Separate transit group is the ticket: chamber
February 08, 2010
Meredith Macleod
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Business/article/718055
The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce wants to see an independent transit commission operate the city's bus system and a potential future light-rail line.
The chamber's transportation committee is arguing the Hamilton Street Railway should be divorced from politics and be overseen by a corporation that includes voices from business and users.
"Whenever there are transit enhancements or changes made, they are politically motivated, rather than business-case oriented," said Dan Rodrigues, chairperson of the chamber's transportation committee.
The chamber began this debate with the city close to two years ago. A staff report last month argued the current model of integrating transit fully as a city department is the best for Hamilton.
Currently, the transit system, and its operating budget of about $87 million this year, is overseen by councillors who sit on the public works committee.
The chamber made another pitch for a commission to that committee last week.
Rodrigues says the city hasn't cut Hamilton Street Railway service in underused areas or rationalized routes because councillors don't want to suffer political heat.
"Since amalgamation, the HSR has been increasingly subject to undue political influence," reads the chamber's position paper.
"New routes are assigned, not based on need or maximized ridership or access to employment lands, but on specific interests. The existing plans are vague and aspirational rather than well documented with data and annual ridership targets and review of the impact or initiatives."
The chamber contends that Metrolinx is a model for city transit governance, saying the province removed politicians from the board to rise above parochial politics in planning transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area.
But Councillor Lloyd Ferguson says outside boards, including conservation authorities and police services, don't have the incentive to closely watch budgets.
He says Hamilton's transit system is efficient and cost-effective.
"There are good reasons to try (a commission) and good reasons to keep the status quo ... I'm not prepared to jump into it."
Don Hull, director of transit for the city, says many municipalities, including Hamilton, have dissolved transit commissions because they aren't accountable to the taxpayer.
Out of close to 100 transit systems belonging to the Canadian Urban Transit Association, only 19 have transit commissions, he says.
And in the case of Toronto, the entire Toronto Transit Commission board is made up of councillors, making it a de facto council committee.
John Dolbec, chamber CEO, counters that Hamilton city council should be focused on strategic planning rather than the details of operations.
"Let council focus on the forest, not the trees," Dolbec wrote in an e-mail.
Barry Wellar, a transportation consultant and retired professor at the University of Ottawa, was surprised to hear Hamilton's transit system is completely swallowed up in the public works department.
"That's right out of the 1800s. It's an engineering mentality ... The people who are focused on moving cars, are they the same people you want working on your light rail? Likely not. They don't have the mindset," he said.
"It's just like the old joke, why do transportation departments build roads? Because they've always built them and they have no other ideas."
While Ottawa abolished its transit commission, there is a citizens advisory committee providing input to staff and council, says Wellar.
Peter Hutton, spokesperson for the Hamilton Transit Users Group, also wants to see the concept of a transit commission explored.
He agrees that planning and good sense has taken a back seat to politicking.
"Any route changes go back to council and they inevitably become a political football."
Councillor Brian McHattie says there are ways to improve the governance of transit without resorting to an independent commission and he's asked public works director Gerry Davis to take a look.
"The HSR used to have a seat at the table with corporate management," said McHattie. "I think we need more focus on transit, especially as we try to reach target ridership numbers."
Rodrigues says transit is more than a social service. It's an economic enabler vital to business and industry and building a city.
That's even more important as the city lobbies for an east-west light-rail transit line, he says. Metrolinx is expected to release its recommendation Feb. 19.
Applying a business approach to transit service would cut the reliance on subsidies from the general tax levy, says Rodrigues.
But the city's Hull says transit has always straddled the divide of social service and business.
About 52 per cent of the HSR's operating budget, close to $46 million in 2010, will come out of the general tax pool.
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