E-Rail was commissioned by Yorke Region Rapid Transport Corporation and Metrolinx to assess the LVC potential at five new subway stations as part of an extension of the existing Yonge street subway line.
These new stations were to be at Richmond, Langstaff, Clark, Steeles and Cummer. We also studied the opportunities at Royal Orchard which was later removed from the overall proposal. In total we assessed 72 sites along the route each within 1 kilometre of the planned stations. We worked in conjunction with Avison Young and produced a comprehensive report on land ownership and potential uplift in value which at the time could have generated about 30% of the then cost of some $3b CAN. We included forecasting when the take up would occur and funds would be generated. Much of the uplift was to be realised from the change in zoning and building height.
The picture below shows the skyline at Finch from the Subway and bus station interchange.
The picture below shows the cityscape at Clark where two storey buildings are commonplace, and the airspace value has not been released. Plenty of increased development opportunities would be created including linking with existing retail malls and transport hubs all of which made for a very exciting project.
The Priority Project North-South LRT line assumed 12 stations and an electrified double track from the Rideau Centre to Riverside South including a connection to the Airport.
Our appointment was to report on the land value capture opportunities if the Bus transit way was to be replaced with a tram linked with the existing O train. Fixed track would enable further development to take place along the route and increase capacity. The funds we expected to raise would have been much higher but property values at the time of this study were depressed and we calculated we could only raise about 10% of the cost.
Appointed by Metrolinx to generate an analysis of the viability of this project.
There were several sections to this report; Oakville to Credit via Mississauga and then Renforth and on to York. Two options were considered ; York to Scarborough via the 407 and York to Scarborough via Finch and finally via Scarborough to Pickering. The intention was to create a bus transit route to link north Toronto to the south and connect with Pearson airport along the 407 using a dedicated roadway. The funds we estimated could be raised were considerable but would have been higher if a light or heavy or rail solution had been introduced. This initial study was a pioneering exercise for Canada with our then partner McCormick Rankin (later MMM) in raising finance towards the cost of transit projects.
The Brisbane water ferry was a project where we gave advice to Queensland Transport on the potential for land value capture.
Each landing would automatically create value when the service started assuming there was land in the area for development. Considerable funds could have been raised. In some cases, it was simply an increase in existing house values which in our experience is not easy to capture.
In Montréal E-Rail worked with the National Bank of Canada
We assisted with the proposed funding of the LRT project from 10/30 in Brossard to Downtown and then to Montreal International Airport. In the end, the project was taken forward by another group.
E-Rail was invited by Ottawa City to assess the potential for land value capture on the proposed East West light rail route starting at Kanata West and ending in Tenth Line and Innes, routing through the city centre and connecting with the Bus Rapid transit station and other transport modes.
The E-Rail LVC method would have generated funds but ultimately the City chose to limit the route to run from Blair to Tunney’s Pasture still connecting all the major central locations. If the railyards to the east had been included, we estimated that the LVC programme could have raised well over $CAN 200m.
