‘Downtown loop’ as part of huge transit project no sure thing for Mississauga

Mississauga might not get the light-rail transit loop in the city’s downtown core that it’s been fighting for the past few years.

City councillors and former mayor Bonnie Crombie occasionally expressed optimism as they fought since 2020 to have the provincial government reinstate the “downtown loop” that was initially included in the massive Hazel McCallion Line LRT project.

However, Crombie’s glass-half-full sentiments seemed somewhat muted as she said goodbye to her council, city staff and Mississauga residents at last week’s general committee meeting at city hall.

The Ontario government is picking up the tab on the $4.6 billion cost to design and build the Hazel McCallion Line, which will run 18 kilometres from south Mississauga to Brampton along Hurontario Street when it opens to passengers at the end of this year or early 2025.

As part of the route’s initial design, a transit “loop” was going to shoot off from the main line on Hurontario Street and circle through the many highrise condos and businesses in Mississauga’s downtown core surrounding Square One.

However, the Premier Doug Ford government nearly four years ago now dropped the “loop” from the plans in a cost-cutting move.

Mississauga has been fighting ever since for its reinstatement.

Map shows route the Hazel McCallion Line will follow when it opens to passengers.

Crombie said last week in her final address as mayor that she and her council never took the provincial government’s funding of the huge transit project for granted.

“And we continue to advocate. Yes, it’s disappointing that we won’t get our downtown loop — yet. But we will. We will continue to advocate for it and I’m sure one day we will, hopefully before (the Hazel McCallion Line) is completed.”

Crombie spoke more confidently about Mississauga’s chances to get the loop restored last June when she pointed to some pretty big numbers that characterize the city’s downtown core.

In an interview with insauga.com at the time, she presented her case, also noting that Ford had indicated to her several times a commitment to reinstating the loop.

“With the exponential, explosive growth of our downtown since we have unlimited heights and densities, and we’re expecting 116 new towers in the next 20 years, we’ve decided that loop should probably be located closer to Confederation Pkwy., a little further west,” Crombie said of city plans to tweak its vision for the “downtown loop.”

“The numbers with the exponential growth speak to the need to build that downtown loop,” she continued, noting that some 75,000 people anticipated to be living in the downtown core, many in “mega-towers,” will “certainly need public transit at their doorstep.”

The “downtown loop,” if reinstated, would spring off from the main Hazel McCallion Line on Hurontario St. to serve tens of thousands of residents and workers in the core.

Ford has said on several occasions that Mississauga officials need to hit up the development community for money to pay for it.

Some estimates indicate it will cost up to $400 million to add the loop to the LRT project and that was before plans to make it larger. That amount is expected to rise significantly as time goes by and construction costs rise.