Raise the Hammer

Nothing ever changes. Another day another pro LRT article. How long has this been going on? Years and years and nothing changes. Hamilton's population is not big enough to warrant an outlay of a billion dollars for an LRT line. Every single urban area listed in your little graph has a population which is far greater than Hamilton. I know, I know you are going to tell me that St Louis has a population similar to Hamilton, you have before, but we both know that's crap. In the States they don't amalgamate the cities so we have St. Louis with a population of 300k which is what the old city of Hamilton was, and half of the "new" city. But St. Louis metro has a population of a couple of million. The same holds true for every one of the cities you mention. Not a single one has a population of well under a million with no reasonable expectation of getting there soon. Every single city on your little chart is the destination city for miles around. Hamilton not so much. Hamilton is as much a suburb of Toronto or the GTA as it is a city in its own right. I guess the exception would be Jersey city which somehow got included as its own city when in reality it is part of NYC. But when you want to promote your pet project what's a little lying or bending the truth, right?

LRT isn't bad it's just very very expensive especially in a city where the efficient one way road system allows not only cars but buses to make the cross town trip in a very reasonable time. The B line takes about 1/2 hour for the trip and the King bus about double that for the trip the LRT is supposed to cover. If the province is going to spend a billion dollars in Hamilton then lets have something we need, not a boondoggle like LRT. If the province is going to spend a billion dollars on transit then let's do it something we need. Not LRT.