Hamilton city councillors surveying residents on how they feel about LRT

Some Hamilton city councillors are joining forces to poll more than 2,000 residents about light rail transit (LRT). But those involved insist it's not an effort to kill the project, just a "point in time" snapshot of how people feel about it.

It's not about whether or not we're doing it. We're doing it.- Coun. Sam Merulla

A group that includes Sam Merulla, Terry Whitehead, Jason Farr and others have hired Forum Research to ask 2,100 Hamiltonians how they feel about LRT. The councillors will pay proportionately from their ward budgets. Merulla, for example, is paying about $1,000. "About eight" councillors, half of council, are contributing, said Merulla and Whitehead.

Merulla, a Ward 4 councillor who wants LRT, was one of the organizers. He said he's not worried about the result turning people off the project. He also said bad results wouldn't sway his support.

The poll ismeant to ask people how they feel about it so the city knows how to improve its messaging, he said. It'll just show the city how it can "better educate" residents.

"It's not about whether or not we're doing it," Merulla said. "We're doing it. This is about how much people understand about the issue itself."

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That's what Terry Whitehead, a Ward 8 councillor who has wished he could "hit the reset button" on LRT, said too. The goal isn't to show that the project is unpopular, he said. In fact, he thinks the results will vary based on geography.

If the project dies, he said, it "would be killed on its own merits," not from the poll results.

"It would be good to understand where people are."

Still, the timing is interesting. Whitehead said the results should be ready for a March 28 meeting about LRT. That's when councillors are scheduled to vote on a massive update to the 2011 environmental assessment. That vote likely won't make or break the project, but it's a major step.

Hamilton is in the midst of hammering out the details of a $1 billion LRT project that will run alternately down Main and King streets from McMaster University to the Queenston traffic circle. That $1 billion in provincial funding will also pay for A line bus rapid transit from the waterfront to the airport.

Metrolinx is building the project with input from the city. Construction is scheduled to start in 2019, with the first rides happening in 2024.