Transit in the Greater Toronto Area: Overview and Challenges

Toronto is the largest city in Canada, and a major economic centre in North America. The new City of Toronto was created through an amalgamation in 1998, of the former city of Toronto, five other cities and boroughs, and the former regional government, Metro Toronto. It has a population of over 2.3 million inhabitants. However, the new amalgamated city of Toronto only represents the core of a much larger urbanized area, often referred to as the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), which encompasses a population of over 5 million, spread over 100 kilometers along the shores of Lake Ontario, and extending 50 kilometers to the North. This paper will provide a brief overview of the complex nature of transit in the GTA region, identify a number of transit features that stand out as noteworthy in an international comparison, such as being presented in the conference organized by the ASCE, and conclude by presenting a number of significant challenges that face transit in the Greater Toronto region.