Ontario Investing in Rapid Transit to Make Commuting Faster and More Convenient
Ontario is celebrating the opening of a new bus maintenance facility in Durham Region, which will support more bus rapid transit (BRT) and make commuting faster and more convenient for local families.
Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca was in Oshawa today with Durham Regional Chair Roger Anderson, Oshawa Mayor John Henry, and Durham MPP Granville Anderson to officially open Durham Region Transit’s new Raleigh Bus Maintenance and Storage Facility.
The state-of-the-art 5,770 square metre maintenance facility replaces the original maintenance area built in 1964. The new facility entirely funded by the province has space to maintain and service 85 buses and is on track to attain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification, which recognizes the building’s sustainable and energy-efficient features, including a rainwater collection system.
The Raleigh Bus Maintenance and Storage Facility is part of the Durham Highway 2 BRT project, which also includes road improvements to a 31 kilometre route between downtown Oshawa and the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus, with stops in Whitby, Ajax, and Pickering. The maintenance facility will provide essential maintenance and service support to the BRT project
Ontario is making the largest infrastructure investment in hospitals, schools, public transit, roads and bridges in the province’s history. To learn more about what’s happening in your community, go to Ontario.ca/BuildON.
Building better public transit to improve commuting is part of our plan to create jobs, grow our economy and help people in their everyday lives.
Quick Facts
- The total cost of the new facility project is approximately $26 million.
- As part of the Quick Wins program announced in the 2008 Ontario Budget, the province committed $82.3 million to the Region of Durham to support this project.
- In 2016, the province also committed $10 million to move forward on the planning, design and engineering work for the proposed BRT route between Oshawa and Scarborough.
- BRT service along Regional Highway 2 was launched in 2013, with a fleet of 26 new, accessible, clean diesel, distinctively branded buses.
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