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Toronto’s chief planner says the city could “transform” how people get around and tackle its brutal congestion with rapid bus service on main thoroughfares.

Jennifer Keesmaat believes more frequent and express bus service, perhaps in dedicated lanes, is a “quick win” that could produce major improvements in as little as five years and at a fraction of the cost of subways.

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She laid out her case in a breakfast speech Tuesday at the Toronto Region Board of Trade in which she unveiled five “big ideas.”

City planners are working with the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) on a “surface priority network,” she revealed, but declined to provide any more details at this stage, except to say dedicated lanes are “on the table.”

“One of the big arguments I often hear about a subway is that they’re underground, so they’re warmer,” Ms. Keesmaat said after her speech.

“Why don’t we create state of the art heated bus shelters? It would cost a fraction of what it would cost to go underground.”