LRT Alternative

[ssiguy]

I think London made the right choice with BRT. Even forgetting Western's objections, London's urban development is very different from KW or Ottawa as both those cities are very linear as opposed to London which is basically a big circle.......it may take forever to get downtown due to traffic but the trips themselves are far shorter in km. This means that for most riders it would be faster to take the local bus downtown than taking a bus and then having to transfer onto the LRT.

London, unlike KW/Ott/Ham also has not wide roadways or unused rail corridors to take advantage of with the possible exception of the old London-PS route which wouldn't even come close to White Oaks and that's assuming they could get their hands on the corridor in the first place. That corridor is far better suited to a commuter rail line to St.Thomas.

Remember also that new buses are not the same ones as used today. They, due to being electric, will be zero emissions, be MUCH quieter both inside and outside the bus, have far faster acceleration and offer a much smoother ride than the diesels they replace. This is especially true in BRT lanes as they don't have the disrepair that plague regular roads.........it's not the bus that makes them uncomfortable but rather the roads they travel on. This is why highway buses are so much more comfortable than local transit ones.

Buses also offer the ability to interline which is a very big deal in that it helps get rid of the dreaded "last mile" problem and are more reliable as any breakdown/power loss on an LRT brings the whole system to a halt as well as an accidents along the route unlike buses. Where London blew it was when they switched from LRT to BRT and hence reduced the cost but didn't use those saved dollars towards making a bigger system losing out on all those senior level government infrastructure funds.