Queen Street next stop on Brampton’s bumpy rapid transit ride
City to host public info session May 18 on Queen Rapid Transit Master Plan

bramptonguardian.com
April 27, 2017
By Peter Criscione

The next stop on Brampton’s bumpy rapid transit ride is May 18. That’s the date city planners have set aside for a public information session on plans for higher order transit along one of Brampton’s main commercial corridors.

“Queen Street is seen as an important corridor for longer-term revitalization and urbanized intensification and is a key arterial link to major centres beyond Brampton’s boundaries,” reads a report headed to council next week on the status of the Queen Street Rapid Transit Master Plan, which proposes higher order transit along Queen to Hwy. 50.

Brampton is embarking on the Queen study while still trying to sort out the last few kilometres of a controversial $1.6 billion LRT project via Hurontario Street.

As part of the Queen study, planners have laid out existing conditions, as well as identified “opportunities and constraints along the length of the route. The project team has also completed the initial transportation modelling for the corridor.

Also part of the planning process, the city is hosting a number of public information sessions. The first will take place in the atrium of Brampton City Hall on May 18 with a start time still to be determined.

The meeting will allow stakeholders to view potential alternatives and options, as well as give participants a chance to offer comments and ideas.

Queen Street is a major east-west road running through the core of Brampton into Vaughan, and a beefed up transit option would connect riders to Toronto via the York subway line currently under construction.

The work on the Queen Master Plan sorts out land-use planning, urban design, and active transportation, as well as determining alignment, configuration and what technology to use.

Planning staff will determine whether to recommend Light Rail Transit, Bus Rapid Transit or a combination along Queen.

In February, council voted to spend $4.4 million on environmental studies for alternative route options for light rail on Hurontario Street.

Kennedy and McLaughlin roads have been marked as alternates to the province’s preferred LRT route to Brampton downtown at Main Street, north of Steeles Avenue.

At the height of the Hurontario (HMLRT) debate, critics argued an LRT along the Queen Street corridor would offer more economic benefits and development opportunities to Brampton, instead of the north-south route connecting Brampton riders to the Mississauga lakefront.

Looking at Queen Street, planners say the vision is to “evolve” from the existing Züm service and “introduce dedicated rapid transit between downtown Brampton and the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre mobility hubs.”