Big transit plans expected to ‘completely transform’ how people get around inside and outside Mississauga
Published July 19, 2024 at 5:23 pm
Several major public transit projects are in the works in Mississauga and when completed in the years ahead, they’re expected to “completely transform how people travel both inside and outside Mississauga.”
Whether or not that vision comes to fruition, time will tell. But those behind the massive infrastructure plans insist that when the time comes — that is, when the light-rail trains and express buses open their doors to riders — people will flock to the new transit options and regularly enjoy the benefits of faster trips to wherever they want and need to go both within Mississauga and Peel and beyond the region’s borders to Toronto and parts west of Canada’s seventh-largest city as well.
Essentially, to slightly alter the whispered words heard by baseball literary hero Ray Kinsella, it’s a public transportation take on “If you build it, they will come.”
A route to link Toronto, Mississauga and the airport
In trumpeting one of the three major transit initiatives, the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension, project leaders at Metrolinx told INsauga.com it will significantly reduce travel time for commuters who undertake any number of journeys, including between Square One Shopping Centre in the heart of Mississauga and the Yonge Street/Eglinton Avenue corridor in downtown Toronto.
“This extension will provide significant relief by improving transit connections between Mississauga and Toronto and cutting travel times,” a spokesperson for Metrolinx, the provincial transportation agency overseeing the ECWE and Mississauga’s other major transit projects, said.
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“For example, someone travelling (between) midtown Toronto’s busy Yonge-and-Eglinton area and Square One shopping mall will save up to 24 minutes on their journey.”
The Eglinton Crosstown West Extension is a 9.2-kilometre above ground/underground light-rail transit route that will take the Eglinton Crosstown LRT in Toronto farther west and “bring much-needed rapid transit to Etobicoke and Mississauga,” project leaders said.
When completed in roughly seven years, it will link east Mississauga and likely Pearson Airport as well with parts of west Toronto. With project completion anticipated by 2030-31, the new route will bring the LRT line from Toronto west to Renforth Drive in east Mississauga.
A proposal to extend the ECWE an additional 4.7 kilometres from Renforth Drive to Pearson is also being strongly considered.
Map shows the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension plan. (Image: Metrolinx)
When finished, the ECWE will operate underground from Renforth Drive to just west of Scarlett Road in Toronto, where it will then transition to a 1.5-km elevated section that runs east of Jane Street before heading underground again and connecting to the future Mount Dennis Station.
The new LRT line is expected to cut greenhouse gas emissions by some 39,000 tonnes each year, project leaders have said.
Metrolinx told INsauga.com the completed extension will create “a continuous rapid transit line that stretches from Mississauga, through midtown Toronto and all the way to Scarborough. The extension will run from the future Mount Dennis Station to Renforth Drive, with seven new stations along the way.”
The ECWE will also “connect to other local and regional transit options, including UP Express and GO Transit rail services, TTC bus services, and MiWay and GO Transit bus services along the 18-kilometre Mississauga Transitway. When combined with the future Eglinton Crosstown LRT, riders will also be able to connect to three TTC subway stations and the Stouffville GO train line.”
A big LRT line named for a big Mississauga personality
The Hazel McCallion Line, meanwhile, is a massive LRT route nearing completion that within the next year or so will begin whisking passengers from Port Credit GO in Mississauga’s south end all the way north into Brampton via Hurontario Street.
When completed in 2025 (Metrolinx hasn’t provided a specific finish date), the $4.6-billion route named for Mississauga’s 36-year iconic mayor will feature some two dozen stops along the 22-kilometre line.
Metrolinx received the go-ahead from the province back in February to extend the line by three or four kilometres into downtown Brampton and reintroduce the “downtown loop” to the City Centre area of Mississauga.
The latter component has added several stops to the route and it will provide “transit at the doorstep” to some 75,000 people expected to soon be living in highrises around Square One.
The “downtown loop” was eliminated in 2019 from plans for the then-Hurontario LRT (since renamed the Hazel McCallion Line) in a cost-cutting move by the Ontario government. City of Mississauga officials, at the time, immediately began to aggressively push the province to restore plans for the City Centre part of the LRT, arguing the added access to public transit will be desperately needed by the tens of thousands of people expected to populate the highrises in addition to the thousands more who work at businesses right around Square One.
Map shows the Hazel McCallion Line as it will run through Mississauga and Brampton. (Image: Metrolinx)
Metrolinx recently told INsauga.com once the route is operational, the goal is to hit an estimated 32 million in annual ridership on the Hazel McCallion Line by 2031, with 23,000 passenger boardings during peak time each morning.
By comparison, Mississauga’s public transit provider, MiWay, numbered 44.7 million rides in 2023 and its goal by 2027 is 50 million “annual revenue rides.”
Project leaders at Metrolinx said the new LRT line along Hurontario Street “will have its own dedicated lane, ensuring a smooth, reliable and convenient ride travelling through two urban growth centres. The LRT will connect to major transit systems including GO Transit (Milton and Lakeshore West lines), the Mississauga Transitway, Brampton Transit, ZUM and MiWay.”
Together, project officials believe, the Hazel McCallion Line and Eglinton Crosstown West Extension are expected to dramatically change the public transportation landscape in Mississauga, Brampton and beyond Peel’s borders.
“The Hazel McCallion Line and Eglinton Crosstown West Extension projects will completely transform how people travel both inside and outside Mississauga,” Metrolinx told INsauga.com. “In addition to making the city more connected than ever before, locals will have more choice on how they travel, including better connections to local transit that will make their trips to Toronto, Brampton and even Scarborough faster and easier.”
Express buses will take riders from Mississauga to Hamilton
The Dundas Bus Rapid Transit route is a bit of a different public transportation beast in that it features express buses, and not trains moving along rails, travelling in dedicated and other road lanes.
It’s a 48-kilometre express bus line that will cut an east-west path from the Kipling Transit Hub in Toronto to Highway 6 in Hamilton by way of Mississauga and Halton. It’s being built over the next number of years and will run 17 kilometres along Dundas Street in Mississauga.
Metrolinx and the City of Mississauga are working together to complete the huge bus line. They’re in the midst of hosting a fourth round of public engagement that continues until July 24.
It’s expected that millions of commuters in Mississauga and places west of the city will benefit from the Dundas BRT once it’s up and running some years down the road (see video below).
It will run for 17 kilometres through Mississauga, including the Mississauga East portion of the route that runs seven kilometres from Etobicoke Creek in the east to Confederation Parkway in the west.
There are three other segments to the massive project: Mississauga West (Confederation Parkway west to Ninth Line), Toronto (Kipling Transit Hub to Etobicoke Creek) and Halton/Hamilton (Ninth Line west to Highway 6).
The project calls for about 20 kilometres of the route to be a bus-only lane or dedicated right-of-way, separate from other traffic.
Metrolinx said the design will allow for “faster and more reliable transit connections” across the region. They noted the Dundas BRT, first introduced to residents and businesses in April 2021, will fill a significant transportation void in Mississauga and beyond.
“Right now, there’s no continuous east-west transit service along Dundas Street, which impacts connectivity and accessibility for residents, workers and commuters,” Metrolinx officials said.
According to the transit agency, the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area welcomes some 110,000 new residents each year and it’s expected to be home to more than 10 million people by 2041.
Map shows route of the Dundas BRT. (Image: Metrolinx)