The organization charged with easing gridlock and improving transit in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area presented its recommendations this morning, calling for $50 billion in new projects over 25 years.

Metrolinx says the draft strategy previewed today sets out nearly 100 new projects to be built in the region, without road tolls or other taxes to fund the project.

The plan says funding will come from investment strategies, including the province's $11.5 billion MoveOntario 2020 funding commitment to improving transit. Metrolinx says funding will sustain its proposed plan from 2009 to 2015.

The projects would support new rail, bus, light rail and cycling routes.

"This plan will yield tangible results - moving more people, more conveniently, faster," Metrolinx chair Rob MacIsaac says in a release.

The plan includes 1,150 kilometres of new rapid transit lines that will see 75 per cent of GTHA residents live within two kilometres of rapid transit, instead of 42 per cent as it now.

Hundreds of millions of dollars will also be spent on walking and cycling routes, including as much as $300 million in the first 15 years.

While MacIsaac says enough funding has been secured for an "extensive list of projects," new revenue tools will be considered in 2013 at the earliest - once improvements have been made.

The group will also look to create a seamless fare system to make it easier for passengers to commute between different transit systems.

Under the draft plan, six urban centres would be linked through an express rail service along the GO Lakeshore rail line, including Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville, Toronto, Pickering and Oshawa.

The new system would use refillable cards that customers could refill online.

Some of the other options on the table include an east-west subway line in the downtown core along either King Street or Queen Street to take a load off the Bloor-Danforth subway line. The new line would be built in the next 16 to 25 years.

The plan is currently at the draft stage. The next step will be public consultations, expected to begin in October. Final approval is expected in time to start work on projects next year.

Metrolinx, which has an 11-member board including Toronto mayor David Miller, was formed in August 2007 to improve transit in the region and ease gridlock.

Metrloinx priorities for implementation in the first 15 years:

  • Viva Transit expansion along Highway 7 and Yonge Street through York Region

  • Brampton's Queen Street Acceleride

  • Subway extension to the Vaughan Corporate Centre

  • Yonge subway extension to Richmond Hill plus capacity improvements

  • Eglinton rapid transit from Pearson Airport to Scarborough Town Centre

  • Upgrade and extend the Scarborough Rapid Transit line

  • Finch/Sheppard rapid transit from Pearson to Scarborough and Meadowvale

  • Express rail on the Lakeshore line from Hamilton to Oshawa

  • Rapid transit in downtown Hamilton from McMaster to Centennial Parkway

  • Hurontario rapid transit from Port Credit to downtown Brampton

  • 403 transit from Mississauga City Centre to the Renforth Gateway

  • Rail link between Union Station and Pearson Airport

  • Rapid transit service along Highway 2 in Durham Region

  • Improvements to existing GO Rail services and extension of GO Train service to Bowmanville

  • Early phases of rapid bus transit on Dundas Street in Halton and Peel