Hard Truths for Addressing Gridlock in the GTA
Environmental Defence Report – Highlights
- Ontario’s proposed highway projects (Highway 413, the Bradford Bypass, and the 401 Tunnel) are estimated to cost taxpayers $80 billion
- These highways will do nothing to ease congestion, which is already costing Ontarians $45 billion per year. Instead they will worsen pollution, gridlock, and cost of living.
- We have found that if this money was spent on transit instead, we could move double the amount of people per hour. $80 billion could build enough light rail to connect Toronto to Sudbury!
The Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) is at a crossroads. The GTHA’s population continues to grow rapidly and along with it, traffic congestion.
Ontario’s current response to the congestion crisis is worsening traffic rather than alleviating it. Many rapid transit projects remain unfunded, and the funded ones are plagued by delays, litigation, and cost overruns. As a result, new transit capacity has not kept pace with population growth. At the same time, operating support for public transit is shrinking: the Public Transit Fund has lost 30% of its value since its inception, service levels have fallen 18% since 2018, and Metrolinx’s cancellation of its GO Expansion contract with Deutsche Bahn signals hesitation to deliver higher-frequency service.
Read the full report or the executive summary: Transit over Traffic – Hard Truths for Addressing Gridlock in the GTA – Environmental Defence, December 2025
Image: Arild Vågen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
