Rapid Transit

[thistleclub]

Mac report illuminates issue of LRT for city
(Hamilton Spectator, Meredith MacLeod, Oct 20, 2012)

Senior Hamilton bureaucrats are carefully studying a report produced by McMaster University researchers that suggests that light rail transit has the potential to succeed in Hamilton but will be a “long, challenging and costly process.”

The study looked at successful and failing LRT systems across North America in terms of their ability to attract riders and new development.

It will be a big part of a staff report coming to councillors that will definitively recommend whether the city should forge ahead with building an LRT line for Hamilton, said city manager Chris Murray.

“It will speak to all the things we need to do to take advantage of the growth opportunity Hamilton is enjoying.”

The university report, produced by the McMaster Institute for Transportation and Logistics and commissioned by the city, is “good advice to staff and council on how to move ahead with LRT,” said Murray.

Though he stopped short of saying LRT is now a city target, he said Hamilton has “already invested heavily” in LRT.

“I don’t think the feeling is out there that LRT isn’t worth pursuing.”

But Mayor Bob Bratina has repeatedly shot arrows into the hearts of those pining for B-line LRT stretching 13 kilometres between McMaster and Eastgate. It’s projected to cost between $875 million and $1 billion to build.

He has stated there is no public “clamour” for LRT, no development interest and “no convincing argument” for dense economic development along the corridor. He said LRT would be a serious option for Hamilton if a million people moved to the city in the next five years.

As well, the city’s rapid transit office was disbanded and its director left the city.

All of that prompted a motion from council in October supporting the continuation of a full investigation into the feasibility of light rail transit for Hamilton.

Then Bratina said in December that he would not be a champion of LRT, yet Metrolinx officials have said cities need to advocate for their projects.

Co-authors Mark Ferguson, senior research consultant at the McMaster Institute for Transportation and Logistics, and PhD student Christopher Higgins examined the success and failure of light rail transit projects in 30 North American cities.

They conclude: “light rail transit has the potential to work in Hamilton under the right set of circumstances but it will be a long, challenging and costly process.”

[thistleclub]

Residents Remain Skeptical On Metrolinx Funding
(Globe & mail, John Lorinc, Oct 24, 2012)

Toronto’s leaders have not persuaded the public of the need for more spending on transit to break through the region’s growing gridlock.

Surveys from the province’s regional transit agency, Metrolinx, obtained by The Globe and Mail under an access to information request, show people in Toronto and Hamilton are opposed to paying new taxes and fees to raise the billions needed to expand regional transportation infrastructure.

The documents include a September, 2011, Environics poll of residents in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas that found 70 per cent of the 2,500 surveyed agreed that government “has enough money to improve road conditions and transit; they should not need to further raise taxes or fees.” Twenty-four per cent disagreed with the statement and 6 per cent were undecided.

There was at best tepid support for four specific tax measures – road tolls, a parking levy, a regional sale tax and a gas tax hike – designed to pay for new transit options, estimated at least $2-billion a year for 25 years.

As well, the documents show Metrolinx held focus groups with representatives of 21 regional stakeholder groups, including seven chambers of commerce, for advice on selling tax tools to bankroll major transit programs.

Among their recommendations: Give the public a limited number of realistic funding options and rely on a trusted leader to promote the plan.

In an interview, Metrolinx chief executive officer Bruce McCuaig acknowledged the agency has to step up its efforts to communicate its long-range vision to Greater Toronto and Hamilton residents.

“We need to be doing a better job of explaining those issues,” he said, adding that Metrolinx will be rolling out a high-profile public-education campaign later this fall.

Earlier this month, Civic Action launched a campaign promoting the need for new ways to pay for a $50-billion Metrolinx plan known as “The Big Move,” which envisions a network of LRTs, subways, bus corridors and all-day GO service across the region. The “Your 32” campaign asks residents to think about what they would do with the estimated extra half hour of commuting time they can expect by 2030 – time that would be saved if Big Move projects are built.

A recent Toronto Board of Trade/Globe and Mail/Nanos poll showed that only one in 10 residents had heard of The Big Move. Civic Action chair John Tory said that Metrolinx hasn’t done enough to plug its long-term vision, adding that even simple PR measures, like putting up posters in GO vehicles showing maps of The Big Move, would help spread the word.

Mr. Tory said he frequently hears callers to his radio show saying they’d be more willing to pay if they knew the funds would go exclusively into transit projects. “Slowly but surely, as we experience more and more congestion, people reluctantly are at least [willing to] have the discussion as to how to pay for more transit,” he said.

The revelations come at a highly charged moment. With the City of Toronto poised to start public consultations on establishing new revenue tools, the Toronto Transit Commission Wednesday is vetting a report calling for a $3.2-billion “downtown relief line” meant to alleviate crowding on the Yonge line.

Such a line is low on the provincial transit agency’s list of priorities, raising the question of whether the city will make a bid to manage its own transit expansion.

TTC chair Karen Stintz took issue with the Metrolinx findings, saying she felt a growing number of Torontonians “understand that we don’t have enough money to meet all our priorities.”

The debate over new taxes is set to take place in an arena of political uncertainty about the future of transit, given the resignation of Premier Dalton McGuinty. Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak has pledged to upload Toronto’s rapid transit lines to Metrolinx and refocus investment on subways. Mr. Hudak has not yet taken a position on revenue tools such as a sales tax, but opposes road tolls. Metrolinx is legally obliged to release its recommendations on new tax measures by next June.

The Metrolinx findings are gloomier than the more recently commissioned Board of Trade/Globe poll, which showed that 34 per cent of residents were flatly against new taxes for transit while another 28 per cent strongly supported them.

Toronto Board of Trade CEO Carol Wilding said in the year since Metrolinx conducted its public opinion research, congestion appears to have grown worse, resulting in mounting commuter stress levels. “It’s become more and more challenging for people,” she said. “That’s actually helped bring the conversation [about revenue tools] out more.”

The Metrolinx poll of 2,500 residents drawn from across the GTA and Hamilton was conducted by Environics in August and September of 2011, well before the subway-vs-LRT battle at council earlier this year . The results have a 1.9 per cent margin of error, and are considered to be accurate 19 times out of 20.

The results show, geographically, there was more support in Toronto for general taxes compared to the 905 and Hamilton, where residents preferred user fees. But even in Toronto, measures like a sales or gas tax hike garnered little enthusiasm.

Other results were not surprising: the strongest backing for a parking levy and road tolls came from transit users and those who walk or cycle, while just 13 per cent of those who drive or carpool to work backed a gas tax.

According to the documents, “rejection of all four is most evident among those living in Hamilton and York Regions, drivers, older residents and those with lower socio-economic status.”

[go_leafs_go02]

https://twitter.com/Metrolinx/status/274216317068926976

LRT has been officially announced for Hamilton via Metrolinx, but it looks to be only between McMaster and Downtown.

[thistleclub]

Via @Metrolinx:

‏McCuaig: We anticipate the cost of the next wave of projects as well as funding for local transit, roads and highways will be $34b #bigmove

McCuaig: to make the single largest investment in infrastructure in Canadian history, we need to think different about how we fund infra.

[SteelTown]

Hamilton Light Rail Transit: 14 km LRT line stretching from McMaster University to Eastgate Square.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1080...-move-projects

[thistleclub]

Glad for the announcement. Will be more excited when they unveil their funding.

[SteelTown]

Either way they've decided LRT and not BRT for the B-Line. And it's priority number 4 on the list.

[CaptainKirk]

Ok, that's great!

Can we get some funding answers?

[thistleclub]

Agreed. It is a promising press release.

[CaptainKirk]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Either way they've decided LRT and not BRT for the B-Line. And it's priority number 4 on the list.

What list?

Can't find any that includes Hamilton. Help please

[thistleclub]

In alphabetical order, the mention is at the bottom of the press release:

The Next Wave: Key Facts

• 713 km of enhanced transit
• 33 million new transit trips by 2031
• 6,139,344 people will live within 2 km of rapid transit by 2031
• 800,000 to 900,000 new jobs created between 2012 to 2031
• $110 to $130 billion growth to Ontario's GDP between 2012 to 2031
• $25 to $35 billion in total Government Revenues between 2012 to 2031

Rapid Transit Projects:

75 per cent of proposed investment is allocated to a transformative slate of regional transit projects:

• Brampton Queen Street Rapid Transit: 10 km of upgraded transit along Queen Street.
• Downtown Relief Line: New subway that will improve access to the regional core for residents from across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) and provide relief to the overflowing arteries of the Toronto transit system.
• Dundas Street Bus Rapid Transit: 40 km of bus service running in dedicated lanes, connecting Toronto, Mississauga and Halton.
• Durham-Scarborough Bus Rapid Transit: 36 km of bus service running in dedicated lanes, connecting Scarborough Centre to downtown Oshawa via Pickering, Ajax and Whitby.
• GO Rail Expansion: More Two-Way, All-Day and Rush Hour Service: Introducing more two-way, all-day service, adding additional rush hour service across the entire network, and extending trains to Hamilton and Bowmanville.
• Electrification of GO Kitchener line and Union Pearson Express: Upgrading diesel train service to electric propulsion for these two complementary transit services that share a substantial portion of their routing.
• GO Lakeshore Express Rail Service - Phase 1 (including Electrification): Transforming GO Transit's backbone from Hamilton to Oshawa into a faster, more frequent and more convenient transit option by beginning the transition to an international-style Express Rail service.
• Hamilton Light Rail Transit: 14 km LRT line stretching from McMaster University to Eastgate Square.
• Hurontario-Main Light Rail Transit: 23 km LRT line connecting Port Credit to downtown Brampton via Cooksville and Mississauga City Centre.
• Yonge North Subway Extension: 6 km extension that will connect the City of Toronto to the Richmond Hill / Langstaff Urban Growth Centre.
I wouldn't invest too much importance in numerical ordering. The Big Move's #1 move, ahead of the Pearson Air-Rail Link and and expanded Union Station, was "A fast, frequent and expanded regional rapid transit network."

[SteelTown]

McCuaig said...

4th, the Hamilton LRT, which will change the way people in Hamilton travel

[SteelTown]

The list

1st, Brampton BRT
2nd, the Dundas BRT project
3rd, 36 new km of transit to connect Scarborough Centre through dt Pickering to dt Oshawa
4th, the Hamilton LRT
5th, the Hurontario LRT
6th, a new extension of the Yonge subway from Finch subway station to Richmond Hill.
7th, expanding GO Train service by introducing more two-way, all-day service
8th, electrification of GO’s Lakeshore and Kitchener lines, and Union Pearson Express

[thistleclub]

"Metrolinx is legislated to report back to the province by 2013 with an Investment Strategy that will help keep the ball rolling with investments in transportation."

The Big Move First Progress Report is a snapshot of the work underway to implement the twenty-five year plan, and a framework for longer-term assessment of the 25-year plan. It is being developed with support from municipal, provincial, transit and community stakeholders. Metrolinx anticipates that the Progress Report will be complete by early 2013. Metrolinx is required by legislation to undertake a full, comprehensive review of The Big Move by 2016.

[SteelTown]

Metrolinx will ask the City to contribute towards the LRT. Metrolinx will let the city know by June 2013 how much.

[SteelTown]

Metrolinx ranks Hamilton LRT No. 4 on priority list

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/ar...-priority-list

Bringing LRT to Hamilton ranks fourth on a list of priorities presented Thursday by the CEO of transit authority Metrolinx.

Bruce McCuaig outlined the next wave of key projects of the Big Move plan, placing LRT in this city behind three in the GTA.

Hamilton’s proposed light rail linking McMaster to Eastgate Square “will change the way people in Hamilton travel, by connecting key areas such at McMaster and the dt (downtown),” McCuaig tweeted after a lunch address at the Toronto Board of Trade.

Brampton BRT (bus rapid transit), Dundas BRT in Halton, Mississauga and Toronto, and transit connections linking Scarborough to Pickering and Oshawa are the projects ranked ahead of Hamilton.

The Metrolinx Big Move plan has already guided $16 billion in transit investments.

The next wave of investments, which also include LRT in Mississauga, Brampton, a Yonge subway extension, GO rail upgrades and an air link to Pearson airport from Union Station, will cost an estimated $34 billion.

“With our plan in place, it’s now time for the big conversation about the best ways to pay for this $34 billion investment,” McCuaig said in a release. “Together, let’s look to what other world-class cities have done to fund their transit plans and then get the job done here in the GTHA.”

[thistleclub]

Via Joey Coleman: Video of McCuaig's speech & scrum (Hamilton LRT nod at 15:55)

[CaptainKirk]

And now the Spec says,

Bringing LRT to Hamilton is among a group of 10 priorities for the next 15 years announced Thursday by transit authority Metrolinx.

While it initially appeared Metrolinx had announced a ranking of the projects in a series of numbered tweets, the agency clarified that no ranking has been determined. Instead, McCuaig said the announcement “reconfirms Hamilton’s place on the priority list.”

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/ar...inx-priorities

[drpgq]

Electrification of Lakeshore GO is good too.

[matt602]

Lots of good things there including LRT, electrification and all-day service to Hamilton but I'm not getting excited until funding is in place from the province and the city. Let's not forget that the city has been expecting not to pay for any of it, and it's going to be very, very hard for suburban councilors to get on board with it. It's almost certainly going to result in a tax increase.