Metrolinx and the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) have moved their shared commitment to ease airport-transit connections forward with the signing of a cost-sharing agreement that will evaluate several options.
According to Metrolinx, the agreement lays out the following options that will be studied by the two entities:
• A potential connection from the Kitchener GO rail corridor to Toronto Pearson’s planned Regional Transit and Passenger Center.
• Possible connections from Eglinton Crosstown West, the Finch Light Rail Transit, Mississauga’s Bus Rapid Transit and various local and regional bus services into Toronto Pearson.
• Improvements to ground transportation to/from the airport and airport employment area.
• Phasing considerations related to the above.
Metrolinx and GTAA announced their plans to study transit connections to the airport and future Regional Transit and Passenger Center in April 2018. At the time the partnership was announced, GTAA said the plan to “better integrate transit projects into Canada’s busiest airport will help connect the country’s second largest employment zone and reduce highway congestion.” GTAA also noted that there is a need to better connect the 49,000 workers based at Toronto Pearson and the 300,000 people who work in the airport employment zone.
In December 2019, GTAA committed C$40 million (US$30.4 million) to a joint effort to study the extension of the Eglinton Crosstown to the airport and establish a second transit hub: Union Station West. The proposed project to build the Eglinton light-rail line west was included in an agreement reached in October between the province of Ontario and the city of Toronto.
