Honestly...
With the existing $1B budget, we had a choice between:
- Tiny A-Line LRT stub;
OR
- Cheaped-out $120M A-Line "BRT Lite" not even as good as Brampton Zum (except in denser Mountain section).
A proper, good, blocked-off-dedicated-lane A-Line BRT would have been
north of $500M. Minimum. The true Ottawa Transitway-quality BRT stuff. Or the true red-pavement BRT stuff with curbs separating car lanes and bus lanes. From what I know, we weren't going to be getting that, it was BRT in name only slapped on a worse-than-Brampton-Zum "express" bus, barely an enhancement to the existing HSR A-Line bus.
So I'm glad the Eastgate extension is resurrected. It will make B-Line ridership that much better.
And they're (already, behind the scenes) working on an enhanced A-Line plan.
I'd rather them wait a few years longer, to announce funding for a larger A-Line LRT project (either full-length or Limeridge Mall). The beautiful
fully funded 3-minute pedestrianized walk (and a shuttle bus) can satisfy us in the interim while we wait for an even better A-Line LRT, in an Ottawa-style Phase 2 delight.
Clearly, good shuttle GO buses will be needed for West Harbour GO station, but they weren't going to BRT-ize James Street North anyway (as part of the A-Line BRT) -- it would have still been no faster than just incorporating shuttle buses running a loop between West Harbour GO, Gore Park LRT, MacNab Terminal, and Hunter GO.
We need something superior for A-Line -- $120M wouldn't have paid for a good A-Line BRT, given a really good blocked-off-dedicated-lane BRT for a whole line often costs well north of $500M for the length of A-Line. So, cue in 2018/2022/2026 election promises for an A-Line LRT.
Even the 2018 Conservative government (assuming B-Line LRT goes ahead) -- once the B-Line hits Eastgate, it is going to be extremely difficult not to announce an A-Line
LRT every single election from now on (2018, 2022, 2026, 2030) regardless of what color the government is currently running. A full B-Line to Eastgate just accelerates an eventual A-Line LRT instead of a BRT.
We can make do with upgraded #10 A-Line Express for now, upgrade the bus stations, add transit priority, small bus lane segments, and by all practical purposes, manage to achieve "A-Line BRT-Lite" by 2024, without the Hamilton LRT pot. It might not be as fancy infrastructure, but equally as fast and frequent buses.
There's too much
farmland on A-Line south of the Linc anyway, so the only way to make A-Line LRT work quicker is to get it to Mohawk/StJoe/Limeridge first (e.g.
A+T Hybrid). Currently, at this time, nearly half of the A-Line route to airport isn't even dense enough to warrant Brampton Zum style buses, even -- they even currently stop running the #10 A-Line Express midday. There is NO sidewalks on James for about a quarter to a third of the A-Line! (Conversely, there's sidewalks for the WHOLE B-Line stretch from Mac to Eastgate).
So, we need to carefully rethink our plans for A-Line, and come up with a better A-Line plan, especially as density is expected to skyrocket along the corridor in the next 20 years. Airport Business area will likely play a role once it truly starts up. But today, do we really want to make a definite A-Line BRT-vs-LRT decision today? I think we need to do A-Line properly and B-Line properly. B-line reaching Eastgate Mall easily doubles the ridership of Hamilton LRT. That was a wiser move than the several woefully incomplete A-Line plans.
Sure, the Conservatives win 2018, does a couple terms, and then the A-Line LRT funding gets delayed to 2026, but built by 2031(ish) even under Conservatives who are even increasingly more pro LRT than 20 years ago (Just look at Calgary). Without a BRT to slow down the A-Line LRT plan, Mountain will benefit from accelerated B-Line LRT plans and ridership growth from that. As long as B-Line LRT is cemented to Eastgate, the A-Line LRT (at least to major Mountain destinations) is an inevitability. The first LRT begets incremental extensions, even in conservative enclaves.
