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We’re already three weeks into 2026, and to kick the year off, it seems as good of a time as any to talk — not about all the transit projects currently being built — but what might come next for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, transit-wise. As the Finch West and Eglinton lines open, and the provincial government's various subway projects continue forward rapidly, it’s worth asking what is and should be in the pipeline, and why.
We will look at this across four stories this week, one story covering each transit mode in detail. The previous two days, we looked at Subways and GO Transit. Tomorrow we will check out Hybrid Rail, but…
…today is the day to look into our growing push for Bus Rapid Transit and Light Rail Lines.
Bus Rapid Transit and Light Rail
Keeping up the “affordable” benefits of new GO stations, it's worth looking at potential bus and light rail projects that could speed up more local transit, as opposed to creating true rapid transit. While Metrolinx has talked a lot about “BRT” in Peel and Durham regions, perhaps as more of the big rail projects draw closer to a close and if funding dries up, these will get a lot more attention. There are also more locally-driven projects, like the York Region VIVA expansion projects which have yet to be built.
Starting with VIVA, York Region remains interested in creating a number of new VIVA routes, perhaps most notably on Jane street, which would be very useful in connecting many key destinations in Vaughan such as Vaughan Mills Shopping Centre, Canada’s Wonderland, and Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital to subway line 1 and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre. I’ve already seen renderings suggesting the project would tone down the ostentatious curved bus station shelters, which seems rational, but VIVA really needs to not just water down its most unique feature, but actually increase its service levels to that of even a bad TTC route. Provincial and Federal Funding should not flow into more VIVA projects until the entire existing network is running at a minimum 15-minute headway from 5AM to Midnight. This should also absolutely be a requirement before serious planning effort goes into more VIVA routes on corridors such as on Major Mackenzie.
There are also the two major BRTs Metrolinx has been talking a lot about in recent years — the Durham Scarborough BRT and the Dundas BRT. I expect we’ll see pieces of these projects fall into place over coming years, but given the nature of BRT projects, it’s totally conceivable that they come together in a piecemeal fashion, with only bits and bobs completed as it’s convenient.
What’s perhaps more interesting is the potential for enhanced bus services within the city of Toronto. At the moment, nice on-street bus infrastructure (Toronto does have nice bus terminals) exists basically entirely in 905 suburban areas, which have a wide variation in actual bus service levels, but which usually don’t stack up to Toronto. Combining very high TTC service levels with a well-designed busway or bus lanes could be an extremely high-value project provided at a low cost.
Within the city, this would make a ton of sense on the York Mills / Wilson corridor, but it would also honestly be great on Steeles, where it could serve both York Region and Toronto, as well as along Jane, Bathurst, Kennedy, and Markham Road — all corridors that could run from Toronto and beyond into York and be used by a wide variety of buses and routes day and night.
On the light rail front, there are a few different projects which seem logical. Obviously the Finch West Line 6 LRT being extended to Woodbine GO station makes sense, and if its slow speeds and other issues can be sorted out, this will probably be a super popular little project. Finch might also be an appealing way to connect both sides of the Yonge Line, but again it’s contingent on speed issues being worked out. Selling the public on not building a subway across North York means light rail that actually deserves to be on the subway map, which at the moment, Line 6 does not.
The Hurontario-Main Line 10 LRT is also planned to see two substantial extensions after its opening, which the government is actively promising — something not even happening for the Finch extension. These are the downtown Mississauga loop, which looks sort of nice on a map because it brings rail closer to much of the areas development, but which does not have a clear service pattern that would make sense for it without impacting 'through' service frequent on Hurontario, or the availability of a service running the length of Hurontario entirely. The downtown Brampton extension is unnecessarily tunnelled, but doesn’t raise service questions — though the fact that it won’t come with an underground walkway between the current northern terminus and the bus terminal at Shoppers World is frustrating. Thinking of extensions to the line, continuing the southern end south to Lakeshore Road and then both east and west could allow the line to serve more of Port Credit and its density, provide better connections to the Lakeshore West GO line, enable further densification along the shore of Lake Ontario and serve two major developments happening in the area. Extending far enough east could even connect the line with the Toronto streetcar network and GO trains at Long Branch.
Speaking of the streetcars, a modernization of them into something Toronto might call “light rail” is an incredibly sensible idea. Back in the 2010s, the city reinvested into its streetcar network with new, much larger low-floor vehicles, but then failed to modernize almost anything else about the network. Signal priority is lacking, road alignment design lacks context, dedicated lanes remain few and far between, and infrastructure and operations are antiquated. A multi-part project to modernize and improve every aspect of the streetcar network could be built affordably, enhance transport all around the core and between GO and subway lines, enable more housing to be built in older 'house' neighbourhoods, and unlock the same transport capacity as a new subway line. In addition, a dense web of new lines — built to modern standards — ought to be built along the eastern waterfront and throughout the Portlands, providing a rapid electric transit service to the thousands of residents and visitors who already need it. All this would also be a great transit plan for a politician to run on, making something Toronto is known for something Toronto can be proud about.
Jumping all the way to Kitchener-Waterloo, the ION light rail in Waterloo already has had a proposed second phase being discussed for a few years, and while its price is currently crazy high, reducing the odds it gets built in the short-term, it certainly seems like planning advancing is making that project more and more likely to happen.
And as it turns out, a second project planned in the region foretells a new type of transit line which Toronto, and much of Canada has little experience with.
We'll be back tomorrow with a look at Hybrid Rail... a new mode that could be a big player in Toronto's future.
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Reece Martin is a well-known advocate for good transit, worldwide. He is based in Toronto and blogs at nextmetro.substack.
Base map © is by UrbanToronto Forum contributor WB62, and is not affiliated with Metrolinx or other transit agencies and should not be considered an official source or confirmation of Metrolinx projects.
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UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development, but in the meantime, you can learn more about it from our Database files, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Line 5 and Line 6 Forum threads, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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UrbanToronto has a research service, UTPro, that provides comprehensive data on development projects in the Greater Golden Horseshoe — from proposal through to completion. We also offer Instant Reports, downloadable snapshots based on location, and a daily subscription newsletter, New Development Insider, that tracks projects from initial application.
