Raise the Hammer

How can refusing a billion dollar investment be a better deal?

If accepting it pushes the City and the Province further into debt then refusing it is a better deal. Clearly, if the Province were flush with cash no one would be arguing against LRT for Hamilton right now. If Ontario had a $313 billion surplus instead of a debt I'd be at the top of the Wentworth Stairs shouting about building a city wide LRT.


Where is your civic spirit?

Where is yours? Why bring in Metrolinx to run an HSR route? In fact, the HSR will be hurting after losing revenues from its King Street routes. The HSR is a homegrown solution. You're advocating for a provincial solution. I don't understand your civic pride angle.

Are you a climate change denier?

Non-sequitur. There are ways to mitigate carbon pollution other than LRTs. I'm a huge public transit supporter; I don't even have a driver's license. But a billion dollar choo-choo train is not the optimal plan for Hamilton. It's not even a good plan for Hamilton. Look at Siemen's eBRT for a much better plan for Hamilton's size and geography. Like LRT, eBRT is electric and emission free. Unlike LRT, eBRT is scalable, is not restricted to tracks so it can serve the entire city including the Mountain, is unaffected by breakdowns (if a train breaks down the line is blocked), and doesn't need dedicated stations for loading and unloading of passengers. An eBRT system map would look exactly the same as the current HSR map. The LRT system map is 11 stops some of which are 800m apart. Nor do you have to shut down major corridors to roll this system out. They're just electric buses. You can even use HSR operators to drive them. How is this not a better solution?

http://www.mobility.siemens.com/mobility/global/en/urban-mobility/road-solutions/e-bus/pages/ebus-ebrt-old.aspx

Comment edited by JimC on 2016-07-03 09:46:16