The Big Move: Transforming Transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area is a landmark achievement. As the Regional Transportation Plan it outlines a common vision for transportation for one of the largest and fastest-growing urban regions in North America.

Effective transit and transportation solutions can bolster our global competitiveness, protect our environment, and improve our quality of life. Expanding transportation can help create thousands of new green and well-paid jobs, and save billions of dollars in time, energy and other efficiencies.

Adopted in November 2008 by the Metrolinx Board of Directors, The Big Move will help to revitalize our communities into the kinds of places where residents can take transit, ride a bicycle or walk to fulfill their day’s activities, and where children can once again walk to school. New lanes, trails and pathways for pedestrians and cyclists will make walking and cycling safe and encourage healthy lifestyles. Greenhouse gas emissions per resident will decline dramatically and our air will be cleaner.

The Big Move is the result of the participation and support of many people. Stakeholder groups, Metrolinx staff, consultants led by IBI Group, and staff from provincial ministries, municipalities and transit agencies guided this work with timely and helpful input. The development of the plan was guided by the Metrolinx Board of Directors, a group of municipal leaders and professionals whose dedication to changing the face of transportation in the region was unwavering.

And finally, the plan is directly attributable to the Premier of Ontario and the Minister of Transportation who had the vision and commitment to launch both this important initiative, and the unprecedented MoveOntario 2020 commitment of $11.5 billion to begin the implementation of The Big Move and to get shovels in the ground on key transit projects.

The Big Move is a bold and visionary plan that will restore the winning combination of mobility and prosperity that defined our region in the post-war era. It will put us ahead of our competitors and closer to our families and communities. Its vision and concrete actions will permeate every transportation decision in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. The plan introduces a new way of doing business in transportation.

Working together, let’s seize this unique opportunity to keep moving forward.

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