Mayor John Tory announced the revised plans for SmartTrack to connect the Toronto Pearson employment hub with the rest of the city.
In a press conference on Jan. 19, Tory said his new LRT plan would be a more “transformative” and realistic alternative to create a better transit network.
The revised SmartTrack proposal is an extension of the Eglington Crosstown LRT to the Toronto Pearson employment zone.
“This is great news for the hundreds of thousands of airport area workers commuting from across the GTA and beyond,” said Howard Eng, President and CEO of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) in a press release.
The GTAA has been championing calls for better connectivity for it’s over 300,000 employees that commute to the airport daily. The proposed transit link would create more interconnectivity between transit systems.
“It could serve as a building block to developing a multi-platform transportation hub at the airport,” said Eng.
Toronto Pearson is one of Canada’s largest areas of employment. The link would connect the major economic centers of Toronto, creating a more centralized system.
Despite Tory restructuring of his original SmartTrack plan, the link to the airport is one of the ideas Tory proposed on the campaign trail.