Hamilton Hamilton Line B LRT | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx

This is the map. Wow. This is without fed funding.

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The fact that Metrolinx was instructed to study such a ridiculous option shows that the province has no interest in building the line without Federal support. This proposal doesnt make any sense by any kind of metric that's used.

The Feds might as well just pony up here; they've been blowing money away, day after day on one useless priority after another. Not to say that the Hamilton LRT is useless (because it's not), but if the Feds are willing to poor money away on things like interest forgiveness on the CERB then they might as well just fund this.
 
The fact that Metrolinx was instructed to study such a ridiculous options shows that the province has no interest in building the line without Federal support. This proposal doesnt make any sense by any kind of metric that's used.

The Feds might as well just pony up here; they've been blowing money away day after day on one useless priority after another. Not to say that the Hamilton LRT is useless (because it's not), but if the Feds are willing to poor money away on things like interest forgiveness on the CERB then they might as well just fund this.
The province is adding this with it's subway program for a single big federal funding request. I fully expect the feds to announce by the end of the year a very significant ($10+b) contribution to the projects.
 
This whole thing is a giant ploy to shift costs off of the province onto the feds. What a way to save literally billions of dollars - get the Feds to pay for it!

Don't worry, the Ford government will pay for it all even if the Feds can't contribute. They'll take care of everything, trust me folks.
 
It's far easier politically to extend an existing transit line than to build a brand new one from scratch.
Trust me, politicians in Hamilton would find everyway not to extend this stub version of the LRT if it ever got built. They cant even agree on funding to have proper bus service throughout the city, and every year that alone is its own saga.
 
BTW, this proposal reminds me exactly of the Sheppard subway, which is why I brought it up: take a plan that nominally makes sense, chop it down to something that doesn't, point to the reduced ridership numbers and say "This is why <X> doesn't work". I've no confidence that the reduced plan is worth it (and I do believe Hamilton should have an LRT along the full route).
 

Yikes!

Their mandate was to look at how much transit could be acquired for $1B. An LRT from McMaster to Dundurn is only a thought experiment to make BRT look comparably better. Pretty much all of the BRT benefits in the business case stem from its longer route, which the Hamilton LRT would have if funding is matched (as Doug has proposed).

It shows that BRT is "cheaper" per mile. It does not show it better.

I hate to say that, but if HSR only gets a BRT, it would be better than nothing. However in 10 years they will be doing what Ottawa is doing.
 
BTW, this proposal reminds me exactly of the Sheppard subway, which is why I brought it up: take a plan that nominally makes sense, chop it down to something that doesn't, point to the reduced ridership numbers and say "This is why <X> doesn't work". I've no confidence that the reduced plan is worth it (and I do believe Hamilton should have an LRT along the full route).

I'd say that maybe the goal is to pay as little and make people think they are getting a lot when in reality, they are getting so much less.
 
It's a bit like putting in a $400k bid for a house then adding 30 years interest, property taxes, heating bills, maintenance, etc. and telling your parents you got a $1M house. Business does this all the time (compares full life-cycle cost of various options, with various cash-flow smoothing options), but for individuals who typically think in the present only, the values seem dramatically inflated.

It's like saying you want to buy a car, like a base model Corolla, and saying you're going to pay $80k for it. Maybe it only cost $23k or whatever upfront, but there is $2k per year for insurance over 15 years, and again for gas, plus maintenance, tires, accessories, etc.
 

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