[MiExpress]

Still puzzled about what the business case was for the Transitway - what are the ridership numbers like for it? For the amount the City spent on it, it seemed like the money could've better used elsewhere (as the priority corridors in this document show).

One thing to keep in mind is there has been a significant shift in ridership patterns during and after COVID. Corridors like Derry and Eglinton had nowhere near the ridership in 2019 as they do today.

I've posted ridership data in this thread in the past going back to 2019. As far as the transitway goes, it's the corridor that has been hardest hit by the shift in ridership patterns and has been slow to recover with only about 60% of its 2019 ridership levels in 2025. In 2019, the transitway was approaching 20,000 daily weekday boardings which put it in the top 3 transit corridors in Mississauga and with similar weekday ridership to the Dundas and Hurontario corridors. MiWay was offering a combined 3 minute peak frequency (routes 100, 107, 109) and still couldn't keep up with the demand with crush loaded buses during rush hours being the norm. Off peak and weekend ridership was seeing significant growth too.

The slow transitway ridership recovery post COVID is no doubt in part due to work from home/hybrid work arrangements becoming commonplace. The shifts in ridership during and after COVID meant that up until recently MiWay was reallocating service from the transitway to routes like Derry and Eglinton which were suddenly seeing overcrowding. The reduced service and frequency likely makes the transitway less useful from a network perspective. In addition, there was supposed to be route modifications to better integrate/connect routes with the transitway that have not occurred or are finally occuring years later than originally proposed (as an example, the proposed route 50 this year).

 

[MiExpress]

If they extended it;
- northwards alongside the 410 up to the 407
- westward alongside the 407 all the way to Aldershot GO
- improved the 403 portion in Mississauga

it would serve as a great transitway for GO buses to get from Aldershot to Bramalea GO with a Major stop in the middle at Square One and quicker/ easier access to Pearson airport for people in Hamilton.

Improving the 403 portion would not only make the transitway more useful but also improve the transit network as a whole. Even just improvements to the current west segment such as a ramp at Glen Erin and station at Ridgeway would make it far more useful. As has been covered in this thread and elsewhere on UT, the fact the transitway was never fully completed as designed is also a issue.

 

[drum118]

Last I checked the BRT along Dundas still has yet to begin construction. So what exactly is there to rip up?

Utilities' that don't have to be relocated for the BRT, but for the LRT. Regardless if construction hasn't started, the EA has to be amended that will take 6-9 months as well drawings have to be revised for the upgrading of the BRT to an LRT at a future date. Most of all, council has voted down any cost to upgrade the plan for the BRT to a future LRT as well the cost to do it along with unities relocations and updating the EA.

At some future date, a new council may approve the cost to convert the BRT to an LRT, but will Metrolinx allow this since they are the ones who wants an BRT on Dundas from Waterdown to Kipling in the first place??

 

[drum118]

Improving the 403 portion would not only make the transitway more useful but also improve the transit network as a whole. Even just improvements to the current west segment such as a ramp at Glen Erin and station at Ridgeway would make it far more useful. As has been covered in this thread and elsewhere on UT, the fact the transitway was never fully completed as designed is also a issue.

The Transitway is a GO thing and the amount of ridership that was plan has fail to metalizes as projected in the 2004 EA plan. Even if the missing section in Mississauga was built, it will have a small impact on miWay in the first place. Same for GO missing section to the 403 and 407 that will have very little impact on their current ridership and service. If one looks at the Transitway Stations parking lot, they are empty east of CCTT and cannot speck to the west since I rarely travel that route, but were partly used from what I recall seeing..

Ridgeway Station was removed from the original plan due to lack of ridership was not going to happen as proposed in the EA.

Until a new transit Hub is built to the north of CCTT as well having a underground tunnel and station, the Transitway will be a very weak link for all systems. This doesn't surprise me since I stated in my 2004 report on the Transitway plan that I opposed it base on the flaw data that was used to justify it in the first place. Both GO and miWay ridership numbers not have come close to project numbers before COVID.

Ridership west of Renforth is supposed to be 25,000 at peak time today. for GO and less than 10,000 for miWay. How does your ridership numbers match these numbers today??

 

[reinventingthewheel]

I’ll be curious to see ridership increases for the transitway over the next 5-10 years with:

• Hurontario LRT opening
• Increasing return to office mandates
• Eventual opening of crosstown west extension

Considering buses only need to travel through 2-3 signals in mixed traffic between CCTT and the transitway, I think it will be hard to justify any tunnel option for many years, there will always be far better transit investments. In the same vein, the missing link to Erin Mills is a huge expense that will probably never be realized.

 

[doady]

It's not about the amount of signals between CCTT and the Transitway, it's more about the amount of buses between them. How many more GO, Mi Express, Mi Local buses can converge onto the same corridor in mixed traffic? This was the same problem with the Ottawa Transitway, where they built this high capacity, grade-separated BRT network, but the busiest and most crowded section of the BRT, Albert and Slater, had the lowest capacity, because it was on-street. What Ottawa's system needed most, even more than conversion to rail, was a tunnel downtown, and Mississauga will eventually need one too.

They need to complete this Transitway for another important reason: to build the proposed station at Hurontario. This would allow the light rail trains to bypass CCTT and yet still connect with Transitway. Making CCTT less of a focal point and giving Local buses another Transitway station to serve would free up some much needed space at the CCTT loop, which is operating at more than twice the capacity it was originally designed for. Because Mississauga probably has already grown way past the point that it can have a bus system where 13 different routes enter a single terminal loop in its city centre.

 

[drum118]

I’ll be curious to see ridership increases for the transitway over the next 5-10 years with:

• Hurontario LRT opening
• Increasing return to office mandates
• Eventual opening of crosstown west extension

Considering buses only need to travel through 2-3 signals in mixed traffic between CCTT and the transitway, I think it will be hard to justify any tunnel option for many years, there will always be far better transit investments. In the same vein, the missing link to Erin Mills is a huge expense that will probably never be realized.

I rode the 109 from CCTT to Renforth today and it was a slow boat to hell. Never made it over 40km considering the speed is 80km outside the station. We even sat for 3 minutes at a station.

Drop 5 riders off and pickup 5 at 4 stations including Renforth with 20 riders on the bus. Cawthra parking lot was totally empty and near to next to no cars in the lot the last few trips I have been on. When I drove by Dixie a few weeks ago, zero cars in the lots and 2 at Cawthra.

It been stated that the ridership has fallen the last 2 year and has yet to recover from COVID.

It's not about the amount of signals between CCTT and the Transitway, it's more about the amount of buses between them. How many more GO, Mi Express, Mi Local buses can converge onto the same corridor in mixed traffic? This was the same problem with the Ottawa Transitway, where they built this high capacity, grade-separated BRT network, but the busiest and most crowded section of the BRT, Albert and Slater, had the lowest capacity, because it was on-street. What Ottawa's system needed most, even more than conversion to rail, was a tunnel downtown, and Mississauga will eventually need one too.

They need to complete this Transitway for another important reason: to build the proposed station at Hurontario. This would allow the light rail trains to bypass CCTT and yet still connect with Transitway. Making CCTT less of a focal point and giving Local buses another Transitway station to serve would free up some much needed space at the CCTT loop, which is operating at more than twice the capacity it was originally designed for. Because Mississauga probably has already grown way past the point that it can have a bus system where 13 different routes enter a single terminal loop in its city centre.

You have 2 lights from CCTT to Renforth and 8 from the Transitway to Erin Mills Station.

CCTT is to move to the north of the LRT with a larger bus terminal to house GO and miWay and that plan has yet to surface when a known date for it to be in place. The Transitway is to be under ground. As to when the 3 missing section of the Transitway is built, name a decade and wait to see if ML builds it by then as the city is no place to do it.

All the unbuilt plan Transitway station are dead. Both CCTT, GO and the Transitway Buses will have the LRT at their current front door when the station gets built this year. To be clear, there will not be an Hurontario LRT station for the Transitway as it is impossible to do at Hurontario. Sq One Station will a stub station at this time until the update EA takes place to extend the Loop to Confederation as well build it. It will not be built by Mobilinx. One can say the same thing from the Brampton extension with no clear indication who will built both extensions as well being a P3 or general tender. I expect Mobilinx will be responsible for operations as an extra to Mobilinx until their 30 years are up once substantial completion of their current work.

 

[doady]

Since the LRT was not built along City Centre Dr as was originally proposed, and the space that was reserved for the second Transitway station and terminal now taken up by the elevated intersection of the LRT mainline and stub, the Transitway would have to be built under Square One Dr to connect with the LRT at Hurontario. Here is an example of how the Local routes could be realigned to serve a second bus terminal there. With seven routes taken out of the existing terminal, the remaining six routes would each have their own dedicated bus bay, allowing increased frequencies, with room to spare for new routes (e.g. Mavis Express and Confederation/McLaughlin Express) and non-Transitway GO buses.

 

[SR95]

Since the LRT was not built along City Centre Dr as was originally proposed, and the space that was reserved for the second Transitway station and terminal now taken up by the elevated intersection of the LRT mainline and stub, the Transitway would have to be built under Square One Dr to connect with the LRT at Hurontario.

That's what is currently being planned / studied by the City, see below:

More context is available here for those curious: https://www.mississauga.ca/wp-conte...sauga-DMP-Technical-Report-20250227-final.pdf

 

[drum118]

That's what is currently being planned / studied by the City, see below:
View attachment 645322

More context is available here for those curious: https://www.mississauga.ca/wp-conte...sauga-DMP-Technical-Report-20250227-final.pdf

That was approved before being canceled in 2019 and the new approved one goes 2 blocks to the west for the Confederation section. now. It needs an EA to do it and who knows when ML will start the EA as well awarding a contract to build the loop.

The Transitway Lines are by Duke of York not Station Gate per the plan.

 

[SR95]

That was approved before being canceled in 2019 and the new approved one goes 2 blocks to the west for the Confederation section. now. It needs an EA to do it and who knows when ML will start the EA as well awarding a contract to build the loop.

The Transitway Lines are by Duke of York not Station Gate per the plan.

I was talking specifically just about the Transitway and Transit Terminal. The plan is still very much to build the terminal on the north side of Rathburn, and extend the transitway below grade, parallel to Sq One Drive, before heading north along Station Gate to Centre View Dr.

As for the LRT loop you're right, a lot of what's in that document is outdated at this point.

 

[drum118]

I was talking specifically just about the Transitway and Transit Terminal. The plan is still very much to build the terminal on the north side of Rathburn, and extend the transitway below grade, parallel to Sq One Drive, before heading north along Station Gate to Centre View Dr.

As for the LRT loop you're right, a lot of what's in that document is outdated at this point.

The plan for the new terminal and putting the Transitway underground has gone dead and been run by ML. There needs to be a large terminal on the northside both underground and at grade with a development over it to meet future needs and handle buses every few minutes as well future RT lines. Since this is OMERS lands and expensive, OMERS wants to see development on those lands than a bus terminal. Single story buildings or a stand alone bus terminal does cut it and other places have development over transit terminal and other things these days.

It been said the new terminal would be beside the LRT on one of the sides of Station Gates with the Transitway crossing the 403 around Duke of York. The old plan was to raise DoY over City View and the 403 and been sleeping for well over a decade on that plan.

 

[SR95]

The plan for the new terminal and putting the Transitway underground has gone dead and been run by ML. There needs to be a large terminal on the northside both underground and at grade with a development over it to meet future needs and handle buses every few minutes as well future RT lines. Since this is OMERS lands and expensive, OMERS wants to see development on those lands than a bus terminal. Single story buildings or a stand alone bus terminal does cut it and other places have development over transit terminal and other things these days.

It been said the new terminal would be beside the LRT on one of the sides of Station Gates with the Transitway crossing the 403 around Duke of York. The old plan was to raise DoY over City View and the 403 and been sleeping for well over a decade on that plan.

Can't speak for OMERS intents for their lands, nor for Metrolinx involvement, but the City staff I'm in contact with are putting together an RFP for a TRPAP for the Transitway extension and Transit Terminal as we speak - both in the location & configuration that I described above.

To be fair, it is in the very early / conceptual stages and subject to change so by the time this thing gets shovels in the ground it can and likely will change dramatically - but that's what I've been told.

 

[doady]

That's what is currently being planned / studied by the City, see below:

The Transitway along the north side of Rathburn has been the plan from the very beginning. I am saying they should change it to Square One Dr, since the land that they had set aside for the Hurontario transitway station and terminal is now taken up by the two intersecting parts of the LRT.

 

[SR95]

The Transitway along the north side of Rathburn has been the plan from the very beginning. I am saying they should change it to Square One Dr, since the land that they had set aside for the Hurontario transitway station and terminal is now taken up by the two intersecting parts of the LRT.

Ah I see I misread your initial post, my mistake.