Cancelling Hamiltion LRT this way would be remarkably stupid for Ford.
The $30B Ontario Line proposal (including 30 years maintenance and operations) will be replaced with a the affordable original TTC $8B DRL short design and that ~$2B in DRL price increase will be blamed squarely on Ford causing delays chasing an $30B gift.
Using the total contract price to cancel this project is a knock against all P3 tenders in the future because they all have the issue that the long-term cost is (more) known and not included in a straight Build tender.
wait so the province is still committing a billion? What are they expecting, that the municipality will either "top up" the budget and build it themselves or redirect the money to something else?
The three urban Hamilton ridings are held by the NDP. The outer suburbs and exurban areas are held by the Conservatives and they won’t lose seats over this.
ridiculous cost inflation to find a convenient excuse to back out of the project.
This cost is probably the same sort of "cost" that was famously used in the gas plants scandal. Include absolutely every cost possible. Legal, land, procurement, 30 years of operating and maintenance, inflation, etc.
At least Hamilton still gets the billion.. I imagine it will end up as a BRT project with perhaps some highway and GO Transit spending on top. GO needs some money to bring 15 minute service in and The 403 is starting to get seriously congested, even outside of rush hours and needs a huge chunk of cash to do anything to it due to tons of substandard bridges.
Full version of the statement. Apparently the $1B will stay in Hamilton, a task force will determine what to spend it on and will report back in February 2020.
How does an on street LRT that isn't even as long as the crosstown or ION cost $5.5 billion? Unfortunate it's cancelled though it would been very beneficial to Hamilton.
