A pre-budget report this year shows Brampton needs other levels of government to fund 50 per cent, or $1.65 billion for its transit projects like a tunnel for the LRT, a Bus Rapid Transit on Queen Street and additional funds for its transition to electric buses.Brampton has about 700,000 people and saw a 30 per cent increase in ridership last year compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to city documents.
In response to this, the Canadian Urban Transit Association says the government's transit projects are "encouraging" but nothing is being done about the root of transit related issues — operational shortcomings. Just between 2009 and 2019, the city's ridership went up 160 per cent, city documents show, but the city had seen a "stagnation" in transit growth — former mayor Linda Jeffery said in 2017 after council voted down the provincial plan to pay only part of the bill to expand the GO train.
"This isn't a skill issue, it's not a competence issue, it's just that we do not have sufficient resources to accommodate demand currently and despite this year being our largest ever service increase, it is still insufficient," she said.