Shift: London's Rapid Transit Initiative

[Wharn]

I love some of the goddamn excuses being thrown out there by these idiot bureaucrats at Western.

Noise and vibration from the trains may affect classrooms and other facilities

Sooo... sort of like how students at U of T cannot possibly concentrate to save their lives thanks to the big bad 506 Carlton?

Electro-magnetic interference may affect nearby research labs

Again, sort of like how the 506 Carlton runs by the engineering building at U of T, with all that electromagnetically sensitive equipment inside? Or the 12-storey biology lab that also sits right in front of the streetcar line?

Student safety is paramount, especially after the recent on-campus death of a student pedestrian

This is actually really insulting. Are they suggesting that students cannot interact with light rail vehicles when we can SEE, with absolute precision, where they are going to go? It's a matter of looking at the bloody tracks and checking to make sure there are no trains neaby. If anyone manages to get hit by a streetcar, first of all they likely deserved it (more or less one of the most predictable vehicles you will ever run into... cannot possibly see how you can have a collision with one), and second of all, there is likely a lower risk of such an incident happening in the first place compared to, say, an LTC bus (especially when some drivers seem to think signalling is optional).

I never thought I would live to see the day where London City Council was more forward-thinking and logical than the supposed world-class academic institution.

Insofar as the route selection goes, I pity the fool who has to trek from Oxford and Wharncliffe to Oxford and Adelaide. It's a 10-minute drive by car, tops, but a roundabout wild goose chase using the LRT. Otherwise it seems pretty decent, especially on the North-South corridor (which I think is the most urgently needed). It would be great if this "other bridge" results in a new road connection on the Sarnia-Huron corridor as well, but I have a feeling this will never happen. If the University is going to start fighting this, one of the things they will most certainly dig trenches over is a road connection. And that isn't really a trench worth dying over either, especially since it looks like the city only has one shot at getting this done. Best to ruffle as few feathers as possible.