White Elephant Presented as Free Gift

Vincent J. Curtis

28 May 2015

On Tuesday, May 26th, Premier Kathleen Wynne came to Hamilton to announce to great fanfare that her government would bestow the funds necessary to build a modified LRT in Hamilton.  Construction was expected to begin in 2017, with completion estimated in 2024.  Tucked into the details of the Spectator report was the claim that the LRT was expected to carry 62,400 people a day by 2031.  The modifications were to shorten the line by 3 km, stopping at the Queenston traffic circle instead of going all the way to Eastgate Mall.  There would also be spur line running between the two railway stations on James Street, at Hunter and at Stuart, previously unplanned.

Amidst the welter of self-congratulation and backslapping, here are a few “tells” which show that, in the LRT, the city is being presented with a gift of a white elephant.

The assertion that 62,400 people per day will use the LRT by 2031 is suspicious.  At present, 13,000 people ride the B-Line route, and 62,400 is five times that number.  Is the population of Hamilton going to rise five-fold in the next fifteen years?  There is no planning for this population explosion.  Perhaps so much traffic congestion will be caused by the LRT that frustrated drivers will take the LRT instead?  Nevertheless, 62,400 represents over 12 percent of Hamilton’s entire population, and that includes Flamborough.  This 62,400 will have to be drawn primarily from people who live along the route, which no longer reaches Stoney Creek, and that means that practically everyone who lives near the King Street corridor will have to take the LRT daily in order to reach the anticipated ridership.

Since it is already admitted that the LRT is for economic stimulus and not to solve a transportation problem, the ridership figure ought to be dismissed.  There is no reason in prospect for 62,400 people to take the LRT, except for the novelty of a circus act and the chance to ride a white elephant.

Another “tell” is that by 2031 all the folks who congratulated themselves today will be out of the line of fire.  Kathleen Wynne will be out of office either by the time construction starts or by the time it is finished.  Mayor Fred will be out of office before the line starts up.  By 2031, all the cheerleaders in the Spectator Editorial department will be sipping mint juleps in Panama.

To protect the city taxpayers from both ends of the gift white elephant, the council should require that Metrolinx own and operate the LRT, and keep all the revenue.  Let the province bet on the white elephant, not city taxpayers.  The city will benefit from the additional tax revenue, if any, that springs up from the all circus side shows that have been forecast.

The things we do for the sake of the environment!

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Subsequent inquires show that Metrolinx will, indeed, own and operate the LRT in Hamilton.  They may "contract" the work out to the HSR, however.  Nevertheless, there is something strange in Metrolinx taking on a guaranteed loser, i.e. the LRT, without having access to any of the supplementary revenue that comes from the additional business tax revenue the line is supposed to generate.  Either Metrolinx is run by economic idiots, or there is crony capitalism going on somewhere.  That latter could lie in the sale of large numbers of these LRT trams, or in the sale of electricity on which these trams will operate.