Council Approves Rapid Transit Phase 2

[ryan_mcgreal]

http://raisethehammer.org/blog/1042

Amid all the excitement at last night's meeting, City Council voted to approve the staff recommendation to move the rapid transit initiative to phase 2 with an emphasis on light rail and a sense of urgency about the deadline to be included in the first five year Metrolinx budget.

The recommendation was approved unanimously at last week's public works committee meeting and referred to last night's full council meeting for approval.

This news comes as support for light rail continues to build. The most recent organization to endorse light rail was the McMaster Students Union, which expressed unanimous support for a light rail system to be constructed as quickly as possible.

An editorial in the Hamilton Spectator this past Tuesday also endorsed light rail, encouraging the city to "strike while the iron is hot."

[raisethehammer]

I loved Brad Clark during the council meeting last night.
He asked if this study would also include elevated transit in some sections so "we don't have to lose any lanes".
haha. Yea, heaven forbid we lose 2 of the 25 east/west traffic lanes downtown. The world might come to an end.

[Millstone]

To the layperson, when does this mean that shovels will be in the ground, so to speak?

[flar]

^^2053?

Seriously, I'm guessing shovels are at least 2-3 years away from hitting the ground.

[raisethehammer]

yea, they want to get into that first phase of funding from 2008-2013 so I guess construction could start then.

[ryan_mcgreal]

As I understand it, the idea is to get Council to commit to light rail as a goal by September so that the project can be included in the first rolling five year budget. Once the city is committed and the budgetary support is secured, the city can start its class environmental assessment (EA), which will plan the route, cost out the project, etc. The Province just announced a new policy to fast-track transit Class EAs, so that step could take as little as six months:

http://raisethehammer.org/blog/1039

Between public consultation, stakeholder input, securing federal financing, etc., shovels could conceivably go into the ground as early as 2010. It all depends on whether the city can maintain what project manager Jillian Stephen is calling "a sense of urgency" about the need to get this thing going - not only to start reaping the benefits but also to secure the funding before the next provincial election, which could potentially scrap Metrolinx and usurp the regional rapid transit focus.