London city hall: Ontario puts $170M into bus rapid transit system
lfpress.com
Jan. 15, 2018
Megan Stacey
It could be a year before London knows whether it has the federal money to put rubber to the road with bus rapid transit.
With Queen’s Park all in on London’s project, announcing Monday the province will commit $170 million — one-third of the project cost, and the largest investment the province ever has made in London — attention turned to Ottawa’s commitment.
Between the provincial dollars — first reported by The Free Press this weekend — and the $130 million promised from city hall, 60 per cent of the BRT price tag is wrapped up. That leaves the project riding on a hefty $200-million federal contribution.
“I can assure Londoners that Shift BRT will be given a very close and serious look, but there is a process,” Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal MP for London North Centre, said Monday.
“We have to be very responsible. Rubber-stamping any process would not be the right thing to do.”
Mayor Matt Brown, whose 2014 election campaign promised to deliver a rapid transit plan, remained confident the federal dollars will follow.
“This project couldn’t take place without all three levels of government working together,” he said at Monday’s funding announcement — from which federal politicians were conspicuously absent — describing it as “170 million reasons to be excited.”
“There is no reason . . . that I could imagine the federal government wouldn’t follow through with the appropriate level of funding,” Brown said.
The Trudeau government has earmarked $28 billion during the next decade for transit, and Fragiskatos said London will get its “fair share.” But London’s 24-kilometre BRT network needs careful vetting before any financial decisions are made, he said.
That could extend into 2019 because infrastructure agreements between the federal and provincial governments need to be ironed out first, Fragiskatos said.
Ottawa then will wade through a massive number of proposals for infrastructure projects across the country.
The investment from Queen’s Park was announced Monday at city hall by Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca.
“We want to ensure that neighbourhoods in London can thrive and prosper through better and more efficient transit infrastructure that will help the people of this community get where they need to go faster and easier,” he said, also pointing to spinoff benefits such as cleaner air and construction jobs.
Reliability is at the heart of the proposed BRT network, which includes L-and 7-shaped corridors that will extend to the north, east, south and west of the city, with downtown as the hub.
Buses will run mostly in dedicated lanes, and they’ll go by often, every few minutes in peak periods.
That’s the “rapid” part of the system. It has nothing to do with vehicle speed.
BRT is also about city-building. It’s a planning tool with the power to attract significant development along the routes, especially in downtown.
But London’s plan isn’t without its critics, and Del Duca seemed to make passing reference to the vocal opposition.
“I know this city will continue to work with residents, businesses, and the entire community to make sure that we get this right,” he said.
A group of downtown merchants, who banded together under the banner Down Shift, ran a divisive anti-BRT campaign before the master plan was approved last summer.
And city hall was harshly criticized for a lack of community consultation in the early stages of the plan. Staff has sought to rectify that, hosting 22 hours of public meetings last month.
There’s no end to complaints about the project’s price tag, and the construction needed to make it a reality. Mayoral hopeful Paul Cheng, who attended Monday’s announcement, described the BRT plan as a “sandcastle built on an incomplete sketch.”
He pointed to the Richmond Street rail crossing — arguably the project’s biggest stumbling block — which threatens to choke the system and make BRT much less rapid.
Politicians voted to drop a 900-metre tunnel that would have run beneath Richmond Row, avoiding the rail lines, after costs ballooned to more than $300 million and city staff withdrew support.
BRT could be a key issue in this fall’s civic election, making it something of a referendum on the entire project.
Cheng tried to argue that London should “take the money” and redirect the $170 million toward addressing homelessness or high-speed rail, but money from the province is tied to this BRT plan. If the project is ditched, so too would be the cheque.
The provincial dollars represent a significant vote of confidence from Queen’s Park, which has buoyed some members of council.
“I think this gives us a lot of security. We’ve had the Ministry of Transportation do a robust analysis on our business case and found it to be sound and comprehensive,” Coun. Stephen Turner said after the announcement.
The rapid transit project will encompass other road projects in the city, too, such as a “smart” transportation network linking traffic signals and significant road work along the routes.
