Hurontario LRT

Hurontario LRT
Looking north at Hurontario St/Highway 401 interchange
Overview
Type	Light rail
Status	Approved
Locale	Mississauga, Brampton
Termini	Brampton Gateway Terminal Port Credit GO Station
Website	http://lrt-mississauga.brampton.ca
Operation
Opened	2022 (projected)[1]
Owner	Metrolinx
Technical
Line length	20 km (12 mi)
Route map Legend Brampton Gateway Terminal Sir Lou Ray Lawson Highway 407 Highway 407 Hwy 407 Maintenance Yard Brampton Mississauga border Derry Courtneypark Highway 401 Britannia Matheson Bristol Eglinton Highway 403 Mississauga Transitway Rathburn at Station Gate Mississauga City Centre Square One Duke of York Robert Speck Main at Burnhamthorpe Matthews Gate Central Parkway Cooksville Milton line Dundas Queensway North Service QEW Mineola Port Credit Lakeshore West line

The Hurontario LRT^[2] (formerly the Hurontario-Main LRT) is a planned light rail line in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, that extends into Brampton, Ontario. This line will run along Hurontario Street. Due to the involvement of two transit agencies in this project, it is currently unclear which agency will operate the line; however, it is likely that Metrolinx will own the line.^[3]

The Cities of Mississauga and Brampton have identified higher-order transit along Hurontario due to the chronic overcrowding situation in Mississauga's (and the suburban Greater Toronto Area's) busiest bus route, 19 Hurontario, which carries more than 25,000 passengers a day, combined with the numerous high-density development proposals along the corridor and the high growth in both cities. They have identified three options: light rail transit for the entire corridor, bus rapid transit for the entire corridor, or a combination of both (light rail south of Mississauga City Centre and bus rapid transit north of it).^[4] After three public information sessions, the residents of both cities agreed overwhelmingly in favour of light rail transit along the full length of the corridor.^[5]

On October 28, 2015, Brampton City Council voted against allowing the LRT to run along the Main Street portion of the route because of concerns of low ridership projections and because of preferences for an LRT along some alternate route. Thus, the LRT will terminate at Steeles Avenue (Brampton Gateway Terminal) instead of Brampton GO Station.^[6]

The LRT line will cost $1.4 billion.^[7] (Prior to the cancellation of the Brampton portion of the line, the estimated cost was around $1.6 billion.^[8]) On April 21, 2015, the Government of Ontario announced that it would completely fund the line, not including local capital costs such as utility relocations, surface upgrades, and landscaping.^[1][9][10]

Construction is expected to commence in 2018, and the line is projected to enter service in 2022.^[1]

Construction and implementation

On October 18, 2016, Infrastructure Ontario and Metrolinx started the procurement process by issuing a request for qualifications to design, build, operate and maintain the Hurontario LRT. The request also asks bidders to supply 44 light rail vehicles, which implies that none of the 182 Flexity Freedom vehicles Metrolinx ordered in 2010 would operate on the line.^[11]

Route

The Hurontario LRT line will run for 19.6 kilometres (12.2 mi) in 40 minutes,^[12] estimated to account for 35.2 million trips in 2031.^[3][13][14]

The LRT line will run begin at the Port Credit GO Station. The line will continue northward, crossing Queen Elizabeth Way along the current northbound lanes of Hurontario, with the southbound lanes passing beneath the QEW in a new tunnel. At Dundas Street, it will connect to a proposed rapid transit line (either a BRT or an LRT). The LRT will indirectly connect to Cooksville GO Station using the LRT stop at John Street. The line continues northward until it splits into two branches between Burnhamthorpe Road and Rathburn Road:

• City Centre Loop alignment: from Hurontario Street, the LRT will turn left at Burnhamthorpe Road, turn right at Duke of York Boulevard, then turn right and follow the northern boulevard of Rathburn Road; it will split north from Rathburn at City Centre Drive and meet the mainline at a raised platform above the current eastbound offramp of Highway 403. This branch serves almost all of Mississauga City Centre using a walking distance of 500 metres (1,600 ft), including those who are transferring to the BRT and City Centre Transit Terminal, as well as Square One Shopping Centre.
• Mainline alignment: the route continues straight along Hurontario Street. This branch serves passengers working in the offices in the eastern part of the City Centre and those who want to bypass Downtown Mississauga and allow faster through travel along Hurontario Street. Beginning at Square One Drive, the LRT will rise above Hurontario before veering west to travel over Highway 403 on a new bridge. It will rejoin Hurontario north of the highway, descending back to street level. This same design is planned over Highway 407, but not at Highway 401 (though a station there will provide connections to a commuter parking lot). At Highway 407, the LRT will connect to GO Transit's proposed Highway 407 Transitway. The line will then end at Steeles Avenue where it will descend into an underground station and connect to Shoppers World Terminal to connect with Züm Steeles BRT line.

Right-of-Way

As of the second Public Information Centre, the LRT will have a dedicated right-of-way throughout the entire corridor, except for a few sections at the segment north of Nanwood Drive, where the segregated right-of-way has been removed to allow left-turn or right-turn lanes. As a result, road space along most of the corridor will be reallocated from two car lanes to the LRT, leaving four lanes for automotive traffic. Some narrower sections of Hurontario Street will be reduced to one car lane per direction. These sections include:^[12][13]

• Port Credit,
• Duke of York Boulevard.

The corridor will have their median lanes taken away for the LRT with some exceptions. Those are:^[12][13]

• Port Street, where two lanes at the south side will be taken away,
• Duke of York Boulevard, where two lanes at the east side will be taken away,
• Hurontario Street between Inglewood Drive and Lakeshore Road, where two lanes to the west side will be used for LRT, with a new bridge at Eaglewood Boulevard to compensate for the proposed removal of the intersection at Inglewood Drive.
• Rathburn Road, which will be widened at the south side, with two lanes taken away at the north side for the LRT.

Alternatives

The LRT line can have a few modifications along the route as it enters the later phases of the study:^[3]

• The LRT line is designed to perform short turns within Mississauga City Centre from both Brampton and Port Credit in case of accidents, closures or high ridership loads.
• Within Mississauga City Centre, the LRT may cross Highway 403 in two ways:^[12]
  • the mainline branch turns left at Square One Drive, then turns right to City Centre Drive, then meets with the downtown branch at Rathburn Road, then cross Highway 403 using a new bridge.
  • the downtown branch meets with the mainline branch at Hurontario Street north of Rathburn Road, requiring the Hurontario Street bridge to be widened to accommodate the LRT.
• Mayor Susan Fennell of Brampton proposed to run the 502 Zum Main along the entire LRT route to Port Credit. Mayor Hazel McCallion of Mississauga rejected the alternative proposal, citing gridlock south of Mississauga City Centre as a reason.^[15]

Main Street Cancellation

On October 28, 2015, Brampton City Council voted 7-4 against allowing the LRT to run along Main Street through its heritage downtown area, as originally planned by the province. Without this agreement, the province has indicate it will move ahead with the project, terminating the LRT at Steeles Avenue (Brampton Gateway Terminal) instead of Brampton GO Station.^[6] Opposed council members had also previously cited a lack of projected growth along the northern half of the proposed Brampton route to support an LRT.^[16]

Proponents said the Main Street route advocated by the province would have revived the city’s struggling downtown core. However, opponents argued that the Main Street route lacked potential for ridership and future growth.^[6] According to City of Brampton's transit ridership data, the current ridership along Main Street has an average of 200 riders per hour per direction on weekdays and Brampton’s downtown has a ridership of about 450 passengers an hour.^[17]

Although all councillors were in support of an LRT, they disagreed on the route it should take. Councillors opposing the Main Street route have proposed running the LRT east or west along Steeles Avenue and then north to Queen Street where it would then possibly continue east from Brampton's downtown area to the Bramalea GO Station or possibly all the way to the future terminus of the Spadina Subway at Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.^[18] In March, 2013, Brampton City Council asked city staff to consider two alternative routes north from Steeles Avenue, either (1) partially north on Main Street, east to a new hospital under construction, north to Queen Street and east to Brampton GO Station, or (2) north on Kennedy Road, west on Queen Street to Brampton GO Station.^[19]

MetroLinx CEO Bruce McCuaig said the provincial money allocated to the Main Street route in Brampton would now be available for other transit projects across the province. However, McCuaig also said Metrolinx would be open to evaluate alternate transit proposals from Brampton for provincial funding for the next round of transit initiatives.^[6]

On November 3, 2015, Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca announced that the funding for the cancelled Main Street route will be invested in priority transit projects in the Greater Toronto Area which might or might not include Brampton.^[20]

Operations

The LRT is planned to run every 5 minutes during rush hours, and every 10 minutes for the rest of the week. Service hours on the LRT corridor is planned to be between 5:00 AM and 1:30 AM Mondays to Saturdays and 7:00 AM to 12:00 AM on Sundays and holidays. Bus service is expected to supplement the remaining hours, making the Hurontario corridor have a 24/7 transit operation. The LRT will take 40 minutes to travel the whole route, compared to 58 minutes using the private automobile.^[12]

The LRT vehicle will be 30 metres in length, carrying up to 200 passengers. However, the LRT is planned to have 3-car trains, carrying up to 600 people. This configuration matches the 90-metre platforms to be built for the LRT stations.^[12]

The LRT will have between 15 and 21 substations, which will be distributed evenly throughout the corridor. These substations convert electricity from the local power sources to the levels needed by the LRT vehicles. The LRT will operate on either 750 or 1500 volts of power.^[12]

The LRT vehicles will be stored and maintained at a new facility at the hydro corridor adjacent to Highway 407, located next to the proposed Highway 407 Transitway Station.^[12]

The LRT vehicles will most likely be the Alstom Citadis Spirit trains Metrolinx may order if Bombardier is unable to deliver the Flexity Freedom trains. Should the former be ordered but the latter do arrive, the Citadis Spirits will instead go to the Hurontario LRT.^[21]

Preparations

On May 16, 2011, MiWay realigned service along Hurontario to include limited-stop service (Route 202) during Saturdays for passengers wishing to bypass Square One.

In September 6, 2011, Brampton Transit launched its second bus rapid transit line, Route 502 Züm Main, which runs from Sandalwood Parkway to Mississauga City Centre all week long. This route replaced MiWay's 102 Intercity Express. Züm buses run every 10 minutes during rush hours and 20 minutes during off-peak hours and weekends.^[22] The frequency of its local counterpart, 2 Main, was reduced to boost ridership in the express service.

At the same date, MiWay replaced 202 Hurontario with a new route, 103 Hurontario Express, which offers additional mid-day and evening services. Its local counterpart, 19 Hurontario, was cut to GO Transit's Highway 407 Park and Ride to fortify the overlapping express services, however its frequency was further increased to address ongoing overcrowding issues between Britannia and Lakeshore Roads, the busiest section of the corridor.^[23] 103 Hurontario Express runs every 17.5 minutes during rush hours, 19 minutes during middays and 24 minutes during Saturdays.

On May 5, 2014, MiWay realigned service along Hurontario corridor once again to provide more 10-minute service on daytime along the express route during weekdays, while cutting Routes 19A, 19B, and 19C for the local service south of Trillium Health Centre, leaving only the main branch of Route 19 to serve the entire Mississauga portion of the corridor from Highway 407 to Port Credit.

Stations and connections

There are 23 proposed stations throughout the corridor, as well as two potential stations. These proposed stations have an average spacing of 850 metres and will feature 90-metre platforms.^[12] They are expected to have heated shelters, CCTV cameras, real-time information system and bicycle lockers. Most of them will feature secondary entrances, but since most of the corridor is currently suburban in nature, these secondary entrances create mid-block crossings throughout Hurontario and Main Streets, which enhance pedestrian access.^[13]

Benefits

Mississauga plans to use the Hurontario LRT to spur commercial development and employment opportunities along the line. According to Ed Sajecki, Commissioner of Planning and Building for Mississauga, downtown development had been mostly residential towers as businesses felt it was to too expensive to provide parking for large commercial establishments. Sajecki expects that the LRT will eliminate the need for downtown parking. With the LRT, downtown population is expected to double in less than two decades from its currently estimated 40,000. According to Mayor Bonnie Crombie, Mississauga is planning for mixed-use zoning along Hurontario including accommodation, businesses, commercial, retail and arts-cultural development.^[24]

Criticism

• Brampton Council has argued that the LRT plan was directed by Mississauga with Brampton absent from negotiation.^[16]
• Mississauga residents fear that LRT won't help them with their commutes and will hurt local businesses during the lengthy and expensive construction process.^[25]

See also

• Mississauga Transitway
• Züm

References

External links

• Official project website
• Metrolinx webpage for the project
• Hurontario LRT: What, When & Why? on YouTube published by Metrolinx