Stress is growing on the provincial authorities to faucet into the underused tolled Freeway 407 to unclog congestion on Freeway 401.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his transportation minister have signalled an openness to think about shopping for again the 407, which was bought to a non-public consortium by the Mike Harris authorities in 1999.
“The Ontario Government has not engaged in any discussions with us regarding a potential buyback of Highway 407 ETR,” Christina Basil, Vice President of Communications and Authorities Relations for the freeway tells Ontario Chronicle in an announcement.
Progressive Conservatives have additionally urged to pay the tolls for heavy vans, a proposal aimed to take cargo off the 401 to create some respiratory room.
“We’re at all times in dialog with a 407 on quite a lot of, points and measures. Our authorities’s response has at all times been to search out methods to alleviate congestion within the province,” Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria stated Friday when requested what choices with the 407 had been into consideration.
Transport Motion Now President Peter Miasek argues there are a lot of benefits to overlaying trucker tolls over a 407 buyback or constructing new highways.
“It may be applied rapidly. It spans the whole GTA. It is decrease value. It saves truckers quite a lot of journey time,” Miasek stated in an interview Friday.
“It decongests other highways, not only the 401 but Highway 7 has a lot of trucks and it’s nearby.”
In 2021, utilizing knowledge from a 2017 Wynne authorities examine, Transport Motion Now estimated toll reduction would transfer 12,000 to 21,000 vans off Freeway 401 daily.
The associated fee then was about $260 million a 12 months. Miasek concedes the invoice could be larger now with costlier tolls, however factors out alternate options are additionally costlier.
“We concluded in 2021 that it was half as pricey to subsidize vans on the 401 versus constructing a brand new freeway.”
Final 12 months, advocacy group Environmental Defence estimated the price of overlaying tolls would whole $4 billion over 30 years. Premier Ford has put the worth of Freeway 407 at $35 billion.
For now, Steven Del Duca, the previous Liberal transportation minister turned mayor of Vaughan, is staying on the sidelines of the controversy.
“I do know our residents need to have the ability to transfer from level A to level B. I sincerely hope that on this case, the province takes a really, prudent and accountable have a look at the entire choices on the desk,” Del Duca stated.
On Tuesday afternoon, Vaughan metropolis councillors will think about a movement urging the province to conduct a feasibility examine of a Freeway 407 buyback and to conduct a one-year pilot overlaying trucker tolls.
