<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">FYI<div>R<br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>From: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Robert Milligan <<a href="mailto:mill@continuum.org">mill@continuum.org</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Date: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">July 8, 2010 4:59:59 PM GMT-04:00</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">* The Editor <<a href="mailto:letters@therecord.com">letters@therecord.com</a>>, John Roe <<a href="mailto:jroe@therecord.com">jroe@therecord.com</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Subject: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b>A better LRT that also includes Cambridge</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div> </div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>To the Editor,</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; ">Cambridge's Regional Councillor </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Claudette Millar s</span></span>hould be commended for her excellent Lead Letter-to-the-Editor in today's WR Record. What she wrote was so enlightening about Cambridge's long-time unfair treatment by higher governments. </div><div><br></div><div>All citizens in the Region needed to know about this unfairness so that they can join with Cambridge in demanding its redress -- and light rail transit (LRT) is a good place to start! </div><div><br></div><div>The op-ed article by Peter Shawn Taylor, as would be expected from him, is pushing for LRT project cancellation. </div><div><br></div><div>In his article, Shawn is in favour of the stigmatizing, less sustainable, slower and hence unattracting buses that he and his supporters will never ride. And this to champion the views of some of the many people who will increasingly fume in their BMW's, etc. while delayed in our worsening rush-hour traffic jams!! </div><div><br></div><div>Shawn's unintegrated thinking contrasts sharply with the well-expressed analysis and great wisdom of long-serving Cambridge Regional Councillor Claudette Millar. A Cambridge treasure, she does not hesitate to tell it like it is</div><div><br></div><div>She says correctly says that the LRT "... improves the health, environment, economy and travel movement within the cities ... (while) buses do not produce the same improvements." Further she adds, "Cambridge cannot expect (these needed LRT benefits) until 2033 or 2036"! </div><div><br></div><div><b>Then, prior to listing the many government facilities that have been removed from Cambridge, Claudette asks, "... what (is) the advantage of (Cambridge) being ... within the the Region?"</b></div><div><br></div><div>The WR Record should be commended for printing both Claudette and Peter on the same </div><div>editorial pages so that we can compare their viewpoints: Claudette 'flies" in a balanced manner using both wings equally; but Peter uses his right wing to extreme so as to fly in talent-wasting circles hovering protectively over his small elitist-band of selfish LRT-hating sympathizers.</div><div><br></div><div>However, the positive common message implied by both is that we should enhance and make more cost-effective the Region's LRT system design so that (in Shawn's words) it provides "a practical form of transit matched to local needs". </div><div><br></div><div>To meet Shawn's above benchmark for success, the LRT must attract the many new transit riders necessary to greatly lower operating costs (and entice developers). This means, attract the middle class from their traffic-jamming cars. But intensification corridors must remain on the table to comply with Provincial "Places to Grow" policies.</div><div><br></div><div>So as to accomplish this, the LRT system design must be enhanced so that it has a much lower transit time and greater capacity to meet the necessary higher demand. This will involve greater use of the existing rail right-of-way from a possible Northfield terminal to the Ainslie Terminal. This combined with an initial exemplar LRT Intensification Corridor along K-W's King St.</div><div><br></div><div>My own consultative research suggests that outside-the-box thinking -- and public/private collaborations with CP Rail and GEXR on bridge, underpass and track sharing -- could lead to the innovative use of proven railway technologies to design an affordable high-ridership but intensifying (bus-interconnected) Cambridge-inclusive LRT!</div><div><br></div><div>Respectfully,</div><div><br></div><div>Robert Milligan</div><div>128 Main St.</div><div>New Dundee, ON</div><div>519-696-2288</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>