The Region of Waterloo Rapid Transit Division is gearing up to begin providing faster and more efficient public transportation between Waterloo, Kitchener, and Cambridge. Starting in 2014 a new adapted bus rapid transit (aBRT) will begin operating between Fairview Park mall in Kitchener and the Ainslie Street Terminal in Cambridge. The buses will operate on normal roads—just like current GRT buses do—but will travel faster by having fewer, more distant stops and getting priority at intersections.
2014 also marks the beginning of construction of a light rail transit (LRT) line from Fairview Park to Conestoga Mall in Waterloo. There are currently several candidates for the bid to design, build, and operate the system including SNC-Lavalin, an international Montreal-based engineering group, which was blacklisted by the World Bank earlier this year over a series of scandals. This means that SNC-Lavalin is not allowed to work on any World Bank-funded projects.
The transportation makeover, which is projected to cost $818 million for both the aBRT and LRT projects, has been the cause of much debate. Cambridge mayor Doug Craig has been one of more vocal protesters, claiming that the project is “not what we need at this time in our evolution as a region”. He also put forward a request to the Regional Council, of which he is a member, to investigate how much it would cost to scrap the project. The petition gained the support of only two additional council members; the others felt that this was simply the first part of a plan by Craig to have the project completely dismantled.
Under the current schedule, the LRT system will be operational in 2017. It is hailed as a “long-term, environmentally sustainable solution to help manage the region’s future growth and transportation needs…” by the Rapid Transit Division. And while the price tag is quite hefty, it may be what is required to accommodate the projected growth of the region in the near future; by 2031 it is estimated that the population of the Waterloo Region will increase by almost 40% to730 000 people. Growth of this kind could easily outpace current transportation capabilities, and the LRT system may be exactly what is needed to combat this possibility.
Leave a Reply