LRT ROUTE COMES FULL CIRCLE

Hamilton’s $1-billion LRT technically runs straight east to west, but as of this month, the route has also come full circle. Here’s a timeline of route changes:

February 2013: City council votes unanimously to ask the province for 100 per cent funding for LRT running 14 km along the Main-King-Queenston corridor from McMaster University to Eastgate Square.

May 2015: Premier Kathleen Wynne comes to town to announce full LRT funding — but for a truncated line ending in the east at the Queenston traffic circle. A surprise 2-km spur will connect to the James Street GO station.

August 2015: The city says it will try to find a way — budget permitting — to stretch the James Street spur an extra kilometre to the waterfront.

February 2017: As council LRT opposition mounts, Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca announces the James Street spur will be scrapped in favour of a (unfunded) plan to link the harbour and airport via bus rapid transit. Mountain councillors pan the plan.

April 19, 2017: Coun. Terry Whitehead convinces a divided council to put off a vote on the LRT plan to investigate the feasibility of reinserting the Eastgate leg.

April 26: Del Duca commits in a last-minute letter to work with the city to extend the LRT line to Eastgate Square under the existing $1-billion budget, returning to the exact route requested by council four years ago.