Raise the Hammer

Your questions have been asked and answered in a variety of City and Provincial reports and at the time of the funding announcement. There's nothing wrong with asking hard questions, but it is important not to ignore the answers that have already been given. Remember this is a project that has been studied and designed and consulted for over eight years!

It's too bad the City has not kept up the public engagement for the past four years or so.

The LRT routing services what is already by far the busiest transit corridor in the City and the area with the biggest potential for economic uplift given that it is already serviced land but with lots of under-developed properties (e.g. surface parking, one storey commercial).

The economic and social benefits for this route were originally analysed six years ago in the 2010 Metrolinx Benefits Case Analysis, which followed an earlier 2008 City study that led the City to vote to pursue LRT with full provincial funding of the capital costs. Note that the 2010 BCA already included an overall costing for the project.

The goal of LRT is not to decrease traffic congestion compared to what it is now, but to allow the city to reach its economic potential given its existing street corridors since there is not reasonable potential for new streets. In other words, to use this space to move more people more efficiently which can only be accomplished with higher order rapid transit.

The City's 2007 transportation Master Plan had already noted that to accommodate further population and economic growth the City would have to prioritize means of transport other than private motor vehicles, since the existing road network can just not handle the anticipated growth.

The original McMaster to Eastgate alignment was fully costed in the 30% engineering design which would have been enough to tender the project. The Province modified the design by terminating it at Queenston and adding the Jame St spur to the new West Harbour and the costing of this was included in the new project scope.

The Province has taken predicted inflation into account and said that if necessary the project would be modified to keep it within the $1 billion budget. They have said very clearly that they will be responsible for designing and building the project and managing its budget.

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2016-05-16 10:59:47