[Jon Dalton]

Houston just got the go-ahead for 5 LRT lines. Previously, some dumbass politician had blocked the proposal and they were scaled back to BRT with future upgrading in mind (does this sound familiar?) Part of the reasoning for installing LRT right away is that it will cost more to upgrade later than to do it right the first time. With Hamilton's one time provincial grant, the suggestion of 'starting slow' with BRT and upgrading to LRT in the future is obvious bullshit. If it's not done now when the money is on the table, it will certainly not be upgraded when there is no capital available. We should realize that there is no substance to this hypothetical future LRT upgrade mentioned in the transportation master plan. It is was likely thrown in just to fool us into thinking that they actually expended some thought on LRT. If the grant is blown on buses, we will be stuck with that.