New Era’ of Mass Transit: Governance, Suburbanization, and Regionalism in Toronto and Montréal

This paper examines the ways in which two mass transit projects, the Eglinton Crosstown in Toronto, and the Réseau express métropolitain in Montréal, are responding to changes and challenges in terms of governance, suburbanization, and regionalism. It uses experiences from the two projects, and the lessons learned from them, in order to identify a series of best practices for transit planning in Canada. Methods used included a document and content analysis, as well as walk-through components of station areas on both lines. The results of the research indicated that the lines were designed and built with goals of ameliorating some of the challenges related to suburbanization and regionalism in mind. However, one of the two projects was more successful in countering the challenges related to governance, whereas the other may be more successful in curtailing suburban sprawl. Overall, the paper concludes that the Eglinton Crosstown and the Réseau express métropolitain have provided a framework of how to develop mass transit projects in Canada, and has found that a focus on public involvement, transparency, and accountability are important for success in transit projects, and that developing a local industry from the experiences of projects built will be highly beneficial in the future.