Mississauga Transitway – New Bus Route + More
Mississauga Transitway is the name of the latest in public transportation being offered by the city of Mississauga. It is a new public transportation line that will span the entire city from West to East. The Mississauga Transitway system consists of a Bus Rapid Transit setup that has its own road and a shared portion along Highway 403. This will add an excellent addition to Mississauga’s growing public transportation infrastructure when combined with existing and future projects like the Mississauga LRT.
The first portion of the Mississauga Transitway system has already been open since Novemeber 17, 2014 for the portion between Hurontario St and Dixie Rd. The rest of the transit line connecting all the way to Winston Churchill Rd is targeted for sometime in 2016 due to the requirement of building both additional stations and actual roads for the buses to travel on. The interesting thing about the Mississauga Transitway bus route is that it was originally proposed in the 1970’s. This goes to show the true visionary planning that the City of Mississauga has had from the outset of its astonishing growth. Key transportation infrastructure is very important especially with a city like this where there are many important neighbourhoods like Square One, Erin Mills and its additional real estate which are separated by quite some distance. Typical street utilizing bus routes suffice but with growing congestion and more busy lives, adequate alternatives must be implemented. This is where the Mississauga Transitway initiative comes in.
The above images are renderings courtesy of Metrolinx of the future Erin Mills station for the new Mississauga bus route. The Mississauga Transitway will run from Winston Churchill Boulevard to Erin Mills station via a new road that runs adjacent to Highway 403. As for the entire system, the buses will run at speeds of 80KM/H during open stretches and 50KM/H within station boundaries. From Erin Mills the buses will run along the actual highway portion of the 403 but within dedicated lanes strictly for the Mississauga Transitway and public transport systems. Then after reaching the central downtown Mississauga area they will continue along their own roads into the east portion and to the Toronto border.
The entire project is a symbol for what can be achieved when all levels of Canadian government cooperate to accomplish goals that are required for stand-out municipalities. The entire Mississauga Transitway project carries an approximate price tag of $259 million with about $173 million being contributed by the Federal and Provincial government levels while the rest is being financed by the city. Since the project is funded by multiple government levels it has also been contracted out to two main developers. The west portion and a small segment of the east side is being constructed by Metrolinx while the remainder is being completed by the City of Mississauga. This means that both the Go Bus (one of Metrolinx’s subsidiaries) and the MiWay Bus (used to be known as Mississauga Transit) will both be using the Mississauga Transitway.
The MiWay buses will operate both within the Mississauga Transitway system and also general open roads that will combine the two methods to offer fresh and more efficient routes. The Go Buses will typically provide longer distance connections between more intermittent destination points. The stations will be modern in design influence with both parking, amenities and heated waiting areas provided. As the project slowly begins to wrap up it is crafting a key route between the central downtown Mississauga portion and the west end of the city that is starting to see its own “downtown” forming with the Erin Mills Town Centre renovation. With the Mississauga Transitway and the many other goals in sight, our municipality and in turn real estate is growing both in value and ideology for what a modern, sophisticated city should embody.
