As council prepares for yet another debate this week about subways versus light rail in Scarborough, a group of Ontario rail advocates is pushing a third option.

Transport Action Ontario envisions a souped-up, electrified “surface subway” network. Among the benefits would be a one-seat ride all the way from Morningside Heights and Malvern directly into Union Station for Scarborough commuters.

The group says its proposed $24.8 billion Regional Rapid Rail system — based on the GO network — would be Toronto’s answer to the London Overground or the S-Bahn in Berlin.

Its recommendations are outlined in a 400-page report called “GTHA Regional Rapid Rail: A Vision for the Future,” being released Monday.

The study, two years in the making, advocates electrifying the GO system faster and further than Metrolinx plans and, furnishing all the lines with electric multiple units — trains in which the coaches incorporate electric traction motors.

The Transport Action proposal adds 56 stations to the regional transit network; six additional stations on an eighth rail line running through Scarborough to Markham and new underground platforms at Union Station. The electrification, along with a high-tech signaling system, would allow for two-way, all-day service across the region running every four to 10 minutes in the rush hours.

“The ‘surface subway’ concept is common in Europe,” said Transport Action president Peter Miasek.

“What we are advocating is a more extensive and quicker conversion (to electrified rail), due to the relatively low capital costs, high passenger capacity, significant operating cost savings, high benefits and strong public appeal,” he said.

So far, the arguments for electric trains in the Toronto region have been based on environmental concerns, said Karl Junkin, the report’s author. “This is an economic argument,” he said.

Junkin believes the report is timely given the impending study of a downtown relief line to take overflow off the Yonge subway.

The capital costs of building the network would be higher overall. A new maintenance facility and underground tracks at Union Station would be required to handle the additional capacity. But Miasek says the capital cost averages out to $55 million per kilometre, a fraction of a conventional subway.

The electrified network could also save up to $466 million a year by 2031 in operating costs, compared with maintaining a diesel system, says the report.

“The faster round trip times allow you to provide the same service with fewer trains on the line. Maintenance, crew and energy costs go down,” said Junkin.

The bold proposal would avoid the cost of buying more diesel trains in the short-term to furnish GO’s planned expansion and, given Metrolinx’s plans for a next wave of Big Move projects, is actually only a modest increase in the expense, he said.

The report suggests phasing the expense with $13.2 billion of the proposed projects coming by 2021. Of that, Metrolinx is already proposing to spend $9.9 billion, including the $1.8 billion to renovate the Scarborough RT, said Junkin.

More transit stations, a superior signal system that would allow GO to run more trains closer together safely and extras such as the expansion of the tunnel outside the Hamilton GO centre, make up most of the difference, he said.

The remaining $11.57 billion would be rolled out by 2031.

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The volunteer group of about 200 train experts and enthusiasts is already shopping its 400-page report to regional politicians and Metrolinx.

Transit blogger Steve Munro says the term “surface subway” carries implications that may not be accurate. “One could describe GO EMU operation as an alternative to subway construction, but it would be a stretch to imply comparable capacity. Speed yes, capacity no,” he said.

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