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Three new reports released on Tuesday are making the shape of SmartTrack clearer. Metrolinx' SmartTrack GO-RER business case endorses the least ambitious of the four options for development that had been outlined. This would add six stations along the Kitchener and Stouffville rail corridors - two in the west, four in the east including "East Harbour" in the Unilever/West Don Lands area. Mayor John Tory originally envisaged 15 new stations in his election campaign. That vision also called for SmartTrack to continue as a heavy rail line running west from Mount Dennis. It has been replaced in planning by a $1.5-$2.1bn Eglinton West LRT with between eight and twelve stops, hence the mayor has said that he has kept his promise. The report expects the additional stations to add 2.8m riders a year to the SmartTrack/GO-RER service once operational - 10% more than the projections for GO-RER alone.
Tory continues to say that the service frequencies for SmartTrack will be "quite different" from GO-RER but the business case released only calls for the "committed RER frequencies" promised by Metrolinx when its GO-RER plans were announced (see below).
Whether commuters inside Toronto would be able to board SmartTrack and/or GO-RER trains and ride with TTC-like fares as Tory originally promised remains unclear. The City of Toronto's latest policy statement on fares says that GO Transit's "price structure discourages Toronto-based trips from using GO Transit, even when the GO network may be the most efficient or logical choice", suggesting a new lower GO base fare and a higher distance-based component. The city's policy statement also calls for a co-fare program to be initiated between GO Transit and the TTC (which would enable GO train commuters to purchase TTC tickets at a subsidized rate at the end of their train journey). While the report says, "The City's transportation model suggests that ridership performance on SmartTrack improves with fare levels consistent with a TTC fare", it does not make this a recommendation.
In addition the city's policy statement suggests that GO Transit develop a low-income discount program, noting that, "most GO trips are initiated in areas with average household incomes between $75,000 and $100,000" although about half of Toronto's Neighbourhood Improvements Areas (NIA) have a GO station in or within 500m of them. Only five of 31 NIAs are served by TTC's rapid transit networks.
Metrolinx's own update on fare integration indicates a desire to enable cheap transfers between TTC and GO Transit and cheap or free transfers between the TTC and 905 transit agencies, saying that this would provide "significant benefits":
- Transit trips of all lengths across the boundaries would rise by 9.5-16.5%
- Auto trips across the Toronto boundary to TTC park and ride lots decrease by 20-25% in favour of bus service to the subway
- Customers shift from GO to local transit for longer trips to the downtown due to lower fares, increasing ridership on the subway by 12,000-16,000 peak period trips, an increase of 1.2-1.6%"
More extensive changes to fare structures, however, it said will be "complicated to implement". It suggests fares set by distance should continue to be considered longer-term as they would enable fare decreases elsewhere to be offset. This might mean higher GO fares for longer distance travel, but it could also imply a move away from a flat TTC fare for all distances within the city, which the TTC has previously said would be difficult to implement because of the way its network and stations are structured.
While transit advocates and Toronto taxpayers still have to wait to hear just how all of the transit proposals will be paid for, both to build and to subsequently operate, questions about what combination of new lines and stations makes to most sense for an efficient network remain. Fewer stations on SmartTrack in the East of Toronto would likely improve the low ridership projections somewhat for the Scarborough Subway Extension (and the Eglinton East LRT). A reduced SmartTrack would also imply spending less than the $8bn price tag for the more ambitious plans as originally touted. Though SmartTrack will benefit from the planned GO/RER infrastructure improvements, Metrolinx will not pay this additional cost and the agency says funding for the work must be forthcoming by November 30th if it is to proceed. Trudeau pledged $2.6bn to help build SmartTrack during the federal election campaign, but this was when the price tag appeared higher, and as with other federal infrastructure spending it is likely to be conditional on matching funding. So far, SmartTrack has no city funding.
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