I attended a SHIFT meeting on December 2.
Overview:
...Nothing really new from the presentation, I think everything from it can be found on the online PDFs. Staff did explain some sections in more detail, however.
For the Q&A, most of the questions came from people that either had a political agenda to push or just generally crazy people.
-Nevertheless, city staff did a good job handling the questions and answered in a calm, respectful manner.
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Some pics from the meeting:
(While the theatre looks pretty empty, most people were sitting at the back)
Presentation
Q&A
Display board showing LRT routing on Highbuy (I thought it was going to run through the old hospital lands directly east)
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Some interesting developments:
-There is a station planned to go under Oxford Street. Yes, our very own "London Underground".
-Residents are generally concerned that the the LRT is being built to service 'students' rather than the community. Staff said that these are the routes with the highest ridership numbers and warrant rapid transit more than other routes.
-Extension/routing to the Argyle area was presented by at least two members of the public. One of them was approached by Ward 4 councilor Jesse Helmer right after her questions were answered and the two of them left to perhaps discuss something more.
-Overall people seem to be very much in favor for the project and very much against it. Obviously those who attended the event would generally be more interested to see it happen since they devoted time to attend. One 'very busy' person simply asked how it was going to affect his (car) commute. Answer was 'minimal', but was stressed that its too early to give hard numbers. Obviously constriction time will have a much longer impact on traffic.
-The planners want to make sure other road infrastructure projects are done first before starting LRT construction on Richmond. This includes widening Western Road from Warncliffe to Patt's Lane and constructing the CP Grade separation on Adelaide.
-The 'tunnel' section will run on Richmond from Central to St. James Street. Oxford Street was the only station indicated along this stretch.
-There will be a 'new' bridge over the Thames so the system doesn't have to use University Drive. Could this just be for LRT or could it finally result in a Huron-Phillip Aziz (Sarnia Road) connection?
-LRT will be powered by overhead wires rather than a third rail (like what Waterloo Region is doing).
-LRT indicated to run on Highbury between Dundas and Oxford. I thought the hospital lands directly east of Highbury would be used for this corridor.
-Extension to airport is 'long term', rather than a part of the current conceptualized plan.
-Very little if any new information about BRT.
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My thoughts after the meeting:
-I agree that the LRT will primarily service students and thus may be a little light in usage when classes aren't in session. Still, I think its a good backbone for a larger system and way to market the city to out of town students who might consider living here.
-An extremely small percentage of people will be using the vast majority of the LRT line. For those going from Western to Fanshawe (not a lot), getting off at Oxford and taking the bus will likely be faster. I'm thinking if the LRT line went completely north-south or east-west it would work better. Example being White Oaks to Western (no transferrs). A lot more people will ride the majority of the line.
-I think the BRT should get extended to the 401. A commuter parking lot could be set up here, possibly with direct connections from the 401. This would make for a much more integrated/seamless 'park-n'ride' transition as those from St. Thomas / out of towners can park here and not have to fight for space in the generally chaotic White Oaks parking lot.
-There is still no firm route for how the BRT gets from downtown to Oxford. I'm maybe thinking a new bridge, possibly a replacement for Blackfriars or something parallel, could help with this.
-The difference in cost between full BRT with dedicated lanes / stations, etc and LRT isn't very significant based on initial estimates. I'd say just build LRT first to avoid costly retrofits and a second construction period (possibly a long one) for a plausible future conversion.
-One of the residents in the Q&A session stressed city staff not to rush with the project as he was thinking it was proceeding too quickly. While I generally agree to take the time and get it right, a delay might derail the whole thing. With a progressive city council and provincial/federal governments wanting to build more infrastructure/transit, now is the time to do it. If we wait too long, the political environment could change in a way that could threaten the entire project or heavily delay / scale down it.
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...That's it for now, but I'm sure I left some stuff out. When December 2's event is uploaded, more information can be found at
http://www.shiftlondon.ca/public_information_centres
