On The Move Toward Sustainable Transportation
Transportation Master Plan for York Region

• The Transportation Master Plan for York Region is based on a transportation vision that foresees an integrated road and public transit network that will support our growth over the next 30 years by more than doubling transit share and providing more travel choices in order to cope with traffic congestion.

• The Transportation Master Plan complements all other regional planning initiatives, and is consistent with the transportation and planning policies of the province and our neighbouring regions.

• The plan includes a Five Year Action Plan and subsequent 10-year and 20-year staging plans, ensuring elements of the plan are implemented in a timely and cost-effective manner. Progress of the plan will be closely monitored.

• A transportation plan is needed now and for the next 30 years, when our population is expected to surge to 1.4 million residents. York Region is already the fastest-growing part of the Greater Toronto Area and one of the fasted-growing municipalities in Canada. Our population has increased four-fold in the past three decades.

• The Transportation Master Plan consists of the following categories of improvement that will be undertaken:

1. Improve rapid transit services in urban York Region
2. Expand GO Transit commuter rail service
3. Open additional GO Transit rail stations
4. Provide key gateways to the transit network
5. Establish a grid of supporting bus services
6. Provide traffic signal priority for transit, plus reserved bus lanes and high-occupancy vehicle lanes
7. Create a system of commuter parking lots
8. Provide rural bus routes that connect outlying communities with urban centres and rapid transit services
9. Provide local transit service in outlying communities
10. Provide separate services for those unable to use conventional transit

• The heart of the Transportation Master Plan is the ambitious goal to more than double the percentage of trips made by public transit by York residents. The basic goal of our transit planning is to ensure that the four Regional centres – Vaughan, Richmond Hill, Markham and Newmarket – are well served by a high quality rapid transit network. The network consists of the Yonge Street and Highway 7 corridors, as well as two additional corridors – the Vaughan Corporate Centre to the Spadina subway via York University and the Markham Centre to the Sheppard subway.
• To meet future travel demands, we will also need to improve the highway and road network, critical to ensure the timely movement of goods and services. Long-term improvements to the road network include eight major initiatives:

1. Extensions to the provincial freeway network, including extensions to Highway 427 and Highway 404 and the Bradford bypass
2. A four-lane Bloomington Road-King City bypass corridor, extending from the Peel Region boundary to the Durham Region boundary
3. A Markham bypass from Highway 48 to Steeles Avenue and extending into Toronto
4. A north Markham east-west link
5. Complete missing links, including Pine Valley Drive between Langstaff Road and Rutherford Road and Teston Road between Keele Street and Dufferin Street and Stouffville Road extension west of Yonge Street to connect with King-Vaughan Road at Bathurst Street
6. Elimination of jogs at several intersections
7. Improved connections to Peel and Durham regions
8. New Highway 400 and Highway 404 interchanges

• Three different technologies are under consideration for rapid transit in York Region – bus rapid transit, light rail transit and subway.

• Full implementation of the Transportation Master Plan proposals will cost between $5.6 billion and $7.3 billion over 30 years. The lower end of the range is based on bus rapid transit while the upper end includes subways and light rail transit

• In addition to capital costs, it will cost between $57 million and $90 million more per year to operate regional roads and the transit system by 2031.

Contact: Patrick Casey, Senior Media Relations Specialist, York Region

• (905) 830-4444, ext. 1235
• Email: patrick.casey@region.york.on.ca