Toronto Mayor David Miller is promising to create a new public transit network across the city over the next four years if he's re-elected in the upcoming municipal election.

Miller unveiled his transit platform at Downsview subway station in the city Tuesday morning.

His plan includes expanding the number of bus and streetcar right-of-ways, such as the one under construction on St. Clair Avenue, but no subway expansions.

His proposal includes building:

• a dedicated bus lane on Yonge Street from Finch to Steeles.
• a dedicated bus lane on Kingston Road from Victoria Park to Eglinton.
• a streetcar right-of-way in the eastern waterfront area.

"If we're going to have a waterfront that works, the kind of waterfront that Torontonians want, we need to have transit to get across it," said Miller.

Big ideas, no money

Building new transitways above ground, he said, costs the city a fraction of what new subways would cost, and they take less time to build.

"We can't wait for subways to be constructed," he said, adding that the city still plans to proceed with the planned York University subway extension.

While Miller said there is no shortage of big ideas for a great transit system, he suggested Toronto cannot build one without help from the federal government.

Miller's plan also includes a discount on Metropasses for university students and support for a rail link from Union Station to the Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Mayoral candidate Pitfield has other transit plans

Meanwhile, mayoral candidate Jane Pitfield has proposed an ambitious expansion of the city's subway system.

Under her plan, the city would build two kilometres of new subway line, plus a new station every year, for the next 25 years.

At a cost of $150 to 200 million per kilometre, taxpayers would be paying up $10 billion over the lifetime of the project.

As for how the city would fund the expansion, Pitfield was vague, saying that she expected the federal government to partially fund it.

Ottawa has yet to confirm whether it will chip in $670 million toward the $2 billion proposal to extend the University-Spadina line north to York University.