Sustainable Urban Development Association
2637 Council Ring Road, Mississauga, Ontario L5L 1S6
Tel: 416-400-0553; ; e-mail:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 23, 2017
Rapid Transit Rescue for Pearson and Highway 401
MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO ─ Current plans to resolve worsening road traffic congestion at Pearson International Airport and its surrounding employment megazonewill fail, according to the Sustainable Urban Development Association (SUDA).
More than 90% of all trips to the airport are by car, and within 20 years there will be 1,000,000 trips per day by car in the area. Current plans to build an LRT to Pearson from Eglinton Avenue and to extend the Finch West LRT to Pearson will barely make a difference. “The Finch West LRT is largely a local service that will attract only a few transit trips to the airport, and the Eglinton West LRT will attract less than 2% of auto trips that access the area each day,” says John Stillich, a Director for SUDA.
Resolving airport area congestion isintimately tied to the ability of major highways to deliver people to and from the area, the worsening congestion on Highway 401, and the dominance of travel by car in the 905 area and across northern Toronto.
“Gridlock on Highway 401 will worsen as the GTA population grows. Likely sooner than we think, without a major new rapid transit line across northern Toronto, nothing will move on the 401 for much of the day. We see this already between Highways 400 and 427, almost every day. The situation is worsening and needs urgent action,” says Stillich.
SUDA has said that the key to avoiding transportation gridlock across Toronto and in the airport areais a rapid transit line that reflects the scale of the congestion problem ─ a 57-kilometre east-west “401RT” rapid transit line through northern Toronto, from Pickering Town Centre to Hurontario Street in Mississauga – a mostly at-grade subway line longer than Toronto’s Line 1 subway.
“No other transit line across Toronto will have the connections and speed that a 401RT would have,” says SUDA.
A 401RT will connect travelers throughout the city to and from Pickering Town Centre, Scarborough Town Centre and the Scarborough subway, the University of Toronto campus in Scarborough (UTSC), Centennial College, Don Mills Road at Fairview Mall, an extended downtown Relief Line, the Yonge Street subway at Sheppard Avenue, Yorkdale Mall and the Spadina subway, the Etobicoke GO station, the airport employment zone both east and west of Pearson International Airport, the airport itself, the SW Ontario high-speed rail line, the Mississauga Airport Corporate Centre, the Hurontario LRT in Mississauga, and 25 north-south surface transit route connections to thousands of residential and non-residential destinations in Toronto.
The 401RT would carry travelers from end to end (Pickering Town Centre to Hurontario Street) in less than 70 minutes, any time of day. The 401RT and better connecting north-south bus services would carry more than 150 million new TTC riders every year.
The Ontario and Canada governments have a direct interest in maintaining the free flow of people and freight on highway 401, and should be the principal funders of the 401RT, which would cost $15.5 billion, says SUDA. The average municipal cost to Toronto households could be as little as 22 cents a day. “This is not only a bargain, but is necessary if the overall well-being of the Toronto areais to be maintained.”
The 401RT, the proposed extension of the Yonge Street portion of Line 1 subway to Highway 7, and the Eglinton Crosstown LRT will overburden the Yonge subway unless the city’s proposed “Relief Line” is extended north from Danforth Avenue, to connect with the Eglinton LRT and the 401RT. SUDA estimates that this valuable 11.8-kilometre extension would cost $6.75 billion. 75% funding from Ottawa and Queen’s Park would mean an average Toronto household municipal cost of 16 cents per day. The Relief Line extension is estimated by SUDA to carry approximately 30 million new TTC riders per year.
SUDA notes that the newly-announced high-speed rail plan for southwestern Ontario would carry 10 million travelers per year by 2041, for a capital cost of about $20 billion. The 401RT/ReliefLine combination would carry 180 million travelers per year for about $22.3 billion ($15.5b + $6.75b). “If the Province is willing to invest in high-speed intercity rail at $20 billion for 10 million travelers per year, then the 401RT, carrying 18 times as many people at about the same cost, should be a no-brainer,” says Stillich.
The 401RT and extended Relief Line would have other significant positive impacts, says SUDA. The extended Relief Line, combined with GO Transit’s planned all-day two-way rail service on all lines, would rescue the Don Valley Parkway from gridlock, and reduce traffic volumes on the Gardiner Expressway. The apparent need for the eastern ‘hybrid’ diversion of the Gardiner would no longer exist ($600million saved). The Sheppard East LRT would not be needed because the 401RT would attract a large portion of travelers from the proposed LRT ($1 billon saved). The 401RT would be able to deliver many more students and workers to UTSC, from many more points across the city, than the Eglinton East LRT extension, and much faster, rendering the LRT extension to Morningside Avenue in Scarborough unnecessary ($1.7 billion saved), and enable it to be replaced by a superior-grade Rapid Bus service.
From most points in Toronto, the 401RT would be able to deliver air passengers to Pearson faster than the Eglinton West LRT or the Union to Pearson Express train. SUDA suggests that with a 401RT in place, the SmartTrack Eglinton West LRT extension to Pearson may no longer be needed, and could be replaced by a Rapid Bus lane that is integrated with the Mississauga Transitway, with shuttle connections to the Airport (saving $2.4 billion).
While a 401RT would consume the left-most lane in each direction on the highway, modal shifts will keep road traffic moving. A balance will be struck, with car drivers switching to transit as the 401RT is seen to be as fast or faster than driving. SUDA estimates that a 401RT would achieve a revenue-to-cost operating ratio of over 80%.
“The bottom line is that without a rapid transit line across the middle of the GTA, gridlock on the 401 and other roads and highways will spread like a virus, and nothing will move.”
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Issue discussion is attached.
Contact John Stillich at 416-400-0553, or email at
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Sustainable Urban Development Association
2637 Council Ring Road, Mississauga, Ontario L5L 1S6
Tel: 416-400-0553; ; e-mail:
May 20, 2017
Decongesting Road Traffic to Pearson International Airport and the Airport Employment Zone ─ Rapid Transit Rescue
The population of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area is expected to grow from approximately 7.3 million residents in 2016 to 11.9 million by 2051. While most of this growth will occur outside of the City of Toronto, cross-boundary travel demand by road between York, Peel and Durham to and from destinations within Toronto and neighbouring municipalities will worsen current road capacity issues in the Toronto and near-Toronto area.
Road traffic congestion at Pearson International Airport and its surrounding employment area has been steadily growing, and has aroused concerns about accessibility. At least 300,000 workers travel to the airport employment zone each business day[1]. For the airport itself, air passengers and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) generate about 160,000 automobile and truck trips per day (trip figures include return trips, i.e. two-directional). More than 90% of trips are by automobile. For the surrounding employment zone, trips by workers and from business activities generate more than half a million car and truck trips per day (Figure 1). Part of most trips to the area includes traveling on Highway 401.
In the west end of Toronto and in Mississauga, traffic volumes on the 401 are already at crisis levels, as lengthening periods of traffic congestion and gridlock occur. For example, the 401 between Islington Avenue and Weston Road carries 405,500 trips per day[2] over 15 lanes. This is almost twice the volume per lane for a fast flow of traffic for passenger cars, not taking into account the impact of the many large trucks that use the highway. Overcapacity situations exist on other parts of the 401 in Toronto, Mississauga and Pickering. Opportunities for increasing the vehicle capacity of Highways401, 409 and 427 in the areado not exist to prevent a worsening of congestion as travel demand grows. The widening of highways is also contrary to the need to reduce environmental impacts, especially in the critical fight against rapid climate change.
The situation has dire consequences for the regional economic and quality of life. For example, a 5-minute delay for people driving on Highway 401 near the airport area can cost more than $300 million per year. The costs of delays in shipping freight are passed on to consumers. As road congestion grows, more employers will choose not to locate in the airport area, or elsewhere in
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the northern half of Toronto generally. Many job seekers will not pursue employment opportunities that will involve slow, congested trips on the 401.
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The GTAA has proposed a strategy for improving access to the airport and the larger employment zone. Its report, entitled “Pearson Connects”, recommends the creation of a transit Hub at Airport Road near Terminal 3 that would include a variety of transit services to reduce the number of automobiles that access the airport and its surrounding area. They include the existing Union to Pearson Express train, GO bus services, the SmartTrack Eglinton West LRT extension to Pearson, a southwesterly extension of the new Finch LRT, access via the Mississauga Transitway, a GO Rail connection to the Hub, improved access from Derry Road and from the Kipling subway station, and a variety of new local bus services using the Hub as their terminals. SUDA estimates that by 2036 these may generate approximately 197,000 trips, and 250,000 trips by 2051.
Unfortunately, these transit services will not be enough to prevent a significant growth in road traffic congestion over the longer term. By 2051, even with transit initiatives fully operational, travel demand for trips by automobile, and by trucks, will have increasedfurther beyond what the road system can carry (Figure 2).
It has been estimated that 85% of air travellers’ trips to Pearson originate outside of the downtown Toronto area, from all parts of the GTHA and beyond. Existing and planned rapid transit services will not serve those travellers adequately. The Union to Pearson Express train will mostly serve travellers to and from downtown Toronto. The SmartTrack Eglinton LRT to Pearson will serve relatively few air travellers who live north of Eglinton Avenue. The extended Finch West LRT is positioned to serve a local market in the northwest corner of Toronto, and will not be a significant factor in reducing trips by automobile to the airport. The great majority of people who live in the northern half of Toronto ─1.3 million of Toronto’s 2.7 million residents ─ have little choice but to drive if their destinations are not in downtown Toronto, and 90% of them travel by car to the airport area, many of them using highways 401 and 409. Overall, more than 70% of trips by northern Toronto residents are by automobile. Moreover, the cost of owning and operating an automobile for many thousands of residents of northern Toronto, which is home to a disproportionately high number of lower-income households, carries a heavy financial burden.
Rapid Transit Rescue
Because many travellers and freight deliveries that use Highway 401 bypass the airport area, solutions to road traffic conditions should not be limited to access to the airport area, but as an integral part of a larger solution to congestion in the Toronto area. Importantly, current traffic congestion on Highway 401 and other roads is costly and should be reduced. An additional east-west rapid transit line is needed between Eglinton Avenue West and Finch Avenue West that extends beyond the geography of currently-planned rapid transit services for the airport area.
In 2016, the Sustainable Urban Development Association (SUDA) recommended the construction of a ”401RT” rapid transit line, with additional intersecting bus services, as part of its “Mission Critical” report. This 57.5-kilometre 401RT, from Mississauga to Pickering through northern Toronto, plus beefed-up bus services on intersecting transit routes, would carry 150 million new transit users per year, or almost 500,000 per workday. Four-car trains at four-minute headways would be able to deliver close to 200,000 people per day to the Pearson International Airport area and have an additional congestion-reducing effect on area roads. The 401RT can be constructed in phases, with the first being a segment between the Spadina subway and the MACC.
With stations averaging 1.6 kilometres apart, the401RT would rapidly deliver people to/from 34 points across the region (see map illustration below). It would directly serve Pearson and its surrounding employment zone east, west and south of the airport. It would intersect with the Spadina, Yonge and Scarborough subways, the Etobicoke North GO/RER station and the Mississauga Transitway, plus 25 north-south surface bus routes, including Hwy. 27, Airport Road, Martin Grove Road, Kipling Avenue, Dixie Road, Tomken Road and Hurontario Street.
Travel timesare a significant factor in generating modal shifts to transit. A trip from Scarborough Centre to Pearson on the 401RT would take 44 minutes, faster than driving and parking in rush hour. A trip from St. Andrew subway station would take 45 minutes, about the same as for the Union to Pearson Express, and faster than the proposed SmartTrack LRT to Pearson[3]. A trip from Hurontario Street would take about 9 minutes to the Mississauga Airport Corporate Centre (MACC) and 13 minutes to Pearson. A trip from Yonge Street at Sheppard Avenue to Pearson would take 26 minutes. Once on the 401RT, there wold be no transfers to arrive at the Mississauga Airport Corporate Centre or at Pearson International Airport (i.e. no transfer to an airport people mover). The 401RT proposal by SUDA includes 400 additional buses to increase service frequency, to improve the ‘first/last mile’ portion of trips that can be a deterrent to transit ridership.
A list of 40 general benefits of a 401RT is below, including economic, household, environmental and transportation benefits. Their significance indicates the 401RT’s essentiality. Without a 401RT or other singular east-west rapid transit line through northern Toronto, there is no hope of resolving growing road traffic congestion in the city.
In order to maximize affordability, the 401RT is proposed to be located at grade in the Highways 401 and 409 corridors, with tunneled diversions to major destinations, including the airport, the Mississauga Airport Corporate Centre, the Sheppard subway, Scarborough Centre, and Pickering Town Centre. The 401RT would require the conversion of one highway lane in each direction. Modal shifts to transit needed to offset the lane loss for drivers would vary, with relatively smaller shifts during non-peak hours and in lower-volume segments of the highway, and relatively more in peak hours in high-volume segments.
The gross capital cost of the 52.5-kilometre 401RT(excluding the Sheppard subway, which is incorporated into the 401RT) is estimated to be $15.5 billion. Significant costs would not occur until after most other rapid transit initiatives for Toronto have been completed. Capital costs can be financed over 30 years, peaking at approximately $900 million per year, with costs shared among the federal ($250m), Ontario ($500m) and municipal governments, plus the GTAA. The average daily municipal cost to Toronto households can be as little as 22 cents. Additional cost savings can be achieved by not constructing several planned LRTs.[4]
For the GTAA, cost-avoidance in terms of additional facilities needed to accommodate growing demand for access by automobile would at least partially offset its 401RT share. Overall, the mostly at-grade 401RT would cost under $300m per kilometre, compared to $370 million for the Spadina subway extension to Highway 7; new ridership per kilometre is similar.
Because the 401RT would increase ridership on the already-crowded Yonge Street subway, an extension of the downtown “Relief Line” subway to a 401RT station at Victoria Park (or at Sheppard and Don Mills) is recommended. The cost of this extension would approximately $3.4 billion from Danforth Avenue to the Eglinton Crosstown LRT (6.1 km), and $3.3 billion from Eglinton to the 401RT (5.7 km), and grow to mature at $400 million per year (@4.5%, 30 years), cost-shared by three levels of government.
Aside from the benefits of decongesting road traffic, the 401RT would improve access to employment and non-employment destinations for people currently constrained by inadequate transportation options, reduce the high cost of operating automobiles for new transit riders and enable savings to be applied to other household priorities, create new ongoing employment (directly at the TTC and indirectly from new urban development and job growth), improve environmental and personal health, and reduce social costs.
The transit share of trips to Pearson and the airport employment zone must increase, as the GTAA has said, and is overdue. Because a high number of trips to and through the area come from long distances, there is no other rapid transit possibility that offers the magnitude of ridership and cost effectiveness than the 401RT. Building the 401RT will take 20 years of effort, and congestion levels and environmental damage are too high even now. Climate change targets for both the City of Toronto and the Government of Ontario cannot be met without far greater modal shifts to transit than are currently planned. Work should begin now: 2051 is only 34 years away. With priority effort, portions of the 401RT (such as between MACC and the Spadina (Northwest) subway) can be operational before 2036.