Light Rapid Transit

I was at Waterloo City Hall tonight as Regional staff presented the latest about Light Rapid Transit. (On Rogers TV if you get it, council is televised tonight)
After the presentation, I was standing beside Mike Murray, our CEO as the press interviewed him, but the Chronicle wasn’t interested in a quote from me. One of the reasons I started this blog, so you can hear from me.
So here’s some info and thoughts about Light Rapid Transit.
We wil be having a public meeting in Regional council chambers on June 10 at 5 pm. Then final decision on June 24 between bus or light rail and the route. Here is the address of more LRT info
http://rapidtransit.region.waterloo.on.ca/

Tonight, Waterloo city council asked for a route that passes the R and T park, UW and WLU then the Iexpress route down King St. It was not clear but the block between Bridgeport and Erb cannot accommodate the LRT without removing car lanes and parking! So city counicl proposes one line down King and another down Bridgeport/Caroline. This will cost more than using the rail spur through Waterloo Park. The problem may be solved by running an Iexpress or Iexpress up University in the short term and streetcar or LRT/BRT along all along University in the long term.
Also, Stan Rektor made a presentation and I need to correct a few things.
Not the fact that the LRT will cost alot! It will, see the info in the link. Stan was right about that, though the proposed cost is 790 million not the 1.3 billion if we did the whole line as LRT.
Stan wants a pipeline to the Lake, preferrably Huron. He may be the only person in Waterloo keen on that. Despite what the article said in the Chronicle, Waterloo Region has enough groundwater for the 750,000 people in the future, particularly if we keep conserving. A pipeline may be needed around 2035.
We are presently building a bridge across Fairway Road to Kossuth, for around 50 million not 500 million, so that job is underway.
We cannot go on increasing and widening roads and increasing car traffic because we do not have the capacity, not to mention pollution and air quality.
We need to intensify in the cores to save our farmland and sensitive lands and water quality. So we must have a public transit solution.
After much thought and a long preference for Bus Rapid Transit, I have come round to the Light Rapid Transit. As long as we get most of the start up money from the province and the feds. Both BRT and LRT are incredibly expensive, but the rail has the most other benefits.
By the Way, how about the costs of building roads? Add it up and you will soon get over a billion dollars.
I’m glad Stan likes the new Ira Needles Road with its ring roads though.

More later on my thoughts about Cambridge.