Transit City


Transit City was a plan for developing public transport in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was first proposed and announced on 16 March 2007 by Toronto mayor David Miller and Toronto Transit Commission chair Adam Giambrone. The plan called for the construction of seven new light rail lines along the streets of seven priority transit corridors, which would have eventually been integrated with existing rapid transit, streetcar, and bus routes. Other transit improvements outlined in the plan included upgrading and extending the Scarborough RT line, implementing new bus rapid transit lines, and improving frequency and timing of 21 key bus routes. The plan integrated public transportation objectives outlined in the City of Toronto Official Plan, the TTC Ridership Growth Strategy and Miller's 2006 election platform.
By 2009, preliminary engineering work and environmental impact assessments had been done for the construction of the light rail lines. Construction of one of the lines began in December 2009.
On 1 December 2010, Rob Ford took office as the city's new mayor based on an election promise to expand the subway system, instead of implementing light rail lines. As a result, he cancelled the Transit City initiative. However, in early 2012, Toronto City Council voted in favour of motions to resume work on the Sheppard East LRT, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT and the Etobicoke–Finch West LRT projects and to replace the Scarborough RT, defeating Rob Ford's campaign for subways. The master agreement for these lines was signed on 28 November 2012. While these projects were originally proposed under Transit City, they became part of Metrolinx's implementation of The Big Move regional transportation plan.
In 2016, the City of Toronto directed its staff to resurrect and update the 2009 Transit City plan for the Scarborough Malvern LRT, renaming the project as the Eglinton East LRT. Until 2021, the city considered making the EELRT an eastward extension of Line 5 Eglinton, but by 2022, it decided that the Eglinton East LRT should be a standalone line. By 2018, the province had decided to abandon the Sheppard East LRT, instead proposing to extend Line 4 Sheppard to McCowan Road in Scarborough, after which the city decided to incorporate the eastern portion of the Sheppard East LRT into its proposal for the Eglinton East LRT.
Two light rail lines originally proposed as part of Transit City are under construction or complete as of 2025: the under-construction Eglinton Crosstown LRT and the completed Etobicoke–Finch West LRT, which opened on 7 December 2025.

Projects

The plan proposed of tram or electric light rail along seven routes. The proposed network would carry 175 million riders a year, of which 75 million would be new Toronto Transit Commission users. The seven proposed corridors were divided into two project priority phases: current and planned. In May 2009, Metrolinx CEO Robert Prichard announced that after further study, the proposed project was being scaled down, with shortened routes or deferrals to fit within the dedicated provincial funding for Transit City, not factoring in the province's March 2010 announcement that it was deferring $4 billion in funding.
The TTC was prepared to fund the entire cost of the network over a longer period of time. The highest priority was assigned to the Sheppard East, Eglinton Crosstown and Etobicoke–Finch West LRT lines, and to the revitalization of the Scarborough RT line, which was projected to be built by 2020. In addition to the mentioned lines, it was likely that some sort of link would be established between the two lines, so that they could share a single storage facility. The TTC completed the environmental impact assessments for most of these lines, the first one being completed for the Sheppard East line. The construction of this line commenced in December 2009 but was stopped a year later by newly elected mayor Rob Ford.

Light rail transit

, there were several former Transit City proposals under construction or in the proposal stage.
The following two light-rail lines are under construction or complete. Both lines originated from the Transit City proposal but with some modifications. These are Metrolinx projects.
  • Line 5 Eglinton : The longest of the proposed corridors, this line would eventually extend over along Eglinton Avenue, from Kennedy subway station to Toronto Pearson International Airport. The road between Keele Street and Laird Drive was deemed too narrow for a right-of-way, so the line would run in a tunnel, much like the cancelled Eglinton West subway line. The entire planned route was originally expected to be completed by 2020. The western section between Mount Dennis and Pearson International Airport was postponed as a result of provincial funding cuts. It is the only LRT line that survived Rob Ford's cuts, albeit modified to include an extended underground section in the east and the removal of the western section. The eastern underground extension was revised back to a surface alignment in the 2012 transit vote., the central and eastern sections were under construction. As a separate project, a westward extension between Mount Dennis and Renforth station was under construction, but contrary to the 2009 Transit City proposal, it will be completely off-street using tunnels and elevated structures. The western section from Renforth station to Pearson International Airport has been deferred as a later project which would involve planning by both Metrolinx and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.
  • Line 6 Finch West : This line runs along Finch Avenue West, from Humber College North Campus to Finch West subway station on Line 1 Yonge–University. The plan was to keep the line's eastern terminus at Finch subway station and later extend the line to Don Mills subway station, providing a continuous route with the Sheppard East LRT, but this plan was postponed as a result of provincial funding cuts and subsequently abandoned. Construction for its current route was expected to be completed by 2019. The line opened in 2025.
The following projects, originating from Transit City, were being pursued by the City of Toronto rather than Metrolinx. They are in the proposal stage.
  • Waterfront West LRT: A line along the western waterfront, running along Lake Shore Boulevard West from Long Branch GO Station eastward to the Exhibition Grounds, where it would continue eastwards along Fort York Boulevard and Bremner Street toward Union station. Unlike other Transit City projects, the Waterfront West LRT was an expansion of the Toronto streetcar system. This route was proposed since it passes densely built upcoming neighbourhoods and trip generators such as the Rogers Centre and the CN Tower. In January 2013, the project was cancelled by Toronto city officials. In 2015, a report titled Waterfront Transit Reset recommended a "reset" for this decision, due to a lack of a comprehensive plan for a transit network to respond to the rapid changes occurring around the waterfront. In 2017, a report about the Waterfront Transit Reset was presented to the TTC board. It included a number of recommendations to improve streetcar service along the lakeshore between Long Branch and Leslie Street. Should these recommendations regarding streetcar service between Long Branch and Union station be implemented, the resulting route would be similar to the Waterfront West LRT.
  • Scarborough Malvern LRT: The line originally would have run from Kennedy Station to the Morningside/Sheppard intersection near the Malvern neighbourhood via Eglinton Avenue East, Kingston Road and Morningside Avenue. The line would pass near the University of Toronto Scarborough ; it was believed that this line would commence operation much sooner since UTSC was a venue for the 2015 Pan American Games. In 2016, the Scarborough Malvern LRT was dubbed "Crosstown East" and later "Eglinton East LRT" as the eastern extension for the Eglinton Crosstown line. By 2023, the Eglinton East LRT became a standalone line, separate from Line 5 Eglinton. Unlike in the Transit City proposal, the Eglinton East LRT would serve Sheppard Avenue between Morningside Avenue and McCowan Road as well as Malvern Town Centre.
The following Transit City projects were inactive or cancelled:
  • Sheppard East LRT: This line would have run along Sheppard Avenue East from Don Mills Station via the future Sheppard East RT station on the Scarborough RT line, ending at a planned storage facility at Conlins Road, just east of Morningside Avenue. The line was to be constructed approximately 5 km further east to Meadowvale Road, but that portion was postponed as a result of the provincial funding cuts. Construction for the line began in December 2009, with official groundbreaking by Toronto Mayor David Miller. The line would have served the Sheppard East Village, a commercial neighbourhood along Sheppard Avenue East. An extension of the line northwards to the Toronto Zoo was being considered. With construction having started in 2009, the line was expected to be completed and opened in 2014, the first of the seven lines. In June 2012, the province of Ontario announced that construction of the Sheppard East LRT would not resume until 2017 or finish until 2021. By 2017, planning for the line was shelved indefinitely. By 2018, the province decided to propose extending Line 4 Sheppard to McCowan Road in Scarborough.
  • Jane LRT: A line running along Jane Street, from Pioneer Village station on the Yonge–University–Spadina subway line east of the intersection of Jane Street and Steeles Avenue, connecting with the Bloor–Danforth subway presumably at Jane station. This line was cancelled.
  • Don Mills LRT: A line running along Don Mills Road from Steeles Avenue, then through Don Mills station, then through East York Centre, where it would then follow the Leaside Bridge to Pape Avenue, and travel into a tunnel under Pape for about 2 km to Danforth. As of 2019, the part of the line south of Eglinton Avenue is planned to be part of the Ontario Line.