The gaps are especially visible in Brampton, where the city's own 2025 study shows an overlap between immigrant-rich neighbourhoods and poor public transportation to access jobs, health care and other essential services.
Studies and surveys in Toronto and Mississauga point to similar difficulties, raising questions about whether transit networks are keeping pace with the needs of the new communities they serve.
As Brampton, Mississauga and Toronto prepare to elect their next municipal councils, the question is not simply the funding of public transit systems, but whether they serve the people who most rely on buses and trains to get around.
Newcomers are especially reliant on public transit. According to 2021 census data for the Toronto metropolitan area, 28.5 per cent of immigrants who obtained permanent residency between 2016 and 2021 commuted by public transit, compared with 11.6 per cent of non-immigrants. Among temporary residents such as international students and temporary foreign workers, the figure was even higher, at 39.6 per cent.
Steven Farber, a professor at the University of Toronto who studies transportation equity, said recent immigrants use public transit at higher rates than Canadian-born residents, a pattern reflected in both census commuting data and the Transportation Tomorrow Survey.
[caption id="attachment_43264" align="alignleft" width="1738"] Public transit commuting in the Toronto metropolitan area by immigration status, 2021.
Source: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census. Chart prepared by Professor Steven Farber, University of Toronto.[/caption]
A 2024 national survey by Mobilizing Justice found that 45 per cent of recent immigrants had turned down job opportunities because of transportation difficulties, compared with 26 per cent of Canadian-born respondents.
Brampton: Where disadvantage and poor access overlap
Sara Jose, an IT professional who works in downtown Toronto, arrived from India in 2023 and lived in Brampton until last November. Without a driver's licence, she initially relied on public transit to get to work, taking a bus from her home to the Brampton Innovation District GO station before boarding a train to downtown Toronto.
Although her family owns a car and she has since obtained her driver’s licence, Jose said she still prefers public transit because it is cheaper and saves her the trouble of finding parking.
But she said the local bus was often the weakest link in her commute. The Route 502 bus would stop at Ray Lawson Boulevard for 15 to 20 minutes before continuing to the GO station.
“That is when you really feel you lose a lot of time,” she said.
During bad weather, Jose said two buses would sometimes arrive together; other times, none would show up. On her return journey, buses departed before passengers reached the stop.
And missing a connection could mean a long wait. Jose said if she reached the GO station after 8:30 a.m., the train runs less frequently and she had to wait 30 minutes or longer for the next one.
She said she shared her concerns with the transit agency and noticed that buses wait longer at stops. She said there appeared to be closer monitoring of the length of time buses remain at stops.
Jose has since moved to Oakville, which falls under a different municipal region, and said the public transit system is much more efficient there than the one she left behind.
Brampton provides one of the clearest examples of the challenges facing transit-dependent communities. The city's own 2025 Transportation Equity Framework identified neighbourhoods where residents facing greater social and economic disadvantages also have poorer access to jobs, health care, schools and important destinations.
[caption id="attachment_43259" align="alignleft" width="463"] Brampton Transit suspended four routes, citing low ridership due to the loss of international students in the city. Photo: The Pointer[/caption]
The study identified parts of western Brampton, particularly around Mississauga and Mayfield Road, and the Wildfield and Castlemore area in the northeast.
To assess which communities were most vulnerable to transportation barriers, the city considered factors including recent immigration; visible minority populations; unemployment; housing costs and access to vehicles.
A 2021 study published in the Journal of Transport Geography also found that immigrants living in peripheral suburbs can struggle to access opportunities due to inadequate transit services.
Brampton Transit has faced financial pressures following changes to federal immigration policy. In a 2025 budget forecast, city staff reported a 20 per cent year-over-year decline in ridership and an estimated $26 million reduction in fare revenue.
The forecast attributed much of the decline to the loss of international students. In April 2026, the transit authority suspended four of the city's routes, citing low ridership.
Brampton Transit did not respond to requests for comment about the service changes and research findings.
Toronto: Who gets considered in transit planning?
Andrew Pulsifer, executive director of transit advocacy group TTCriders, said residents of areas such as immigrant-rich Scarborough and Etobicoke have long raised concerns about the level of transit service available to them.
"There is a general sentiment that places like Scarborough and Etobicoke don't have the higher order transit that they feel they deserve," Pulsifer said.
A 2025 University of Toronto School of Cities analysis found that immigrant settlement in the Greater Toronto Area has increasingly shifted toward these suburbs, with newcomers also settling just outside the downtown core.
A 2024 study published in Case Studies on Transport Policy found that 72 per cent of TTC riders considered equity-deserving, based on visible minority status or low income, lived outside the neighbourhoods the TTC prioritizes in its equity-based service planning. The findings suggest that relying on designated neighbourhoods alone may overlook many disadvantaged transit users.
Farber, the University of Toronto professor and one of the study's authors, said this does not mean the TTC necessarily overlooks immigrant communities, and suggested closer collaboration with immigrant communities to identify barriers involving language, affordability and access to destinations.
The TTC's 2026–2028 Ridership Growth Strategy also identifies lower satisfaction among some groups of riders, including those with low incomes, younger passengers and shift workers.
Mississauga: No alternative for many transit users
Nishant Sharma, a banking professional who works in downtown Toronto, arrived in Canada in September 2026 and stayed with relatives in Mississauga while he started his job and settled into life in Canada. He commuted downtown every day.
He said the morning trip was manageable, but the return trip was not.
As a newcomer, Sharma did not know the last homebound train leaves Union Station at 7:10 p.m. on weekdays. One evening, he left work a little after 8 p.m. and could not find a train to Mississauga. GO runs buses on the corridor after the last train, but he didn't know that.
He said he took three or four local buses instead, and a trip that usually takes about an hour took more than double that time.
Sharma said he also found the transit stations hard to navigate. A family member guided him, he said, but without their help it would have taken “a day or two or three” to learn the system.
“You shouldn’t need any help from anyone just to board a train,” he said. He recently moved to downtown Toronto.
In Mississauga, a MiWay customer survey found that 59 per cent of respondents had no alternative means of transportation. Nearly four in five were under 35, while 35 per cent were students.
Mississauga is home to a substantial immigrant population. According to the 2021 census, 379,420 residents were immigrants, including more than 52,000 who arrived between 2016 and 2021.
[caption id="attachment_43258" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] In Mississauga, a MiWay transit customer survey found that 59 per cent of respondents had no alternative means of transportation. Photo: The Pointer[/caption]
Although Mississauga’s survey does not identify how many transit-dependent riders are newcomers, the figures raise questions about how well the city's transit network serves residents who have limited transportation options.
Research by the University of Toronto's Mobilizing Justice initiative highlighted the challenges facing workers who travel outside conventional commuting hours. As reported by CityNews in 2023, research identified northeast Mississauga as an area with concentrations of evening and night-shift workers.
Newer immigrants are disproportionately represented among workers on these schedules and they face additional difficulties when transit services are sporadic outside peak periods.
In response to questions about its planning approach, a MiWay spokesperson said it collects data about where passengers begin their journeys and where they need to travel when making transit service decisions.
In Scarborough connections are key
The new Scarborough Busway opened Sept. 30, connecting Kennedy Station to Scarborough Town Centre along the former Scarborough Rapid Transit corridor. The dedicated bus route promised shorter journeys for thousands of commuters.
Pranitha Rathakrishnan, who moved to Canada as a child, is a master's student living in Scarborough-Rouge Park. She noticed the difference immediately.
[caption id="attachment_43256" align="aligncenter" width="2560"] The Scarborough Busway opened in September 2026 to provide faster service for thousands of commuters. Photo: Toronto Transit Commission[/caption]
The day before the Busway opened, she said she missed her connection by just 30 seconds which delayed her arrival at her destination by 25 minutes. The following day, with the new Busway, she reached Scarborough Town Centre with five minutes to spare before her connecting bus arrived.
It was a relatively small improvement, but for someone who relies on public transit, it made a big difference. She said her family's growing dependence on public transportation has made her more aware of the importance of reliable connections.
What the ridership figures don't show
Antonio Páez, a professor at McMaster University who studies transportation equity, said assessing whether a transit system adequately serves its residents requires looking beyond ridership numbers and service frequency.
Transit planners should examine whether services are distributed according to residents' needs, particularly those who rely entirely on public transportation because they have no viable alternatives, he said.
That means examining not only where people live, but also which destinations they need to reach and how long those journeys take.
"Does someone need to travel 15 minutes or 90 minutes to reach a doctor, supermarket, job, etc.?" Páez said.
He said equity is seldom considered in conventional transit performance measures, which tend to focus on operating costs, service delivery and fuel emissions.
Páez also pointed to a less visible problem known as "suppressed travel," which are journeys people never undertake because public transit makes them impractical.
For instance, someone might decide against visiting a doctor because the journey would take three hours. Since the trip never happens, it doesn't appear in ridership figures.
Copyright 2026, New Canadian Media. All rights reserved.
Shilpashree Jagannathan and Mubin S. Khan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, New Canadian Media.
