Thanks for the question.
It's interesting. Large parts of the greater Toronto and Hamilton area actually are quite rural in nature. We have rural transportation issues that we need to deal with as well, so we can probably relate much more closely than you would expect.
The specific challenges in a place like the greater Toronto and Hamilton area I would say are similar to those of Vancouver and Montreal. First of all, it's the geographic scope. City regions span multiple municipalities and thousands of square kilometres of territory. It can be hundreds of kilometres, in some cases, in linear distances. The geography is just immense.
The size of the system is at an order of magnitude that is different from other areas. They have commuter rail systems. They have regional bus systems. They have subways, in some cases, and light rail transit. They have a variety of modes. It's not simply a bus-based transport system or a bus-based and light rail transit system. There are multiple modes of technology. The size of the system is big.
The complexity of integrating multiple municipalities makes it different from a lot of other kinds of communities in the country. Ottawa, for example--a very complex, large urban area with about a million people, if you consider the span across the river--is basically a uni-city and can deal with its transportation challenges within a single municipal council. Obviously they also speak to the folks across the river in Quebec, but they have much more span and control over their decisions in that area.
In the Toronto and Hamilton area, we have 30 municipalities. We have 10 transit agencies. We have multiple transportation road authorities we deal with. The complexity of getting them all to move in the same direction makes it significantly different.
The other big piece, I would say, is that about two-thirds of the country's transit ridership is in those three cities, those three regions. That's because the connection is very close among land use, density, mixed use, and transit systems. It also provides the greatest opportunity, I think, to increase that transit ridership. Those densities are still going up, and there's still opportunity to get the most out of your transportation system, because there are so many people living in close proximity to the investment you're making.
These are some of the things, I would say, that make the Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal areas different from other cities or urban areas in the country.