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I don't think this update was posted. It's dated April 23rd but not sure when it went live.

DATE: April 23, 2025
TO: Mayor and Members of Council
FROM: Vince Musacchio Deputy City Manager - Infrastructure Development & Interim Deputy City Manager - Planning, Growth Management and Housing Delivery
RE: COMMUNICATION – Council Meeting – April 23, 2025
Item 3, Report 16
METROLINX INITIATIVES UPDATE – Q1 2025

"On April 8, 2025, staff provided the Metrolinx Initiatives Update – Q1 2025 and inadvertently included a Report Highlight without the background from the November 12, 2024 report: Due to a lack of project funding, Metrolinx is suspending further work on the Queen Street and Highway 7 Bus Rapid Transit planning process. Consequently, the necessary contextual information for this Report Highlight was not in the report and has caused confusion with respect to the project status.
On Monday, April 14, 2025, Metrolinx held a municipal stakeholder meeting to provide an update on the Final Results of the Queen Street-Highway 7 Bus Rapid Transit (QS7 BRT)
Business Case and discuss next steps.

Metrolinx has provided an amended update:
* The Business Case Report for the Queen Street and Highway 7 Bus Rapid Transit project has been drafted in consultation with the municipal partners.

Once Metrolinx internal approvals are received, the Business Case Report will be shared with the province to inform next steps."

Goes on to quote the "Previous Correspondence" which was the November 2024 update.

Source: https://pub-vaughan.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=197695
 
City of Vaughan has an RFP for the widening of Highway 7 across the Humber Valley between Rainbow Creek Bridge (just west of Kipling) and Helen Street/Wigwoss Drive (east of Islington).

The configuration will be a six lane cross-section with room for two BRT lanes in future.

Possible GO Bolton Line connection at/near Highway 7 is being looked into?


 
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City of Vaughan has an RFP for the widening of Highway 7 across the Humber Valley between Rainbow Drive (just west of Kipling) and Helen Street/Wigwoss Drive (east of Islington).

The configuration will be a six lane cross-section with room for two BRT lanes in future.

Possible GO Bolton Line connection at/near Highway 7 is being looked into?



I can’t see why there wouldn’t be BRT lanes built at the same time. Six lanes plus a bus median is ridiculous though, it should be just 4+2.
 
BRT in York Region has always been more of symbolic, marketing thing rather than an honest attempt to improve transit. It's always been aimed more for the potential riders (the motorists) than the current riders, and widening a road to 8 lanes to make room for BRT is a good example of that.
 
City of Vaughan has an RFP for the widening of Highway 7 across the Humber Valley between Rainbow Drive (just west of Kipling) and Helen Street/Wigwoss Drive (east of Islington).

The configuration will be a six lane cross-section with room for two BRT lanes in future.

Possible GO Bolton Line connection at/near Highway 7 is being looked into?


Are they going to knock down and replace the exisisting CPKC bridge to allow for widening of the road?
 
Are they going to knock down and replace the exisisting CPKC bridge to allow for widening of the road?
That is the only way they can widen the road.

We will eventually find out what is proposed but there will likely be much more consultation/negotiation with CPKC after that comes out.
 
I can’t see why there wouldn’t be BRT lanes built at the same time. Six lanes plus a bus median is ridiculous though, it should be just 4+2.
Fully agree, they need to do the BRT lanes one shot so they can extend Viva Orange to The Gore Rd and that could relieve some intense overcrowding in this area that is seen on the daily on the 501.
 
Fully agree, they need to do the BRT lanes one shot so they can extend Viva Orange to The Gore Rd and that could relieve some intense overcrowding in this area that is seen on the daily on the 501.
Metrolinx's plan is the 501 goes to VMC and VIVA Orange is truncated to VMC. At this point that would be a better use of resources, to give Brampton Transit pick up and drop off privileges on the 501 and have YRT reallocate the service of the VIVA Orange.
 
Metrolinx's plan is the 501 goes to VMC and VIVA Orange is truncated to VMC. At this point that would be a better use of resources, to give Brampton Transit pick up and drop off privileges on the 501 and have YRT reallocate the service of the VIVA Orange.
Let's cross our fingers and hope they actually do this instead of some half-assed measure.
 
So it's just Vaughan stirring the pot and thinking they can speak for everyone.

Glad to know ML is still on board with the project.

Edit re: Bridge - I had to look over what bridge they're referring to, but I also believe it's the same bridge that is around Hwy 7 / Islington. It sounds to me like they're going to want to expand the roadway for those BRT lanes, but will have to work with CPKC who own that section. Chances are that if they do plan to work with CPKC, they're going to expect similar work akin to what the HMLRT did for the tunnel under the QEW (Pushbox requiring significant manpower, 55 hours of work as opposed to multiple weeks / months, etc).
Yes the cpkc bridge over hwy 7 is the constraining issue. The abutments for the bridge are barely wide enough to accomodate 4 lanes of traffic as it stands.

Additional issues are that there are landowners on either side of 7 through this stretch many which would probably be fully demolished to allowed for expansion. The other is the slope of hwy 7 as it descends into and out of the Humber River Valley. There would need to be significant landworks to Remove/add soil for the expansion. Someone told me years ago that there were plans to brdge hwy 7 across the Humber River Valley but I've never been able to find any official documents and I think it was just urban legend
 
September 11 there is a Metrolinx Board Meeting. The item below references the Queen BRT.

15.4 - Queen St. - Hwy 7 Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Business Case Report (BCR)

Here's to hoping they actually have something to say and not just "we are considering it but aren't sure yet."

Brampton needs to stop getting left behind in many ways.
 

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