The 6 has the sixth worst commute
The Toronto area’s crippling congestion has contributed to it being ranked as having the sixth worst commute of all major cities in the world - and the worst in all of North America!
We’re overdue for a second major transit hub
Today, Union Station is the GTA’s only major ground mobility hub. About 90% of American metropolitan areas with 5-7 million people have at least two major hubs.
Union Station can’t handle it all
Union Station is already congested. GO service enhancements will bring in even more passengers. A second major transit hub in the Airport Employment Zone will relieve congestion on transit downtown and give you transit access to new employment areas in the GTHA without connecting through Union Station.
It’s in the right spot
Building something great is all about location, location, location—and the airport area has it. Toronto Pearson touches three of the largest municipalities in Canada and the area surrounding the airport is the second largest concentration of jobs in Canada. It’s right in the middle of the GTA, with a GO Train corridor that runs through it and multiple planned or existing transit lines nearby.
There is a shocking number of people driving to the airport area every day
The Airport Employment Zone is Canada’s second largest employment area. There are about 1,000,000 trips to the area each day. That’s equal to nearly everyone in Cambridge, Hamilton, Kitchener and Waterloo.
…and the number of people travelling past the airport is equally incredible!
Research shows that there are almost 450,000 people travelling from the West GTHA each day to the East. Many travel downtown, but more than double the number of commuters travel across the “northern and midtown arcs” of the region. There’s also another huge difference. Almost half (42%) of trips downtown are on transit. Along the northern and midtown arcs (think 407 and 401 corridors), it’s less than 10% each.
No car and no transit route mean some jobs are out of reach
Why look for work outside of downtown when you have no way to get there? Improving transit connectivity between major suburbs outside of downtown will help you get to your potential dream job and make it easier for employers to attract the best new talent.
A Regional Transit Centre will help lift up our communities
Despite being an employment hotspot, some communities near the airport have unemployment rates well above the provincial average. A major transit hub would connect those residents to new jobs and services, giving them the upward income mobility to grow and prosper. A personal car costs about $200,000 over 25 years. A monthly transit pass for the same period is approximately 80% less.
We would reduce air pollution in our communities
At pre-pandemic levels of traffic, a new Regional Transit Centre would reduce the amount of Green House Gases (GHG) by ~83,000 metric tons a year. At 4.6 metric tons of GHG per car annually, that’s like taking 18,000 cars off the road!
Connecting airports to transit just makes sense
Although we love to see you, we know the airport is never your final destination. As a tourist, an investor, a worker or a student coming to Canada, a second regional transit hub near the airport would make the final leg of your trip smooth and simple—not cramped on a congested highway.
