Light rail transit causing little debate this election
With tracks laid, final testing underway, the transportation option is hot topic no more
WATERLOO REGION — For the first time in a dozen years, light rail is not a hot topic during a municipal election in Waterloo Region.
Ion service is slated to start in December — behind schedule, yet all but a done deal now with all the tracks laid and final testing underway along the 19-kilometre route between Kitchener and Waterloo.
After sparking heated debates in the three previous municipal races, light rail is barely making a ripple this time around in the upcoming October election.
“It’s been on the table for three elections,” said Regional Chair Ken Seiling, a longtime light rail advocate who is not running again for the region’s top post.
Debate about whether the region needed or could afford the flashy new transit system hit a fever pitch in the last municipal election in 2014, including talk of a referendum.
Although contracts had already been signed following council’s approval in 2011 and the region would lose millions if it hit the brakes, fervid debates roiled the campaign trail and some candidates ran on an explicit anti-light-rail platform.
Jump back to 2010 and candidates were grilled about their stance on light rail.
“It was a pretty contentious issue in that election,” recalled Seiling.
Even as far back as 2006, rapid transit was part of the discussion and Seiling found campaign material from his 2003 race that included his intention to bring it to the region.
Light rail has been in the works for going on 15 years now, rooted in the regional growth management plan approved in 2003 that was premised on a rapid transit
system.
“It wasn’t hidden from view,” Seiling said. “It was quite obvious we were moving in that direction.”
As for the official launch date of Ion, that’s not nailed down yet.
In the spring, the region announced the system was not expected to begin until December, the latest delay primarily due to production trouble at Bombardier. The manufacturer’s difficulty in delivering the 14 Ion trains on schedule is also largely to blame for project cost overruns.
All the vehicles are assembled and the specialized equipment needed to run on the local system is being installed.
“The target still is December,” Seiling said. But then, “so much of it is out of our hands.”
While the Waterloo-Kitchener portion is nearing the finish line, light rail’s second stage from Kitchener into Cambridge is still largely on the drawing board — and will become a topic around the horseshoe for incoming councillors.
Regional council endorsed the preferred route in June, with the exception of the Preston portion which is getting a closer look due to neighbourhood concerns focused on the King and Eagle streets intersection.
The next council will need to finalize the route before it can move onto the environmental assessment and then figure what funding the region can wrangle from the provincial and federal governments.
“A lot of it depends on the timing,” Seiling said.
For the first stage of Ion, the province kicked in just over a third of the approved capital budget of $868 million at $325 million including additional funds on top of the original offer; the feds, a bit less at $265 million; and regional taxpayers on the hook to pick up the rest.
But since the shovels hit the dirt here, the province offered to pick up the full bill for light rail projects in other cities.
Seiling sees the sticking point for the region proceeding with Ion’s second phase as how much money the other levels of government will pony up — and for now that’s a big unknown.
Light rail remains an election issue that Tri-Cities Transport Action Group wants to keep in the forefront, both the first and second phase.
This is the third municipal election that the group, which lobbies for better public transit, walking and cycling infrastructure in the region, surveyed candidates about their stance on transit.
The last survey drew 5,000 visitors who spent about nine minutes.
This election survey includes questions about Ion frequency, transit networks, the Cambridge Ion expansion and fare policy.
Although Ion trains will soon be running between Kitchener and Waterloo, TriTAG says the work is not yet over.
Frequency of Ion service and connections to bus routes will be crucial to light rail success, and likely tweaking these “nuts and bolts” will be necessary once service starts.
“It’s up to the next council to finish the job and stay the course,” said Mike Boos, executive committee member of TriTAG. “You need to make sure it is running, and running well.”
The calm around light rail this election is a relief for TriTAG, considering the calls from opponents to cancel the project at the 2014 election.
“There was a concerted push at that election,” Boos said.
Now, there’s no turning back, he said. “The tracks are in the ground now, so they’re not going anywhere.”
Many people are keen for the day when passengers can board the Ion, especially now that testing is ramping up all along the route.
There’s even a special hashtag for posting Ion sightings on social media, #myIONthetrain.
“When people see the trains on the tracks, they get pretty excited,” Seiling said.
He says that while this community is conservative, it’s also future-oriented. Ion joins the ranks of other projects that seemed overly ambitious at first, but are now woven into the region’s fabric — the expressway, Centre in the Square and University of Waterloo.
People can take pride in what happens here, Seiling said, and that includes the Ion.
As the launch date fast approaches and development along the corridor is booming, excitement around the new transit option grows.
“I think people will be proud of it,” Seiling said.
When people see the trains on the tracks, they get pretty excited. KEN SEILING Regional chair