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MEETING DATE: November 20, 2002

SUBJECT: STATUS REPORT ON BUS RAPID TRANSIT AND SUBWAY EXTENSION INITIATIVES

It is recommended that the Commission:

1. Receive this report for information, noting that:

• Because of the TTC's continuing emphasis on state-of-good-repair and safety/legislative-related capital funding, there are no requests for funding for expansion projects in the TTC's 2003-2007 Capital Program. Therefore, there is little action which TTC staff can take to pursue rapid transit projects. A number of specific projects involving subway and Bus Rapid Transit expansion have been documented in the TTC's 2003-2007 capital program, but these are "below the line" and are not part of the 2003 capital program recommended by TTC staff.

• The funding recently announced by the Province of Ontario under the Golden Horseshoe Transit Investment Partnership (GTIP) funding program has little potential, at present, to be used for TTC expansion-related initiatives. The GTIP funding, which included a number of Bus Rapid Transit projects involving the TTC, is premised on the provision of matching (two-thirds) funding from other sources. Neither the City of Toronto nor the Federal government have approved funding for such projects, except for small amounts for study purposes, as noted below.

• Within the resources available, TTC staff are involved in these Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) initiatives:

• an Environmental Assessment study of Bus Rapid Transit on Yonge Street, between Finch Avenue and Steeles Avenue, which is being undertaken jointly by City of Toronto Transportation Services, GO Transit, and the TTC. The project will be co-ordinated with related work being undertaken in York Region;

• a study of operations and alignment options for Bus Rapid Transit between Downsview Station and York University/Steeles Avenue. This project will be undertaken jointly by City of Toronto Planning and the TTC;

• the provision of technical advice on the York Region Rapid Transit project, the GO Transit Inter-Regional Bus Rapid Transit project, and the Mississauga Highway 403/Eglinton Avenue Inter-Regional Transit Corridor Implementation Plan.

2. Forward this report to the City of Toronto Transportation Services and Planning Departments, GO Transit, the Region of York, the City of Mississauga, York University, and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.

This report has no effect on the TTC's capital or operating budgets.

At its meeting of June 12, 2002, the Commission received a report entitled, Rapid Transit Expansion Study – Response to Request for Comment. At that time, the Commission confirmed that the Sheppard corridor, between Don Mills Road and Scarborough City Centre, and the corridor between Downsview Station and York University/Steeles Avenue should be priority investments for subway expansion in the City. The Commission also approved, in principle, the establishment of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) facilities in these corridors, along with BRT facilities on Yonge Street north from Finch Station, and west from Kipling Station into Mississauga. These BRT projects would provide immediate and significant service improvements within these heavily-travelled corridors, and would be low-cost precursors to the development of future high-capacity rapid transit lines.

Each of these rapid transit initiatives, with the exception of the extension of the Sheppard Subway to Scarborough City Centre, relate to inter-regional rapid transit plans being undertaken by other agencies in the GTA. Since the release of the June 12, 2002 Commission report, GO Transit has undertaken a study on inter-regional Bus Rapid Transit, York Region has created a York Region Rapid Transit Program and retained a private-sector consortium to implement its York Region Rapid Transit Plan, and the City of Mississauga has initiated the Highway 403/Eglinton Avenue Inter-Regional Transit Corridor Study.

The purpose of this report is to provide a status update on the TTC's involvement in Bus Rapid Transit planning projects and other studies related to inter-regional rapid transit initiatives.

The TTC remains unwavering in its commitment to secure funding for its state-of-good-repair and safety/legislative requirements before entertaining any proposals for system expansion. At the same time, TTC staff are continuing to look for low-cost ways of providing fast, reliable, high-capacity services to its customers. Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is one means of achieving that. From a TTC perspective, the two highest-priority BRT initiatives are the Yonge Street corridor, between Finch and Steeles Avenues, and the Dufferin-Keele corridor, between Downsview Station and York University/Steeles Avenue. BRT facilities in these corridors would provide immediate benefit to a large number of existing passengers, and help encourage increased transit ridership in corridors proposed for future subway extensions.

BRT facilities that provide for physically-exclusive bus operation on Yonge Street, between Finch Station and Steeles Avenue, would provide faster, more-reliable service for more than 1000 bus trips per day which use this roadway. With 110 buses per hour carrying approximately 5000 passengers per hour southbound on Yonge Street in the morning peak, Yonge Street is the busiest roadway for bus operations in the City. The City of Toronto is taking the lead in the preparation of an Environmental Assessment for a Bus Rapid Transit facility on Yonge Street. This study is currently underway and is expected to be complete by the fall of 2003. This relatively low-cost improvement would provide major benefits to TTC passengers, as well as those of York Region Transit, Brampton Transit, and GO Transit travelling on Yonge Street to and from Finch Subway Station. The study is being done in co-operation with the Environmental Assessment work being undertaken by York Region for the development of a rapid transit corridor on Yonge Street north of Steeles Avenue, to ensure that the inter-regional benefits of the improvement are achieved. Funding for the TTC's portion of the cost of the study is included in the TTC's capital program for 2003-2007 (pg. 1091), but the estimated $7M for construction of the facility is not included in the TTC's proposed 2003-2007 capital program, except as a "below the line' item (pg. 1113). Provincial funding for one-third of the total cost of the project was specifically designated as part of the GTIP funding program announced in August 2002, but this funding has not been matched by either the City or the Federal government.

Transit services between Downsview Station and York University/Steeles Avenue serve both City of Toronto residents travelling to and from the University, and North York and York Region residents travelling to and from the subway. This two-way flow pattern makes this corridor particularly attractive for cost-effective transit service. Unfortunately, severe traffic congestion on Dufferin Street, Keele Street, Finch Avenue, and Steeles Avenue at peak times have made transit service in this area of the city very slow and unreliable. A Bus Rapid Transit line between Downsview Station and York University/Steeles Avenue could be developed to provide fast, frequent, and reliable service to the area at a relatively low cost and with few community impacts. There are a number of possible alignments that could be considered to provide a partial- or fully-exclusive bus right-of-way between Downsview Station and York University/Steeles Avenue. TTC staff are initiating a study of operation and alignment alternatives which will provide the basis for the development of an Environmental Assessment for the project. A limited amount of funding is available in the TTC's 2003 Operating Budget for this project which will allow for preliminary technical work to proceed in 2003. In addition, the Province included a small amount of GTIP funding for this study in its announced program in the summer and this will be pursued by TTC staff. Undertaking a full Environmental Assessment for this project would, however, require additional funds. The complete project is a "below the line" item in the TTC's 2003-2007 capital program (pg. 1117). The complete project was not included in the GTIP funding announcement.

A recommendation of the June 12, 2002 Commission report was to proceed with an update of the Environmental Assessment studies required to protect future possible subway alignments in the Sheppard and Downsview/Steeles corridors. These projects are "below the line" in the TTC's 2003-2007 capital program (pg. 1105), and there was no funding for this work included in the Provincial announcement regarding GTIP funding. TTC staff are exploring approaches to protecting property in these corridors in the absence of the funding required for comprehensive updates of the original Environmental Assessment studies.

The regions surrounding Toronto, and the Province of Ontario, have expressed strong interest in developing inter-regional rapid transit facilities. A critical aspect of these plans is the way in which the inter-regional service would connect to the TTC's rapid transit system. From a TTC perspective, the construction and operation of such facilities should not proceed without resolution of the longer-term funding issues related to replacing existing transit vehicles and maintaining existing transit facilities throughout the GTA. However, inter-regional travel does represents a growing market for the TTC, and some of the proposed inter-regional linkages overlap with TTC and City priorities for rapid transit development in the City. So, the TTC should maintain a presence in the development of these inter-regional rapid transit initiatives.

Exhibits 1 and 2 show the preliminary plans from GO Transit's Inter-Regional Bus Rapid Transit Study and York Region's Rapid Transit Plan, respectively. Both plans call for north-south connections to the Finch subway terminal on Yonge Street, and a connection with Downsview station on the Spadina subway, after passing through York University. Similarly, on the western boundary, both Mississauga's Highway 403/Eglinton Avenue Inter-Regional Transit Corridor Study and GO Transit’s Inter-Regional BRT Study include a connection from Eglinton Avenue to the TTC's Kipling Station. Each of these linkages were initially identified in the TTC's Rapid Transit Expansion Study – Response to Request for Comments report as priority candidates for Bus Rapid Transit services as a precursor to future subway extensions. They are also specifically identified as potential future higher-order transit corridors in the City's new Official Plan.

A notable inconsistency between the planning work being done by outside-Toronto agencies and the City of Toronto is with respect to the need for a north-south rapid transit corridor crossing Steeles Avenue east of the Don Valley. York Region and GO Transit plans call for a north-south rapid transit corridor in the vicinity of Warden Avenue or further east on Markham Road. While Markham Road is shown as a future transit corridor in the City's Official Plan, Warden Avenue is not, and the TTC's Rapid Transit Expansion Study (RTES) did not identify any corridor in this area as a priority for rapid transit service.

TTC staff have agreed to participate, at a technical advisory level, in the three inter-regional rapid transit initiatives being undertaken by GO Transit, the City of Mississauga, and York Region. The role of TTC staff in these work groups is to ensure that the TTC's interests and requirements are fully represented and protected and, to the greatest extent possible, to co-ordinate activities and ensure consistency of results with ongoing work by the City/TTC. TTC staff participation in these projects in no way changes the TTC's position with respect to the priorities for funding transit services and improvements in the GTA. Funds should be spent, first and foremost, on the preservation and "state of good repair" of existing services before expenditures are made on expansion projects. In particular, a long-term stable funding mechanism is required for replacing transit vehicles and infrastructure when they reach the end of their useful life. Such a program is required by all transit operators in the GTA -- TTC, GO Transit, Mississauga Transit, York Region Transit, and others.

The selection by York Region of a private sector consortium as a partner in their rapid transit development plans results in potential conflicts of interest on the part of consortia members in developing rapid transit plans in Toronto. TTC's staff dealings with the consortia will be on the basis of full public disclosure of all activities at all times. It is expected that the companies involved in the York Consortium 2002, by their involvement, will be precluded from undertaking consulting contracts related to rapid transit projects in the City.

SUMMARY

Given the funding constraints on the TTC, and the high priority placed on obtaining stable funding for the TTC's base capital and operating needs, there is a limited amount of activity which TTC staff can undertake in support of inter-regional rapid transit initiatives. TTC staff are participating in a joint Environmental Assessment Study of possible Bus Rapid Transit on Yonge Street between Finch Avenue and Steeles Avenue, and are initiating preliminary work on a possible Bus Rapid Transit facility between Downsview Station and York University/Steeles Avenue. Funding for these studies is included in the TTC's current budgets for 2003. The planned work on environmental assessments for the Spadina and Sheppard subway extensions cannot proceed until funding is obtained for these "below the line" projects.

TTC staff are also participating, at a technical level, in studies being undertaken by other agencies with respect to rapid transit planning in the GTA to help ensure that these plans are consistent with the TTC’s and the City's longer-term plans for rapid transit in the City of Toronto.

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November 7, 2002

11 -84-47

Attachments: Exhibit 1 and 2