Our Vision

The Backgrounder

What has happened so far?

In 2006 the Government of Ontario established the Greater Toronto Transport Authority, which became Metrolinx in December 2007. Metrolinx is mandated to develop and implement an effective, integrated multi-modal transportation plan for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA), and has just recently assumed control over GO transit. The motivation behind this initiative has been to dramatically transform the GTHA transportation system to “meet the needs of the 21st century”. (please see Metrolinx’s publication The Big Move for more information).

Until recently the Metrolinx Board comprised elected officials from local municipalities. These members were exchanged in March 2009 for a Board of private sector representatives, based on the argument that this change would expedite project implementation.

The Metrolinx Georgetown South Service Expansion (GSSE) and Union-Pearson Rail Link (UPRL) is the first major project of Metrolinx’s transportation plan. It is intended to solve two major problems:

• To provide a direct link between the Pearson International Airport and downtown Toronto, comparable to those of other major world cities
• To relieve rush hour traffic congestion by expanding the GO train link between downtown Toronto and Georgetown.

This project was initially conceived in the 1990s, and was to be financed by all three levels of government—municipal, provincial, federal—and private investors as a Public-Private Partnership (PPP, or triple-P) project. Several iterations of planning, consultation, and rearrangement of the financing partners has resulted in the current configuration of the Metrolinx GSSE and UPRL. The principal private investor is SNC Lavalin, which will operate the air-rail link. All of the public financing is provincial tax dollars. The estimated costs of the GSSE and UPRL is $875 million.