Council votes to study LRT
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/04/2010 (5961 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
WINNIPEG – City council has approved Mayor Sam Katz’s plan to spend up to $100,000 over the next three months to conduct another rapid-transit study.
Council voted 10-4 this afternoon to ask city staff to compare the costs and benefits of light-rail transit to bus rapid transit.
Opposition councillors, already angry at a Katz decision to remove the second phase of the Southwest Winnipeg Transit Corridor, accused Katz of wasting money updating or redoing transportation studies the city has already conducted.
Since Katz was elected mayor in 2004, the city has spent $240,000 on the Rapid Transit Task Force’s final report, set aside $1.25 million to study the creation of a transportation authority, authorized $1.15 million in spending on a transportation study and also awarded a consultant a $53,000 contract to conduct a cost-benefit analysis about converting bus rapid transit to light-rail transit.
Katz said two Fridays ago he has received new information from an unnamed rail-industry source who says light rail is not as expensive as previously thought.
Katz said his source said LRT could be built as cheaply as $50 million per kilometre, vs. $38 million per kilometre for bus rapid transit.
Daniel McIntyre Coun. Harvey Smith and Fort Rouge Coun. Jenny Gerbasi asked Katz to identify the individual.
Appearing in delegation, environmental consultant Ken Klassen questioned Katz’s information, noting it recently cost five Canadian cities anywhere from $69 million to $168 million per kilometre to build light rail.
Katz, however, said Klassen proved his point, as more recent LRT projects have been less expensive on a per-kilometre basis.
The debate comes amid Katz’s decision not to pursue funding for the second phase of the Southwest Rapid Transit Corridor.
The mayor wants the province and Ottawa to fund a light-rail network instead.
The province wants the city to complete its bus corridor first.
The first phase of the busway, a $138-million link between Queen Elizabeth Way near The Forks and Jubilee Avenue at Pembina Highway, is under construction and is expected to be finished in late 2011.
The second phase, which was to continue along Pembina Highway to Bison Drive neat the University of Manitoba, has a $220-million pricetag.
Only Couns. Smith, Gerbasi, Lillian Thomas (Elmwood) and Dan Vandal (St. Boniface) voted against the LRT study.
