Transit issues gaining traction in Guelph
Last week, Light Rail Transit finally entered Guelph's radar screen. In an article in the Tribune and a couple of days later in the Mercury, the City of Guelph is exploring expanded transit options including Bus Rapid Transit and Light Rail Transit.
I am quoted in the latter article noting that the Guelph Junction Railway tracks can eventually provide us LRT service to Milton and Hamilton (and beyond), but more to the point, Guelph and Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge can be deeply integrated with the use of Light Rail Transit on relatively quiet existing tracks. I discussed this at some length in my first two presentations about transit to council on February 4th and March 3rd. Light Rail Transit is important to our future and I am happy to see Guelph exploring it.
Another item in the same vein is the ever-controversial Wilson St. lot. Apparently, the city has identified this lot as the future home of GO transit parking, as noted by the Mercury's City Hall blog. This is, to say the least, strange, as such a lot would be hopelessly inadequate. I would like to take this opportunity to applaud councilors Findlay and Laidlaw for explicitly identfying the Lafarge property as the right place for GO train service, with downtown being a secondary stop during tonight's council meeting -- the 4th this month (don't councillors take days off?).
I am very happy to see transit becoming an important issue to our city leadership. It was discussed at length at tonight's council meeting, which I unfortunately did not see most of. I look forward to seeing some real results to go with the 20 minute bus service we now have.
Posted at 22:56 on July 28, 2008