[All] Eleanor's LRT letter to Record

[Robert Milligan]

Hi Eleanor,

I hadn't realized how active your are in our community until I did a  
web search. -- great work!

Your Record letter, 'LRT is needed"
https://www.therecord.com/opinion-story/4049542-lrt-is-needed/
is at least very well written -- your expressive talents are  
extraordinary. But your key "facts" and  personal views are somewhat  
flawed at least because of these statements or yours -- and I indicate  
why:

1. "... it would cost as much to break a contract as to fulfill it."  
-- check out the reatively low LRT contract breaking cost in Ottawa;

2. "... I'm sorry to see so much suspicion and even resentment about  
it." -- most people correctly sense this project will serve them  
little but they will be burdened by the excessive tax increases;

3. "Cambridge should not feel slighted." -- Cambridge knows that the  
Region's current LRT plan is grossly unfair because it  must pay the  
full tax increase for an LRT that they are excluded from initially and  
may never get;

4. "All these improvements will benefit car drivers too ... ." -- few  
middle class car drivers will be inspired to use a poorly designed LRT- 
centred transit system which is too slow, too circuitous, and  
insufficiently extensive;

5."Cambridge ... is still too sprawling for the LRT to be practical  
now." --
i) an LTR Intensification Corridor is needed now on Hespler Road to  
spur the much greater change required to transform it into the  
Region's preferred type of streetscape (multi- story, multi-use  
buildings, retail on 1st level,  close to the road, etc.) and
ii)  LRT ridership success -- and LRT project success -- requires  
their section of the the Region's historic rail corridor be used now  
to create a very inexpensive Northfield+ to Ainslie Terminal LRT  
Commuter Corridor (like Portland actually does) so as to attract  
longer distance commuters by its great time savings over an extended  
length (no time consuming, uncomfortable, stigmatizing, ... aBRT buses  
thank you).

6. "But even 10 years from now, we'll be glad we built it." -- for the  
reasons already stated, and many more, people will realize (even  
before the 2014 election) that the design of the current LRT plan  
would birth a creation so far from the great innovative expectations  
that Ontario, Canada and the World has for us and that we have for  
ourselves -- the people will act accordingly when they next vote!

At least because of the project's complexity -- and the time scarcity  
of our technologically competent -- not many realize the many faults  
in cost-effectiveness that the current design of the LRT plan suffers.  
Even fewer realize how few innovative technological precedents from  
the transit (Portland, Ballard, ...) and energy (Hydrogenics,  
Enbridge, ...) sectors would be required to integrate into the design  
of the current LRT plan so as to create a World Class (ultra-cost- 
effective, ultra-sustainable, ...) LRT-centred transit system.

And yes, "an LRT is needed" but one enhanced by proven innovative  
technologies that insufficiently knowledgeable and fearful staff seem  
eager to block -- and mostly one person, Transportation and  
Environmental Services Commissioner Thomas Schmidt. (I have  
recommended in one of my very detailed LRT articles to Regional  
Councillors that both he and Nancy Button be fired -- Nancy is gone  
but Thomas continues to captain our regional titanic).

Unrecognized by most CTS- mesmerized Regional Councilors (and LRT  
cheerleaders), this looks like a case of the "wrong person's"  
unacceptable self-interest and lack of sufficiency competency putting  
at risk the whole region's public, environmental and economic interest!

I do have great regard for those who put forth much effort to improve  
our society & environment. But in very complex technological projects,  
much time must be spent at least in analysis, otherwise one can  
naively be doing in effect public relations for a poorly designed LRT  
plan.


Best regards,
Robert

PS: Somehow a miracle is required to help the "blind" see -- I told  
Regional Council in a delegation presentation about two years ago that  
I can empathize with the little boy who kept trying to tell everybody  
that the Empereur has no cloths. Today I might be more specific in  
saying, "Empereur Thomas Schmidt is riding the white elephant  LRT  
plan (even though he lacks the clothes of LRT knowhow and experience)  
where an elite few would garner most of the benefits while the rest  
would pay most of the costs -- and these costs would be higher than  
estimated because much smaller numbers of full-fare users would  
necessitate not only greater subsidization of operations but also  
subsidization of capital loan repayments. "


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