The provincial agency which is responsible for public transit planning and funding in the Toronto Area, called Metrolinx, has announced plans for creating new revenue streams to fund transit expansion in the Greater Toronto Area, all the way from Oshawa, to Hamilton and even Kitchener. The area is home to almost 8 million people and if you include the Niagara Region it goes well over 8 million people.However the main backbone of transit in the region is the GO Transit line, which runs between the aforementioned cities. Metrolinx, has a big job to come up with a funding plan to pay for upgraded transit infrastructure not just within the region as a whole, but also with each of the individual communities that make up the Greater Toronto Area. That includes LRT's in Hamilton, and Mississauga, and most important the creation of a downtown relief line in Toronto.
The lack of proper transit in the Toronto area, has a huge cost outside whatever means Metrolinx plans to use to fund it's expansion plans. The Toronto Board of Trade has estimated that Gridlock in the Toronto area cost the economy between 6 and 10 billion dollars each and every year. And it also hurts the competitive reach of the city, especially as we are going up against the resource based economies of the cities of western Canada. Improved transit would have almost immediate benefits and that would be clear for everyone to see.
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