Pearson transit hub 'critical' for Toronto-Waterloo tech corridor

Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic says a proposed transit hub at Pearson Airport would be critical to the future development of the Toronto-Waterloo Innovation Corridor.

A design for a proposed transit hub at Pearson, linking the Eglinton Crosstown LRT in Toronto, Mississauga Bus Rapid Transit and a proposed bullet train fromKitchener-Waterloo were unveiled last month by the Greater Toronto Airport Authority.

• Toronto's Pearson International Airport unveils design for new transit hub

The GTAA saysthe hub would be built next to Pearson's two main terminals by the year 2027.

Speaking to Metro Morning host Matt Galloway on Tuesday, Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic said building the new transit hub would be key is easing the congestion along the traffic-choked Highway 401 and securing Waterloo Region's future tech growth.

"Right now we have as many people coming into Waterloo Region in the morning as we have coming out to the GTA in the morning to come work on this end of the corridor."

"If we're going to get them out of their cars and move them more effectively and efficiently, if we're going to create the kind of environment we see in other innovation hubs, whether it's San Francisco and Silicon Valley, London and Cambridge in Great Britain or Tel Aviv and Haifa in Israel,we need to make these critical investments."

TheGTAAcould not provide a cost for the transit hub it has proposed and it said that talks with all levels of governments are currently in their preliminary stages.

Right now the only rail link to Pearson Airport is the Union Pearson express, which moves commuters between the airport and Union Station in downtown Toronto.