Ontario is set to reveal its plan for a rapid transit project for Hamilton Tuesday afternoon.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) confirmed an announcement from the province is coming shorty on the possibilities of either a light rail transit (LRT) or bus rapid transit (BRT) project.
It’s expected the MTO will outline a submission to the federal government for the funding of a major transit project.
Ontario cancelled Hamilton’s 17-stop LRT in December 2019 claiming that the former Liberal government under Kathleen Wynne was not upfront about the true cost of the LRT.
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A third-party analysis from Turner and Townsend in late 2019 pegged the project at an estimated cost of $5.5 billion — a price that Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney said the province simply “couldn’t afford.”
The decision was later backed up by the province’s auditor general (AG) Bonnie Lysyk, who said her office looked through numbers between 2016 and 2018 and found estimates “did not represent” the full cost of the LRT and suggested the numbers were “significantly understated.”
Work on the line was expected to start in 2021. The report showed that Metrolinx has spent about $162 million on the project already. Much of that related to the purchase of properties that the agency is still holding onto.
As an alternative to the Liberals’ LRT plan, Premier Doug Ford agreed to fund a Hamilton transit project with the $1 billion previously committed to the city, assigning the matter to a transit task force in early 2020.
Focus Ontario: Hamilton LRT Cancelled
The task force presented an “intra-city higher-order transit project” encompassing either an LRT system running east and west or BRT system that would run east and west in addition to routes north and south through the city.
In August, the head of the Labourers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA) Joe Mancinelli told Global News the union pitched a $3.4-million LRT construction plan that would combine private money with potential contributions from the provincial and federal governments.
A month later at Mohawk College press conference, Ford acknowledged the proposal from LiUNA and called on the federal government to come to the table.
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“We have a billion dollars. Here’s a shout-out for the federal government,” said Ford.
“To the federal government, we need your help. We need you at the table. And I know they want to, but they haven’t. They haven’t showed up at the door yet.”
Canada’s Minister of Infrastructure Catherine McKenna told Global News in September that Ottawa was “committed to funding good public transit projects” and recognized the potential Hamilton LRT project as the “most shovel-ready” with local support.