Project

Durham, Ontario Regional Transit Strategy

by HDR/iTrans and Economic Development Research Group (now EBP) for Durham Region Transit, Ontario.

For the Regional Municipality of Durham, EDR Group, under subcontract to HDR/iTrans, developed and applied methods for assessing the benefits and costs associated with development of a long-term strategy for advancing rapid transit in Durham. Five types of solutions, and alternatives combinations, were considered: They were (1) conventional transit, (2) enhanced transit, (3) bus rapid transit (BRT), (4) light rail transit (LRT) and (5) Transportation Demand Management.

These solutions were all part of Durham Region Transit's Long term Transit Strategy -- "a comprehensive plan that identifies transportation / transit challenges and opportunities in the Regional Municipality of Durham (the Region). The plan recommends a specific strategy for achieving a transportation system that is focused on rapid transit to provide excellent connections between the Region's municipalities and neighboring municipalities."

durham-transit2To address these issues, staff of EDR Group worked with staff of HDR/iTrans to assess alternative scenarios and determine each scenario's economic impacts (using TREDIS) and benefits and costs (using TransDEC). The study examined regional effects associated with long-term changes in worker job access, goods movement, congestion reduction and mobility enhancement, as well as the business case analysis required for Canadian Transportation Investments.

 The final report recommended a long term transit revision and series of "smart growth" actions to complement it.