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Brampton: Queen Street RT

Northern Light said:
I have news.

There will be no further news. LOL

From this report:

https://pub-vaughan.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=196629 :

View attachment 642043
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I don't think this update was posted. It's dated April 23rd but not sure when it went live.

DATE: April 23, 2025
TO: Mayor and Members of Council
FROM: Vince Musacchio Deputy City Manager - Infrastructure Development & Interim Deputy City Manager - Planning, Growth Management and Housing Delivery
RE: COMMUNICATION – Council Meeting – April 23, 2025
Item 3, Report 16
METROLINX INITIATIVES UPDATE – Q1 2025

"On April 8, 2025, staff provided the Metrolinx Initiatives Update – Q1 2025 and inadvertently included a Report Highlight without the background from the November 12, 2024 report: Due to a lack of project funding, Metrolinx is suspending further work on the Queen Street and Highway 7 Bus Rapid Transit planning process. Consequently, the necessary contextual information for this Report Highlight was not in the report and has caused confusion with respect to the project status.
On Monday, April 14, 2025, Metrolinx held a municipal stakeholder meeting to provide an update on the Final Results of the Queen Street-Highway 7 Bus Rapid Transit (QS7 BRT)
Business Case and discuss next steps.

Metrolinx has provided an amended update:
* The Business Case Report for the Queen Street and Highway 7 Bus Rapid Transit project has been drafted in consultation with the municipal partners.

Once Metrolinx internal approvals are received, the Business Case Report will be shared with the province to inform next steps."
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Goes on to quote the "Previous Correspondence" which was the November 2024 update.

Source: https://pub-vaughan.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=197695
 
City of Vaughan has an RFP for the widening of Highway 7 across the Humber Valley between Rainbow Creek Bridge (just west of Kipling) and Helen Street/Wigwoss Drive (east of Islington).

The configuration will be a six lane cross-section with room for two BRT lanes in future.

Possible GO Bolton Line connection at/near Highway 7 is being looked into?


Bids and Tenders - Vaughan

vaughan.bidsandtenders.ca vaughan.bidsandtenders.ca
 
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FullMetalEngineer said:
City of Vaughan has an RFP for the widening of Highway 7 across the Humber Valley between Rainbow Drive (just west of Kipling) and Helen Street/Wigwoss Drive (east of Islington).

The configuration will be a six lane cross-section with room for two BRT lanes in future.

Possible GO Bolton Line connection at/near Highway 7 is being looked into?


Bids and Tenders - Vaughan

vaughan.bidsandtenders.ca vaughan.bidsandtenders.ca
Click to expand...

I can’t see why there wouldn’t be BRT lanes built at the same time. Six lanes plus a bus median is ridiculous though, it should be just 4+2.
 
BRT in York Region has always been more of symbolic, marketing thing rather than an honest attempt to improve transit. It's always been aimed more for the potential riders (the motorists) than the current riders, and widening a road to 8 lanes to make room for BRT is a good example of that.
 
FullMetalEngineer said:
City of Vaughan has an RFP for the widening of Highway 7 across the Humber Valley between Rainbow Drive (just west of Kipling) and Helen Street/Wigwoss Drive (east of Islington).

The configuration will be a six lane cross-section with room for two BRT lanes in future.

Possible GO Bolton Line connection at/near Highway 7 is being looked into?


Bids and Tenders - Vaughan

vaughan.bidsandtenders.ca vaughan.bidsandtenders.ca
Click to expand...
Are they going to knock down and replace the exisisting CPKC bridge to allow for widening of the road?
 
ShonTron said:
I can’t see why there wouldn’t be BRT lanes built at the same time. Six lanes plus a bus median is ridiculous though, it should be just 4+2.
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Fully agree, they need to do the BRT lanes one shot so they can extend Viva Orange to The Gore Rd and that could relieve some intense overcrowding in this area that is seen on the daily on the 501.
 
anb said:
Fully agree, they need to do the BRT lanes one shot so they can extend Viva Orange to The Gore Rd and that could relieve some intense overcrowding in this area that is seen on the daily on the 501.
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Metrolinx's plan is the 501 goes to VMC and VIVA Orange is truncated to VMC. At this point that would be a better use of resources, to give Brampton Transit pick up and drop off privileges on the 501 and have YRT reallocate the service of the VIVA Orange.
 
Wm Perkins Bull said:
Metrolinx's plan is the 501 goes to VMC and VIVA Orange is truncated to VMC. At this point that would be a better use of resources, to give Brampton Transit pick up and drop off privileges on the 501 and have YRT reallocate the service of the VIVA Orange.
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Let's cross our fingers and hope they actually do this instead of some half-assed measure.
 
JJTheJetPln said:
So it's just Vaughan stirring the pot and thinking they can speak for everyone.

Glad to know ML is still on board with the project.

Edit re: Bridge - I had to look over what bridge they're referring to, but I also believe it's the same bridge that is around Hwy 7 / Islington. It sounds to me like they're going to want to expand the roadway for those BRT lanes, but will have to work with CPKC who own that section. Chances are that if they do plan to work with CPKC, they're going to expect similar work akin to what the HMLRT did for the tunnel under the QEW (Pushbox requiring significant manpower, 55 hours of work as opposed to multiple weeks / months, etc).
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Yes the cpkc bridge over hwy 7 is the constraining issue. The abutments for the bridge are barely wide enough to accomodate 4 lanes of traffic as it stands.

Additional issues are that there are landowners on either side of 7 through this stretch many which would probably be fully demolished to allowed for expansion. The other is the slope of hwy 7 as it descends into and out of the Humber River Valley. There would need to be significant landworks to Remove/add soil for the expansion. Someone told me years ago that there were plans to brdge hwy 7 across the Humber River Valley but I've never been able to find any official documents and I think it was just urban legend
 
FullMetalEngineer said:
September 11 there is a Metrolinx Board Meeting. The item below references the Queen BRT.

15.4 - Queen St. - Hwy 7 Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Business Case Report (BCR)

www.metrolinx.com

Meeting 2025-09-11

Learn more about the Board of Directors' agenda for Thursday, September 11, 2025.
www.metrolinx.com
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Here's to hoping they actually have something to say and not just "we are considering it but aren't sure yet."

Brampton needs to stop getting left behind in many ways.
 
At a City of Brampton budget-related discussion at the January 14, 2026 Commmitte of Council, the Brampton Board of Trade asked about the status of the Queen BRT. Time-marked link to the discussion:


Transcript [some edits/editorial from me]:

Councillor Toor: Maybe give it to transit to answer about the Queen Street BRT. What's happening with the file? Where does the City stand on it? You know, is it still a high priority for the City to deliver [and Metrolinx]?

Heidi, GM Brampton Transit: Thank you through the chair. I'm going to invite Doug Rieger [Director, Transit Development] up just he's our lead on the project working with Metrolinx.

Doug: Through the chair. So we've been working with Metroinx on the project for several years. They recently had an in-camera report that went to their board in September [2025]. We're waiting to hear some of the results of that plan. They have produced a 10% design which we commented on and we're just waiting to hear further direction from Metroinx at this time, and we're hoping that they will actually come to Council within Q1 of this year [2026] to provide an update on not only Queen Street but some of the GO expansion activities that they were also working on.

Cllr Toor: Are we relying on that update for us to progress the work that we're doing at the City at this time?

Doug: Yes, there [are] some other budget considerations as part of the the 2026 budget as well to help advance the project as well.

Cllr Tour: Okay. Thank you. I just wanted to clear the discussion around that as well. And to the remaining points, I know there's other Councon the board as well, but I hope we can have further discussions on transit, transit levels. We will have the presentation from transit as well, next week. [rest if of the discussion moves away from Queen BRT]
 
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