The TTC must feel like it has won the lottery jackpot. The will be receiving 400 million dollars in funding for maintenance and expansion. On top of that an additional 100 million dollars will go toward Metrolinx, the new and improved name for the Greater Toronto Transportation Authority, for regional transit.

In case you don’t think that this spending is worthwhile here are some interesting statistics offered by Statistics Canada, Metrolinx, and the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.

•    Percentage of trips taken on transit in Toronto is 35%
•    Percentage of trips taken on transit in York Region is 9%
•    Percentage of Toronto area residents who say traffic congestion is a severe problem is 41%
•    Average Toronto area round trip commute time in 2005 is 79 minutes
•    Proportion of Toronto area workers with a round trip commute of an hour or more 66%
•    Number of car occupants in Toronto now is 1.1
•    Kilometres of carpool lanes on provincial roads in the Toronto region this year is 39
•    Kilometres of carpool lanes projected for 2031 is 400

As we all know the current transit system is not even close to meeting our needs. Hopefully commuters on the Lakeshore corridor while notice a significant improvement with the addition of 20 double-decker passenger coaches. York University will be better served with 10 new double-decker commuter buses on the Highway 407-Highway 403 corridor, and to York University. All-day, two-way train service between Toronto and Markham and Toronto and Newmarket and East Gwillimbury will be instituted.

Do you think that the 400 million dollars is being well spent?