The City will deliver the Züm project — it used to call the project AcceleRide — in two phases.

It will implement the first phase between now and 2012 along the following corridors:

• September 2010 — Queen Street between downtown Brampton and York University;
• September 2011 — Main Street between Sandalwood Parkway and the Mississauga City Centre; and
• September 2012 — Steeles Avenue between Shoppers World and Humber College’s North Campus.

The City will implement the second phase by 2021, providing new service along Bovaird Drive between the Mount Pleasant GO station and Airport Road and extending the Queen line west to Chinguacousy Road and the Steeles line west and south to Lisgar GO Station.

Züm will operate similar to York Region’s Viva: uniquely identified buses offering express service, serving stations at key intersections and requiring several measures to give the vehicles priority over all other traffic.

Phase 1

• Requires 50 to 60 new, state-of-the-art BRT operating in mixed-traffic, using bus-only “queue-jump” lanes, far-side bays and transit signal priority at intersections to gain travel time advantage and ensure schedule reliability.
• Buses operate frequently serving both local and limited-stop express routes.
• Intelligent transportation systems provide passengers with real-time information and automate collecting fares.
• Brampton Transit increases service levels on support corridors that feed the Züm lines.

Phase 2

• Another 50 to 60 BRT vehicles operate.
• Beyond Phase 2, planners hope to build higher-order rapid transit in the Züm corridors, such as exclusive bus lanes in the centre of the road.

The Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario and the City of Brampton are equal funding partners in the $285-million project.

The Government of Canada is supporting the project with as much as $95 million for both phases. In announcing FLOW, on March 6, 2007, the Government of Canada allocated $53 million from the Canada Strategic Infrastructure Fund for the first phase of the AcceleRide project. (FLOW is the Government’s transportation action plan for the Greater Toronto Area.)

The Province of Ontario has already contributed $95 million to the City of Brampton to support the project through the MoveOntario 2020 initiative announced in Ontario’s 2006 budget.

The City of Brampton is also contributing $95 million toward the BRT.

You can find out more about Züm here.