, GO introduced Route 12, which connects Niagara Falls, St Catharines, and Grimsby, to Burlington GO Station. It also added new bus routes to Peterborough, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Brantford. Its Highway 407 bus service, which started out merely connecting York University to Bramalea, Square One, and Oakville in the west, and Richmond Hill and Markham in the east, later became a complex web of routes extending from Guelph and Hamilton to Scarborough, Pickering, and Oshawa to the east, with a 24-hour bus service connecting to Pearson Airport. In April 2023, it added new bus services between Kitchener, Guelph, and Hamilton – the first GO bus to completely avoid the Toronto area – to fill a long-standing gap in Ontario’s intercity bus network.
A suburban transit renaissance
The last two decades saw significant investments in bus and light rail infrastructure in the 905 belt and Waterloo Region, as well as impressive ridership growth, particularly in Brampton and Durham Region.
York Region was the first to launch a new limited-stop bus service, branded as Viva, in 2005, with routes on Yonge Street between Newmarket, Richmond Hill, and Finch Subway Station, and on Highway 7 between Vaughan, York University, and Markham. Additional rush-hour routes connected Markham with the Finch and Don Mills subway stations. Viva was unique to the Greater Toronto Area when it launched, with off-board fare payment (with fare machines at each bus stop), a distinctive fleet of sleek buses, and distinctive bus shelters with real-time countdown displays. Though not strictly bus rapid transit (BRT) as it operated in mixed traffic, Viva helped to elevate the bus riding experience.
The first section of Viva Rapidway opened on Highway 7 in Markham in 2013, image by Sean Marshall
In 2013, the first segment of BRT “Rapidway” opened on Highway 7 in Markham, followed by additional segments in Vaughan, Richmond Hill, and Newmarket. The new median BRT lanes came with fancy passenger waiting areas, but without a significant increase in service. Despite spending over $1 Billion on new BRT infrastructure, actual service levels on Viva and conventional YRT routes stagnated or were cut.
Meanwhile, Brampton Transit experienced a huge boom in ridership, fueled largely by significant improvements in service starting in 2007, when it transitioned to a grid-based route structure from a circuitous network that featured long one-way loops and lengthy route diversions to serve transit terminals. The 2007 restructuring was followed up with new services to Humber College and Pearson Airport in 2008 and 2009, with additional connections to Mississauga Transit and the TTC.
On September 20, 2010, the first Züm route – a limited-stop express bus service similar to Viva – opened between York University and Downtown Brampton, with an express branch via Highway 407. This was followed by a route on Main and Hurontario Streets going all the way to Mississauga City Centre in 2011, and on Steeles Avenue in 2012. Today, there are five Züm corridors, with a sixth planned for 2024. The combination of route restructuring, service improvements, and new express corridors allowed Brampton Transit ridership to grow over 500% in the last twenty years, with nearly 40 million total rides expected for 2023.
The first day of Brampton Transit Züm, September 20, 2010, image by Sean Marshall
Durham Region Transit saw similar growth after the amalgamation of four local transit agencies in 2006, with expansion of fixed-route and on-demand services in rural parts of the region, new cross-regional routes including the Pulse network of frequent service corridors, additional connections to the TTC in Scarborough and a new all-night service – the first in Ontario outside of Toronto – launched in 2023.
In Mississauga, where ridership has also rebounded since the COVID-19 pandemic, energies were focused on building a new busway across the centre of the city, from Winston Churchill Boulevard in the west to Renforth Avenue in the east. The first section of dedicated busway, between Hurontario Street and Dixie Road, opened on November 17, 2014; the eastern terminus at Renforth opened in 2017, along with a dedicated bus ramp onto southbound Highway 427 to allow quick access towards the TTC subway. A new bus terminal at Kipling Station for Mississauga and GO buses opened in January 2021. Though the central portion of the Transitway through Mississauga City Centre and westwards to Erin Mills Parkway wasn’t built as a cost-cutting measure, GO and Mississauga Transit (rebranded as Miway in 2010) buses can use dedicated shoulders on Highway 403 to bypass stopped traffic.
Finally, on June 21, 2019, Ontario’s first modern light rail system opened to the public, in Waterloo Region. The 19-kilometre long, 16 station Ion LRT, opened to the public, offering free rides through Canada Day. Ion is a hybrid between a street-running tram and a high-speed LRT, with dedicated rights-of-way along rail and hydro corridors, and at-grade median operations though the urban centres of Kitchener and Waterloo, while connecting two major shopping centres, Wilfrid Laurier University, and the University of Waterloo. An extension to Cambridge is planned.
An Ion LRT train turns at Charles and Benton Streets, Kitchener, July 2019, image by Sean Marshall
Two more LRT lines are now under construction outside of Toronto: the 18-kilometre long Hurontario LRT between Port Credit in Mississauga and Steeles Avenue in Brampton (where a previous city council nixed a section into Downtown Brampton in 2016 due to NIMBY opposition), and the 14-kilometre-long B-Line LRT in Hamilton, between McMaster University and Eastgate Square, which, after several fights for its existence, has recently started early works.
Twenty years from now, the Greater Toronto region will see further transit development. New plans, now in the proposal or detailed design phase, could see the Hurontario LRT finally reach Downtown Brampton, which is finally seeing major urban development, along with new BRT corridors on Brampton’s Queen Street, Mississauga’s Dundas Street, and Durham Region’s Kingston Road. GO Transit will continue to grow and expand, fully transforming from a commuter rail service to a full regional transit network akin to Europe’s S-Bahns and RERs. Perhaps too, a fully integrated fare system will allow for easy and pain-free transfers between the TTC, GO, and suburban transit agencies. The future looks good.
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Sean Marshall is a one of UrbanToronto’s earliest members and a moderator on the site, along with being a geographer, an urban issues advocate, and blogger with a particular speciality in transportation. You can read him at www.seanmarshall.ca
UrbanToronto will return tomorrow with another story celebrating 20 YEARS. A second look back at transit over the period, this time on regional plans, will appear next week. In the meantime, check back often to our front page and Forum to keep an eye on all the current and emerging trends, and you can always leave your comments in the space below.
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