ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Acitta]

The best idea is to just scrap the past idealistic ION light rail idea the region had when it began. The world has drastically changed since then and there is no longer the need for the same project idea they had in 2010-2015 to be built today. It is obviously going to be a waste of money which we don't even have in the first place. The ION ultimately sucked, I think everyone can agree with that these days. Nobody cares about whether it was the best "bang for the buck" because it's just objectively bad. You're wrong if you disagree.

What needs to happen to deal with Cambridge is for the region to look at the transit from a fresh perspective. Them contemplating whether or not it makes any sense to build is a start. In fact, in my experience the fact they brought that up is them saying it's never going to happen anytime soon. It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to run an LRT to a small suburban city of not even 140'000 people in which the majority of its population are not in favour of rapid urbanization of their community. That's fine and you can't force that. Fill the need by improving BRT because obviously the 302 route is obviously something people demand. Buses are thankfully really flexible.

Put money into BRT and put money into improving the existing LRT with things like faster frequency/headways, finally coupling the damn trains together and exploring ideas for future extensions - and an inevitable route to Cambridge. Things that will actually benefit people. Nobody is benefitting from burning 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 billion dollars on a project that'll take 15 years to finish and go way over budget, only for people to end up being extremely disappointed in the same way regional residents were disappointed in the existing LRT after all is said and done.

There are much better ways to improve transit between Cambridge and the rest of the region which don't include forcing a multi-billion dollar bill upon people.

When I ride the ION, it is always crowded. I don't know why you say it sucked. There are European cities comparable in size to Waterloo Region that have tram systems. I don't know why you think that it can't work in Cambridge. We spend billions of dollars on roads that become clogged with traffic because we don't provide more efficient alternatives.