I don’t understand the logic of the provincial government at times. Look at the many highway options just south of us in New York. Yes it is in a completely different country, but the traffic flow of the many different highways are impressive, even just north of the big city itself, where you would have 2 or 3 parallel highways running next to each other to keep the overall traffic flow.- Disagree. New York is a much bigger city than Toronto both in size and population. Also, NYC's highways are pretty old and outdated. I don't really think they are a good example. Ontario seems to prefer having one or two really high quality corridors instead of multiple smaller ones. There is also a noticable lack of high speed rail in the US in general, which explains the demand for highways. We are living in 2020s, we don't need so many new highways. Instead invest the money in a transit system that rivals European metro areas to connect the Greater Golden Horshoe. For commercial trucks, fix up the husk of our existing cargo rail network and it could take thousands of trucks off the 401. Besides, the 400 is getting widened to Barrie in the long term.
Imagine if the 427, 400, and 404 all got extended further north connected to Highway 11, which would be upgraded and fixed to 400 series standards. Then this route would connect us with a twinned 417/17, running from Winnipeg to the Quebec border, giving Northern and Eastern Ontario a complete transportation link, and a half relief off the 401.- That is a little extreme. The 401 and the 417/17 are nowhere near eachother and are not in the same corridor at all. Truckers wouldn't use 17 to get across southern Ontario. For the 427, the extension to Major Mackenzie is fine, but it doesn't need to be extended unless the 413 is built (which I'm still indesicive about). For the 404, the extension to 12 is a maybe, but it should at least parallel Ravenshoe Road to 48, or at the bare minimum reconfigure the ramps so that traffic exiting onto Ravenshoe doesn't have to turn onto Woodbine first. Missing from your post is the 410, which I can't really see ever getting extended past Orangeville in the near future. While parts of 17 definitely need to be twinned, alot of the AADT on that route is far too low for four lanes. The 417 should be extended to Petawawa, and then 17 should be twinned from Sudbury to North Bay, and also from Kenora to Manitoba. The rest could be upraged to a 3+1 as seen earlier in this thread. Highway 11 should also be 6 laned to Orillia
There could also be other considerations in mind such as extending the 115 to Ottawa, and then also making a new highway from the 7/115 junction in Peterborough to Highway 85 in Waterloo via the Bradford Bypass- That is some very ambitious plans. I could see highway 7 being twinned to Ottawa sometime in the next 50 years, but it doesn't need to be full freeway. A new highway around Toronto via the Bradford Bypass isn't needed that badly but could be considered if the 413 was built which that in itself is a maybe.
and a twinning of both Highway 9 with a new segment from Arthur, south to where the 85 freeway currently ends, and then extending the 7/8 expressway to the 402. All these ideas would actually amplify Ontario as an important transportation link to the various hubs and cities that these new and improved highways will offer, as well as naturally making the other half in relieving the 401. If we played the cost, opposition control and the infrastructure right, then something could actually get done about our current transportation status, and we wouldn’t have to sit here dreaming of what future potential could be done for the province.- I don't know what you mean by the first part (from Arthur to Kitchener) because the route seems to go in the middle of nowhere and would seve like 2 people. There doesn't need to be a full freeway paralleling the 401, but 7 could be 5 laned or twinned at least until Stratford or London. A loop could be formed around London with the 403 and connect it to the 402, or the section of 401 between 403 and 402 uprgraded. This could connect to a twinned 7 as earlier mentioned. Other than that, high speed rail, fix our cargo rail (aka seperate passenger and cargo better and make new routes) have a lot of potential in the next century if we do it right.
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