Sep 23, 2008 - 05:08 PM

By Reka Szekely

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DURHAM -- Durham Region's chairman is not wholly impressed with the $50 billion regional transportation plan for the GTA unveiled Tuesday.

Chairman Roger Anderson sits on the Metrolinx board that will have to approve the draft plan, which is called The Big Move: Transforming Transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. Once the draft is approved it goes to public consultations before a final approval at the end of the year.

"I think there are parts of it that are good, there's a lot that's missing for Durham that I think should be in there and I'll discuss that with them on Friday and hopefully they'll be able to see our way of thinking and I'll be able to support it."

Metrolinx chairman Rob MacIsaac said the plan calls for the largest transit expansion on the books in North America and aims to integrate the transit of Durham, Halton, Peel, York, Hamilton and Toronto, while still keeping local transit authorities in the different municipalities.

"This is very much an action plan to get things moving now," said Metrolinx chairman Rob MacIsaac. "We will have shovels in the ground next year."

None of those shovels will be in Durham, but projects in the region are listed as top priorities, to be completed in the next 15 years. The projects are express rail on the Lakeshore GO line from Hamilton to Oshawa, a GO train station in Bowmanville and rapid transit service along Hwy. 2 in Pickering, Ajax, Whitby and Oshawa.

Express GO service would mean trains every five minutes during peak periods and every 15 minutes during off-peak hours in Durham. In order for that to happen, however, GO would have to convert from diesel trains to electric. This is expected by 2016 and will cost around $2 billion for the Durham portion.

In addition to major projects such as a subway extension to Vaughan, rapid transit in several areas of the GTA and expanded and more frequent GO train service, the plan calls for a $500 million investment over 25 years in walking and cycling infrastructure, an integrated transit fare card and an online portal that's a single access point for information on transit, traffic, roadwork and more.

Further out, the Metrolinx plan calls for rapid transit along the Steeles Avenue-Taunton Road corridor in 16 to 25 years. After the 25-year period, the plan projects additional rapid transit along Hwy. 407 and an east-west express rail connecting Oakville through Mississauga, Vaughan, Markham and Pickering.

It's not specified in the plan whether rapid transit means rail or bus, though at least the Durham Hwy. 2 portion is expected to be bus. After the transportation plan is approved, there will be a Benefits Case Analysis to determine which technology to use for each route.

Mr. Anderson said he has lots of unanswered questions, including what role the private sector will play. He wants to see the service to Durham accelerated, including to the planned Seaton community in north Durham, which he says the Province wants to develop right away.

"If you're going by last year's news for Metrolinx, what was approved last year was good. My question is what are they going to be doing for the next 15 to 20 years, there's going to be a whole lot of people living north of Hwy. 2," he said.

Metrolinx projects the 25-year plan comes with a $50-billion price tag, money that is not currently in the bank. So far, the plan links together existing funding announcements, primarily the Province's $11.5 billion MoveOntario 2020 commitment which should last until 2013. Should the federal government kick in the $6 billion the Province has asked for, the money could stretch until 2018.

"The cost of not proceeding with this plan will be a lot higher than proceeding with it," said Mr. MacIsaac.

For now, he quashed fears of toll roads. Instead, Metrolinx will follow the lead of other jurisdictions such as London, England which flooded the downtown with transit options before considering tolls.

Mr. MacIsaac did not rule them out entirely, but said first commuters would have to see the benefits of improved transit and Metrolinx will review revenue options in 2013.

"We think ultimately as we move forward, people will have to look at a wide range of measures to make sure the plan carries on."

The expectation is implementation of the plan will reduce the average distance travelled by car each day per person from 26 kilometres to 19 kilometres. As well, 75 per cent of people will live within two kilometres of rapid transit, today it's less than half, and the average commute will drop by five minutes. Slightly more than a quarter of morning rush hour trips will be taken by transit, as opposed to the current 16.5 per cent, and there would be a shift to people living closer to where they work.

"In our view this plan is as much about values as it is about vehicles," said Mr. MacIsaac.