Greater Toronto is embarking on an unprecedented mass transit buildout that at once has planners excited and apprehensive about its scope, cost, impact and feasibility.

It promises to ease our commute, alter the way we pay our fare and how much, and, within 25 years, transform the transit map to look like those of coveted world cities.

Costing an estimated $2 billion a year, the aim is to create a network of options that slows encroaching gridlock and offers travel options to a population that will grow by more than 2 million.

Remember 1991? Talk of the hated GST. Recession. That was 25 years ago. Fast forward the same time frame to 2041 and Greater Toronto’s transit map will explode, unless historical inertia and bickering prevail.

City of Toronto and Metrolinx, the provincial agency that manages GO Transit, are both launching public consultations on Tuesday to examine the projects that are up next: Eglinton Crosstown, Finch West LRT and SmartTrack (all set to open by 2021), Scarborough subway, and all-day, two-way service at 15-minute intervals on GO’s main routes.

Queuing behind are critical network links like the Downtown Relief Line, as well as LRTs east and west along the waterfront and northeast from Crosstown to the U of T campus at Morningside Ave. and Highway 401.

And pushing the envelope are a next wave of Bus Rapid Transit corridors — one linking Durham and Scarborough, one linking Toronto and Peel along Dundas St. — and LRTs up Hurontario in Mississauga and along Sheppard Ave. E. in Scarborough, and in Hamilton.

Consider that:

Yonge-University subway Line 1 will stretch out to Jane and Highway 7 in the west by 2017; and up Yonge to Richmond Hill by 2041.

The Bloor-Danforth Line 2 expansion from Kennedy station to the Scarborough Town Centre at McCowan Rd. and Highway 401 should open by 2024.

GO RER (Regional Express Rail) work starts in earnest late 2017 to early 2018. The aim is to electrify 262 kilometres of GO tracks in preparation for all-day service, with GO trains running every 15 minutes in both directions. Completion: All six corridors by 2024.

Kitchener and Stouffville GO lines will be ready first so they can accommodate SmartTrack service — essentially, identical to GO RER but running more frequently and with trains stopping at more stations inside the Toronto border.

The flurry of construction — a deliberate effort to play catch-up after a Big Stall since the 1980s — is being funded by historic provincial and federal contributions of cash.

But local ratepayers will soon be asked to fork over more tax dollars — and more in fares — to sustain the massive construction boom. As if that is not controversial enough, “fare integration” is coming.

GTA residents, used to “talk, talk, talk” on the transit file, can be forgiven if they have not bought into the hype that change is a coming — that transit construction is moving from zero to 100 in seconds, comparatively speaking.

But city planners talk about a “motherlode” of reports and data and ridership projections and growth projections and network analysis that is about to be dumped on citizens and area politicians this spring, ahead of some critical decisions.

For example, city planners are laser focused on getting the Downtown Relief Line to the top of the priority list, having watched it all but disappear in the wake of John Tory’s SmartTrack scheme. June’s city council meeting is key to achieving this. Chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat insists the relief line is indispensable to expanding the region’s transit network.

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The next big nut to crack is fares. Who pays how much to ride a bus versus a subway versus GO? And how to integrate fares between municipal transit systems?

At issue is the reality that some commuters will pay more and some pay less. The politics promises to will be brutal.

Should we pay by distance? No, says someone living in Malvern and must travel by bus, subway, streetcar then bus to get to work over two hours. What’s the value of a worry-free subway ride from Vaughan to downtown? How can you charge both commuters the same amount?

The fare-integration talks are meant to solve those dilemmas, in a process was described at a recent Metrolinx board meeting as navigating a pretzel, layered with political, social, and financial realities.

Helping the process is this: PRESTO, the card that allows you to move seamlessly between transit modes, will be on all subway stations and TTC buses by the end of the year.

Now, look at the challenges ahead: overcrowding at Union Station will only get worse.

Numerous projects, including DRL, are on the wish list and are not funded.

City councillors are not a cohesive lot and could still scuttle planning designs with parochial interests. Council could repeat historical mistakes by putting transit where ridership does not exist.

A paradigm shift would require proper demand forecasting from planners, less political interference, public willingness to pay for service, and the political discipline to push ahead with projects once they are voted on.

Challenges aside, the region is on the verge of “a generational achievement,” says Keesmaat.

Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Email: rjames@thestar.ca

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