Council support for LRT softens after hearing about $14M maintenance costs

At least one Hamilton councillor says his support for light rail transit (LRT) has softened after hearingit will cost the city millions more a year for ongoing maintenance.

Tom Jackson, who voted in favour of LRT at a tense meeting last year, says he hassecond thoughts after hearing the city will spend as much as $13.7 million more a year on road maintenance and other costs once LRT is in the ground.

Jackson even read a letter saying he reserves the right to pull his support on future votes.

"It's a very serious consideration for me," said Jackson, who represents Ward 6 on the east Mountain.

Jackson wasn't the only one with questions during city staff's LRT update Thursday. The LRT system will be 17 stops from McMaster University to Eastgate Square, as well as a spur along Frid Street to a new operations and maintenance facility.

The projectwill include rebuilding, and removing two traffic lanes, from the Longwood Road bridge, which would become property ofthe province.

The city will have to spend between $2 million and $9.8 million per year on snow removal, road maintenance, waste collection and other municipal services, city staff said.

It will also spend between $3.2 and $3.9 million on new transit costs.

Terry Whitehead, Ward 8 councillor for the west Mountain, was one of the swing votes last April. That's when city council voted 10-5 to submit an updated environmental assessment to the province, which was a crucial step forward for LRT.

Whitehead said Thursday that he's not surprised by the costs. They were mentioned in the city's guiding document for future rapid transit, the 2013 Rapid Ready report.

The costs are a huge risk, he said. And they represent a huge chunk of Hamilton's transit budget, all on one lower-city corridor.

"I don't think these numbers are going to go down by any stretch of the imagination," he said. "That's going to be a real litmus test."

The discussion also focused on construction.

Metrolinx which is building the system has shortlisted three construction consortiums that could design, build, finance, operate and maintainthe system.

The bidding document will say that during construction, a section of road can only be closed once, and for no longer than a year.

The report also mentions financial penalties if the project is finished late. But Lloyd Ferguson, Ward 12 councillor for Ancaster, wants that to be more explicit.

"I'd like to see it on a slide what the penalty is if they're late," said Ferguson, a construction industry veteran.

There's a municipal election in four years, he said. "If this whole city is dug up, it's going to be a very difficult campaign unless we can give very clear responses of what the penalties are if they're late.

"You can't even tell me, so I don't know how we can tell the public."

The official point of no return forcouncil is an operations and maintenance agreement, which could come later this year.

So far, Metrolinx has spent or committed $103 million on LRT. The spent portion is $74 million, of which $19 million is on buying property.

Metrolinx will buy 90 full properties for LRT, and about 300 partial properties. To date, they've bought 22 full properties.