Comment 119550

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted June 24, 2016 at 08:39:25

Excellent article which really puts the current project in perspective and gives the lie to the claims that we are somehow "rushing" into this!

It is not just that we've already spent eight years planning and consulting on this project (and millions of dollars), but the City has been told by its staff for over 50 years that we need serious rapid transit, we keep planning and studying and then shooting ourselves in the foot.

In the process, we've turned down many hundreds of millions of dollars in external funding.

In the meantime, we've starved HSR for funds, spending 14% less than 30 years ago and shrinking ridership by 26% even though our population has grown by 67%! The process continues to this day, with council deciding to put zero new levy or federal gas tax dollars into the system and try to fund improvements entirely through fare increases.

It really is a terrible record and shows we should not believe those who have suddenly had a late conversion to the buses and claim we need to grow the bus system before building LRT. The Main/King route is the one very busy part of the system with rapidly increasing ridership demand that can't be met and building LRT there is obviously the best way to boost transit overall.

Turning down a $1 billion investment is no way to boost transit!

One slight correction, Council voted in 2008 not just to pursue "Rapid Transit" but to pursue B-line LRT as the top priority, provided the capital costs were covered by the Province.

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2016-06-24 08:41:53

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