Hurontario LRT gets a boost from Queen's Park

The Liberal government is expected to announce funding for the LRT from Port Credit to Brampton, ahead of Thursday's budget.

Thestar.com
April 21, 2015
By Tess Kalinowski

Ontario Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca will announce the province is moving ahead to build the Hurontario LRT running between Mississauga's Port Credit neighbourhood and Brampton.

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie and Brampton Mayor Linda Jeffrey are expected to join Del Duca at the City Centre transit terminal near Square One in Mississauga to confirm Queen's Park's support for the $1.6 billion transit line.

In January, Crombie admitted that her city has no money to contribute to the approximately 23-km. LRT.

Brampton is still trying to determine its preferred routing for the LRT with some residents opposed to sending it up Main St. because they believe it will interfere with the charm of the city's heritage downtown. But Jeffrey told The Toronto Star earlier this year that downtown Brampton needs the foot traffic that the LRT can deliver.

The LRT is among a list of Metrolinx projects that the Ontario Liberal government said last week it would work with Toronto region cities to deliver. Also on the list were a series of bus rapid transit lines, the Toronto relief subway and the Yonge subway extension to Richmond Hill.

The transit infrastructure is part of the investment Premier Kathleen Wynne said will flow from the sale of part of Hydro One and other provincial assets.

Much of that investment will go toward the GO regional express rail (RER) plan that would see much of the system's tracks electrified to provide 15-minute frequencies on some key sections. On Friday, Wynne announced there will be 50 per cent more GO trains in five years.

But there were no details on expanded GO service on the Milton GO line or on the Richmond Hill line where Metrolinx doesn't own the tracks and in the latter case, needs major flooding remediation along the Don Valley.

In advance of Tuesday's Hurontario LRT announcement there was concern about how much provincial money would be left for non-GO projects given that RER is expected to eat up $13.5 billion of the $16 billion the province is making available for Toronto region transit in the next 10 years.