Light Rail

City of Grown-Ups Launches Transit Plan

By Ryan McGreal
Published May 18, 2007

While unambitious Hamilton struggles to upgrade and re-brand its Beeline to a "rapid transit" system with a station at Eastgate Square, the city of Montreal is busy unveiling an $8 billion transit plan that will include new streetcar lines and highway tolls to pay for them.

Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay said the plan - the first of its kind for the city - focuses on encouraging sustainable development and public transit use to limit the number of cars on city roads and highways and contain greenhouse gas emissions.

"Today we are making a break with an outdated method for transporting people and goods, and [we’re] launching a new way of thinking," he said at a press conference Thursday morning.

This comes on the heels of Toronto's multi-billion dollar transit plan, which calls for 80 km in new light rail corridors.

Meanwhile, Hamilton just barely avoided jacking its bus fares enough to reduce ridership by over a million trips a year.

Presumably we'll eventually, reluctantly adopt some watered-down version of light rail (i.e. bus rapid transit) only once nearly every other decent-sized city in Canada has already done it.

C'mon, Councillors: try to give us something to feel proud of.

Ryan McGreal, the editor of Raise the Hammer, lives in Hamilton with his family and works as a programmer, writer and consultant. Ryan volunteers with Hamilton Light Rail, a citizen group dedicated to bringing light rail transit to Hamilton. Ryan wrote a city affairs column in Hamilton Magazine, and several of his articles have been published in the Hamilton Spectator. His articles have also been published in The Walrus, HuffPost and Behind the Numbers. He maintains a personal website, has been known to share passing thoughts on Twitter and Facebook, and posts the occasional cat photo on Instagram.

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By jason (registered) | Posted May 22, 2007 at 22:37:33

the link to montreals '8 billion dollar' transit plan actually brings you to a release on toronto's streetcar announcement.

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