COMMISSION REPORT MACRO

RECOMMENDATIONS

It is recommended that the Commission:

1. Receive this report, noting that, in response to the June 15, 2007 provincial announcement of the MoveOntario 2020 transit funding program, which calls for the start of construction of new rapid transit lines by 2008, TTC staff are updating their work plan for the implementation of the Transit City Light Rail Plan to accelerate the previously-indicated 2010 start-date, through measures including:

· creation of a designated inter-departmental Transit City Project Team, with increased staffing, to oversee an expedited implementation of the Plan;

· consolidating both planning/approval studies and engineering design work into single consulting contracts for each specific light rail corridor;

· consideration of alternate project delivery methods such as design-build and alternative financing and procurement;

· an accelerated process for community input and political decision-making;

· immediate acquisition of property for light rail vehicle maintenance yards in advance of final decisions regarding approvals and funding for the light rail lines;

· increasing the order for new light rail vehicles so that, in addition to acquiring new light rail vehicles to replace the TTC’s aging fleet of streetcars, there will also be delivery of sufficient new light rail vehicles to operate the selected Transit City lines beginning in 2012;

· developing a communications plan to inform TTC customers and Toronto residents about the Transit City Light Rail Plan, its ongoing activities, status, and progress on a regular basis;

2. Note that:

· this accelerated approach requires that the City, the GTTA, and Provincial and Federal agencies accelerate their normal review or approval time frames for funding and environmental assessments, to allow for the early implementation of the light rail lines;

· TTC staff are continuing the preliminary fieldwork and site investigations of the Transit City light rail lines, and are now working on the Eglinton-Crosstown corridor. This corridor, together with the previously-investigated Etobicoke-Finch West and Sheppard East corridors, are currently the leading candidates for early construction. They will achieve significant reach for Toronto’s rapid transit network, bring premium quality service to areas which currently do not have it, achieve strong ridership levels, and offer significant potential in terms of inter-regional rapid transit connectivity, including Pearson Airport;

· TTC staff will be providing an overview of the Transit City Light Rail Plan at the forthcoming July 27, 2007 meeting of the GTTA Board;

· The TTC’s immediate priority for the north Yonge Street corridor is to deliver significant service improvements through the construction of the Yonge Street Bus Rapid Transit facility. This should proceed immediately in order to improve the quality of service for the tens of thousands of customers who travel in this corridor daily, given that it will take many years to complete the extension of the Yonge Subway to Highway 7, and given that the busway is an excellent, cost-effective, near-term measure that will build ridership in this corridor in the interim period. Any proposal to extend the Yonge Street subway north from Finch Station should be assessed and prioritized by the GTTA as part of their forthcoming Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton (GTAH) Regional Transportation Plan, and it should not delay the more-immediate significant improvement that would result from early implementation of the busway;

· staff will be developing a communications plan to inform TTC customers and Toronto residents about the Transit City plan, its ongoing activities, status, and progress on a regular basis; and

3. Forward this report to the City of Toronto, the Greater Toronto Transit Authority, the Province of Ontario, and the Government of Canada.

FUNDING

On June 15, 2007, the Province of Ontario announced funding of $17.5 billion for the implementation of the MoveOntario 2020 GTAH rapid transit program over the next 12 years. MoveOntario 2020 includes funding for the TTC-City of Toronto Transit City Light Rail Plan whose total cost is estimated at $6.0 billion.

This current report has no effect on the TTC’s capital or operating budgets. Funds for the necessary preparatory planning/EA work in 2007 were included in the TTC’s 2007-2011 Capital Program, under 3.9 Buildings and Structures – Environmental Assessments for a BRT/LRT Network (Category – Improvement) as outlined on pages 992 e1-e2, approved by City of Toronto Council on March 7, 2007.

Funding for additional staff resources, and capital for the acquisition of maintenance yard sites, planning/design consulting contracts, and other activities related to the implementation of the Transit City Light Rail Plan, will be included in the 2008-2012 Capital Budget, which will be presented to the Commission for approval in the fall.

BACKGROUND

At its meeting of June 13, 2007, the Commission approved a report entitled, Transit City Light Rail Plan – Implementation Work Plan, which outlined the activities being undertaken to implement the Transit City Light Rail Plan. That report presented an “aggressive and ambitious” work plan to allow for the start of construction on at least one of the light rail lines by 2010.

On June 15, 2007, the Province of Ontario announced the MoveOntario 2020 funding program for the implementation of 52 rapid transit initiatives in the GTAH over the next 12 years. MoveOntario 2020 includes funding for all of the light rail lines in the Transit City Light Rail Plan, as well as for extensions of the Spadina and Yonge subway lines into York Region, significant upgrades to GO Rail service, and bus and light rail transit rights-of-way in a number of other municipalities in the GTAH.

Following the release of MoveOntario 2020, TTC staff were directed to revisit their original implementation work plan to identify ways of accelerating the plan to more-closely match the 12-year time frame contained in the Provincial plan, including the feasibility of starting construction on one of the light rail lines as early as 2008.

This report responds to that directive.

DISCUSSION

Provincial MoveOntario 2020 Announcement

The Provincial MoveOntario 2020 funding program contains 52 rapid transit projects for implementation in the GTAH over the next 12 years. The program represents a vision of dramatically-improved transit services throughout the GTAH in a very short time frame. It includes all seven of the Transit City Light Rail Plan lines, an extension of the Scarborough RT, and extensions of the Spadina and Yonge subway lines into York Region. The City of Toronto will also benefit from the extensive upgrades being proposed for GO Rail services.

The TTC has a long history of operating inter-regional services between Toronto and its neighbouring municipalities, dating back to 1930. Similarly, the TTC has, for many years, worked closely and cooperatively with all of its neighbouring municipal transit agencies and GO Transit in the design and planning of inter-regional transit services. The TTC participated in the Ministry of Transportation’s Fare Integration and Service Coordination initiatives of the 1990’s, as well as in the Greater Toronto Services Board’s development of a transportation plan for the GTA. The TTC expects to continue to work closely with both the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority (GTTA) and the GTAH municipalities in the development of a new, long-term regional transportation plan for the GTAH.

The GTTA will play a key role in transforming the visionary MoveOntario 2020 funding program into a fully-integrated multi-modal regional transportation plan for implementation throughout the GTAH. Projects which have significant inter-regional aspects or implications for inter-regional travel must be dealt with in this GTTA inter‑regional transportation plan, to ensure consistency of treatment and analysis, and to allow for a systematic approach to prioritization. In contrast, projects whose main purpose is to provide local service and/or to support specific municipal/official plan land use and development objectives should be able to proceed in parallel with the GTTA’s comprehensive GTAH-wide transportation plan.

Priorities for Implementation of Transit City Light Rail Plan

At this time, the TTC-City of Toronto are starting to implement the Transit City Light Rail Plan. While the Plan has significant potential and expandability to meet inter-regional travel demands between Toronto and its neighbours, it is designed largely to support the explicitly pro-transit transportation policies and local transit-corridor-oriented development and intensification objectives of Toronto’s Official Plan.

The Transit City Plan’s genesis was to provide excellent local transit service in existing established major transit corridors, and to provide improved access to areas designated for new high‑density development. The Plan’s underlying purpose was to operationalize the Official Plan’s objective of making transit a much-more attractive and viable travel option for people travelling in Toronto and, in so doing, reduce Toronto’s dependence on the automobile and the associated congestion, pollution, and inefficient land uses. The Plan can, and should, be implemented quickly and aggressively, in parallel with the development of the GTTA’s GTAH-wide transportation plan.

All seven light rail lines contained in the Plan will be strong-performing routes when implemented, either because they already have a very strong base of existing ridership, or because they serve areas which have been designated for, or are undergoing intensification and re-urbanization, or both. As previously described, the lines were initially screened through these preliminary measures:

· Application of corridor selection and evaluation criteria including status in the Official Plan, service to priority neighbourhoods, existing and future ridership, and rapid transit coverage and reach throughout the city;

· Identification of general routing alignments, including physical feasibility and major required structures, and approximate location of terminals and transfer connections;

· Projected corridor ridership, taking into account major ridership generators and destinations;

· Projected service levels and designs, including identification of vehicle requirements;

· Identification of inter-regional connectivity potential, including connections with GO Transit.

Preliminary fieldwork, alignment reviews, and structural requirements have already been completed for the Etobicoke-Finch West and Sheppard East light rail lines, and this work is about to start for the Eglinton-Crosstown light rail line. At this time, TTC staff believe that these three lines are strong candidates for early implementation because they will achieve significant reach for Toronto’s rapid transit network, bring premium quality service to areas which currently do not have it, achieve strong ridership levels, and offer significant potential in terms of inter-regional rapid transit connectivity, including Pearson Airport, an international gateway.

Recently, TTC staff have been asked to present a more-formal and structured evaluation and ranking of the seven light rail lines in the Plan. Staff will present such an evaluation in one of the forthcoming reports addressing details of the implementation of the Plan. Due to the resources required of both TTC and consultants, it will be prudent and more efficient to ultimately focus on one light rail line to commence construction in 2008, with planned commencement of other lines in the following years.

Improving Transit Service in the North Yonge Street Corridor

The Yonge Subway line is the busiest service the TTC operates and has been operating close to, or at capacity for many years. For this reason, both the ridership and the operation of the line is monitored closely and has been the subject of a number of detailed evaluations.

The capacity constraint on the line occurs southbound from Bloor Station between 8:00am and 9:00am on weekday mornings. Twenty-eight trains are scheduled to operate through this “peak load point” between 8:00am and 9:00am, and this is the maximum practical capacity that can be operated reliably, given the current signalling system and the physical design of the key stations on the line (Bloor-Yonge and the terminal stations). Ridership during the peak hour is currently as high as it has ever been, at 29,000 passengers per hour in the peak direction, with crowding on trains being close to the applicable loading standards for most of the peak hour. It is a regular occurrence at Bloor Station that passengers have to wait for a number of trains before they are able to board.

Owing in part to this capacity constraint, ridership on the Yonge Subway line at peak times into the downtown has remained relatively stable over the past 20 years. Growth in peak-transit travel into the downtown area has been primarily accommodated through expansions in GO Rail services. In addition, the large increase in residential development close to the core, facilitating live-work lifestyles, has helped to moderate the need for more transit capacity into the downtown area.

The Yonge Subway line to Highway 7 should be pursued as part of a broader regional implementation plan that will ensure that the line will be able to accommodate additional ridership demand which would be generated by an extension. In particular, the following factors need to be considered:

· completion of the already-committed extension of the Spadina Subway line north to the Vaughan Corporate Centre in York Region, in order to give travellers from York Region an alternative rapid transit option into Toronto’s central area;

· potential to significantly expand GO Rail services on the Richmond Hill and Bradford lines, also as a means of diverting longer-distance passengers from the north onto GO Rail services;

· increasing the capacity of the Yonge Subway line through the implementation of the already-planned purchase of higher-capacity trains and through the implementation of the already-planned “Automatic Train Control” signalling system which will allow increases in the frequency of train operation and, thus, capacity.

However, action must be taken now to improve the quality of service experienced by the approximately tens of thousands of passengers who currently travel by transit each day in the north Yonge Street corridor, north of Finch subway station. Transit services in this corridor, which are provided by the TTC, York Region Transit, VIVA, GO Transit, and Brampton Transit, operate, for all intents and purposes, in mixed traffic. The customers of these services experience unreliable and slow service which is typical of mixed-traffic operation. The planning, design, and construction of a future Yonge Subway extension to Highway 7 will take many years to complete. In order to provide the service improvements which are required right now in the north Yonge Street corridor, the TTC intends to continue its current efforts to implement a bus rapid transit facility in this corridor as quickly as possible. This is an affordable “quick win” rapid transit improvement which will benefit large volumes of existing local and inter-regional transit customers right away and for many years to come. This joint Toronto-York Region initiative should be continued and implemented, without any change to the current plans or work arrangements.

Implementation and Timing Issues for the Transit City Plan

The implementation work plan presented in the June 13, 2007 report presented an ”aggressive and ambitious” schedule which called for the start of construction of at least one of the light rail lines by 2010. Accelerating this already-ambitious plan will require actions not normally undertaken by the TTC, the City of Toronto, or the senior levels of government. The changes proposed here are far from final, and represent the most-current discussions on this matter at the time of preparation of this report.

Transit City Project Team

To implement the Transit City Light Rail Plan in an accelerated way will require the establishment of an inter-departmental coordinating group within the TTC, dedicated to the implementation of the plan. The Transit City Project Team will include transit planners, design engineers, track and overhead specialists, vehicle engineering experts, tunnel and structure experts, and individuals with large-project project management expertise. The huge scale of the Transit City plan – bigger than any previous system expansion undertaken by the TTC – will require an increase in staffing to ensure the expeditious implementation of the Plan. Staff will report back on a recommended organisational structure, a staged approach to staffing the Team, and workforce and budgetary implications.

Concurrent Seeking of Approvals and Undertaking Engineering Design Work

Typically, the TTC does not undertake detailed design work for a planned project until after approvals have been obtained and funding has been secured. This is done to reduce the potential for wasting expensive Engineering design work on a project which may not get approval to proceed. It also avoids potential criticism, during the approval process, that decisions and commitments have been made before full public and political support for the project has been confirmed.

In order to expedite implementation of the Transit City plan, the TTC will break away from this traditional sequential work pattern and, instead, undertake detailed engineering design work in advance of project approvals. This proposed accelerated approach would involve retaining a single consulting team to undertake both the planning/approvals work of a light rail line project and the detailed engineering design for the preferred option, both at the same time.

Alternate Project Delivery Methods

In order to proceed in the most expeditious and efficient way, staff are examining the optimum project delivery method options for each of the lines. A wide range of project delivery methods will be screened for each line, such as a design-bid-build (TTC traditional method), design-build, and alternative financing and procurement. It is possible that one delivery method will be chosen for one line and another for other lines, depending on several factors such as risk, complexity, etc. The goal is to choose the best project delivery method for each of the lines that will result in early completion of the line at the lowest possible cost.

Immediate Acquisition of Property for an LRT Yard in Advance of Overall Project Approvals

A critical component of the implementation plan, and a critical-path factor for the opening of the new light rail lines, is the construction of a light rail vehicle maintenance yard(s) and facility(ies). It is critical that work begin immediately on the identification of possible yard locations, property acquisition, and the construction of a yard/maintenance facility. Staff are starting work on identifying and assessing possible yard sites with an expectation of recommending the early acquisition of one or more sites in 2008. Funding for these acquisitions will be included in the 2008-2012 Capital Budget.

Increasing the Order for New Light Rail Vehicles for Operation on Transit City Lines, Beginning in 2012

The current Light Rail Vehicle acquisition plan calls for the purchase of 204 new light rail vehicles to replace the current aging streetcar fleet between 2011 and 2018. This replacement plan includes some additional vehicles for expected growth on the existing streetcar lines, but does not include any vehicles for use on the new Transit City light rail lines.

To open one or more of the Transit City light rail lines on an accelerated basis will require that vehicles be added to the current LRV purchase plan for delivery in time for operation of the lines when they are completed. Six of the Transit City light rail lines are expected to require 15 to 20 LRV’s on opening day, and ridership growth would eventually require between 25 and 35 LRV’s per line. The seventh line -- Eglinton-Crosstown -- is much longer than the others, and would need to be opened in stages, likely requiring approximately 20 to 25 LRV’s for each stage. In total, full build-out of the Transit City light rail network is expected to eventually require approximately 250 additional light rail vehicles.

As part of the 2008-2012 Capital Budget, the LRV fleet acquisition plan will be adjusted to incorporate the purchase of additional LRV’s in the early years of the delivery contract to allow for the operation of new Transit City light rail lines beginning in 2011 and 2012.

Accelerated Process for Community Input and Political Decision-Making

Recent transit right-of-way projects have incorporated extensive community input processes, and extended time frames for political decision-making. The EA process for transit projects is being simplified through a new transit “chapter” of the Municipal Class EA process document, which has recently been endorsed by City Council and which is expected to be approved by the Minister of the Environment by September. This change in process will provide municipalities with a wide degree of flexibility with respect to how much community input they wish to undertake on individual transit projects.

With City Council’s support, the time required for community input on the planning and design of transit projects could be significantly compressed. This does not mean that the community input process will be less effective. In fact, placing time limits on input processes could have the effect of quickly focusing attention on critical elements, which could make for more‑effective community input. TTC staff will bring forward a proposal for managing community consultation for the light rail corridor projects, intended to quickly identify and address key community concerns.

For the approach to be successful, it will require the endorsement of City Council as a whole, and a commitment of compliance from each individual Councillor whose ward is affected by such projects.

Accelerated City, GTTA, Provincial and Federal Agencies Approval for Funding and Environmental Assessments

Achieving early implementation of the Transit City light rail lines will require a commitment by all levels of government to expedite normal planning, funding, and review processes. The City of Toronto will be required to respond to a wide-range of planning and technical issues that will need to be resolved quickly for these projects to proceed on an accelerated basis. To achieve this, a single point of accountability within the City’s administration should be identified to address all City concerns and issues with respect to the accelerated implementation program.

Similarly, GTTA, provincial, and federal environmental assessment reviews and normal funding processes will need to be expedited to allow for early implementation of the lines. The Province of Ontario has strongly supported a streamlined environmental assessment process including the development of a Municipal Class EA process for transit. Quick approval of this Municipal Class EA process by the Minister of the Environment will be an important first step in this accelerated process for transit.

It is also proposed that a Transit City Inter-Governmental Facilitation Committee be established, composed of senior representatives from the City, the GTTA, the Province, and the Federal Government, to expedite Transit City-related matters and requirements through their respective jurisdictions.

Communications Plan

An integral part of the implementation plan for the Transit City light rail plan will be a communications plan to regularly inform TTC passengers and the general public of the overall plan, the public consultation initiatives as part of the approvals process, the more‑detailed design work for corridors as they proceed, and construction and line-opening status. A web site, a newsletter, posters and flyers on TTC vehicles, and regular reports in the Metro newspaper are being considered for inclusion in the communications plan.

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July 4, 2007

11-31-80