Summary of the discussion and action items from the January 3, 2008 meeting.
By Ryan McGreal
Correction: this article originally stated that the next meeting will be Tuesday, January 18. This is incorrect; the correct date is Tuesday, January 15.
Hamilton Light Rail met on January 3, 2007 at 7:30 PM at the FRWY Cafe, 333 King Street East (at Wellington St. N.) Hamilton, ON L8N 1C1, to touched base after the holidays and note our progress since the last meeting on our three sub-committees.
The Hamilton Civic Coalition has invited us to make a presentation to them at their April, 2008 meeting.
Members of the Coalition are forming the city's economic development advisory group, so this will be an excellent opportunity to make a strong case for light rail as an economic development strategy. It's also an incentive to complete our presentation and practice delivering it in advance of that date.
Don Hull, manager of the HSR, announced that the city has hired a consultant from McCormack Rankin Consulting to conduct a feasibility study on rapid transit/light rail along the three identified rapid transit lines (the McMaster to Eastgate B-Line, the downtown to Airport Upper James line, and an east-west Mountain line) to present to Council (due around the end of March).
The idea is not to draw conclusionr or make recommendations but to sketch out the parameters in which a planning decision can be made, after which time Council will probably begin a public consultation process.
Hull noted that no one in the city and very few transport consultants in general have experience with light rail, so this will be an important learning exercise for the city.
At the November meeting, the light rail committee split into three sub-committees with the following goals:
So far, some progress has been made on the presentation, the latest draft of which you can view here:
http://hamiltonlightrail.com/article/light_rail_presentation_early_draft/
The following action items were adopted:
Presentation: Try a first run of the presentation at the next meeting.
Presentation: Ask Hamiltonians for Progressive Development if we can test run the presentation at their February Steering Committee meeting (a 'friendly' but robust audience that should provide constructive feedback).
Next Meeting: Tuesday, January 15, at the FRWY Cafe, 333 King Street East (at Wellington St. N.) Hamilton, ON L8N 1C1, 7:30 PM.