TORONTO — Eighty billion dollars. That’s what local, provincial and federal governments have committed to spend across Ontario on transit, roads and bridges over the next decade.
After under-funding its transportation system for years, Ontario went big. It’s paid off, officials told a delegation from metro Atlanta on Friday as part of the Atlanta Regional Commission’s 19th LINK trip. More than 100 Atlanta civic, business and government leaders are in Canada’s largest city to learn how Toronto handles thorny regional issues.
Greater Toronto still wrestles with congestion. It can’t be eliminated, but transit gives commuters more choices, Toronto transit officials said. Quality of life has improved, and the economy and development are booming. Sprawling suburbs grow upward around transit nodes.
Back home in Georgia, it took a wrenching debate for lawmakers this spring to approve about $1 billion in new annual revenue for roads and bridges under a ballyhooed plan that doesn’t dedicate annual funds to rail or buses.
“Our region — we are still in our infancy,” Richard Oden, chairman of the Rockdale County Commission, said after a presentation by Canadian transit officials. “We have to pick up the pace if we want to be a truly global community.”
In the Toronto-Hamilton area, $16 billion in rail and bus expansions are under construction. Another $16.5 billion in transit improvements are planned over the next decade.
Toronto is North America’s fourth-largest city, and the region is home to more than 8.7 million people. Metro Atlanta has about 5.5 million people.
About 10 years ago, Ontario enacted strict land use plans that preserved land north of Toronto, forcing development inward and upward. The region expanded transit, but not fast enough according to officials here.
Toronto Transit Commission CEO Andy Byford said the regional transit network now includes 350 miles of commuter rail, 350 miles of express bus, about 40 miles of bus rapid transit, 70 miles of subways and about 180 miles of streetcar tracks.
MARTA has 48 miles of track, and the city of Atlanta recently opened a 2.5-mile streetcar loop.
MARTA’s planned expansion of high-capacity transit north to Alpharetta, along the Clifton Corridor near the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Emory University, and out the I-20 east corridor could cost several billion dollars to build.
Funding isn’t identified, and a late plan to let MARTA communities vote on an additional half-penny sales tax increase for transit failed in the last legislative session.
Toronto transportation costs are evenly split between cities, the province and the federal government. Property taxes, fuel taxes and steep impact fees on development help pay for transportation upgrades.
The Toronto area held firm on land-use plans to increase density despite protests from developers over the past decade. Now many developers seek more density.
“The development community has just gotten it,” said Mary-Frances Turner, president of York Region Transit, which runs the Viva transit system. “People told me that would never happen.”
There are, however, gaps. Local officials say Toronto’s network needs further expansion to serve inner-ring suburbs that house working poor people without cars.
MARTA CEO Keith Parker said during a panel discussion that many in Atlanta would envy the Toronto area transit network. Even in transit-rich areas like New York, residents sometimes complain about their systems’ limitations.
“The response we get from our customers is, ‘Please hurry up,’” said Bruce McCuaig, CEO of Metrolinx, an Ontario transportation planning agency that also runs commuter rail. “There’s insatiable demand for our services.”
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