Planning and Works Committee passes motion to consider three options for ION expansion
Posted May 25, 2023 07:00:44 AM.
Last Updated May 25, 2023 01:02:21 PM.
A motion has been passed by Regional council members that will see staff consider three different options in the next phase of the ION expansion to Cambridge.
Councillors made the decision at a special Planning and Works Committee meeting on Wednesday.
When it comes to capital costs, which includes the purchase of property, capital operations and maintenance, the cheapest option being proposed is $2.9 million.
That would see the light rail system run from Fairway station to Pinebush station.
The second proposal would expand that run to the Delta at a cost of $3.9 million.
Council’s preferred route running to downtown Galt would come in at $4.4 million.
The total cost of the expansion project is estimated to cost nearly $4.5 billion.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Cambridge Mayor Jan Liggett said that she wanted to see other options that are not currently being proposed.
“I’d like to see […] where the terminus isn’t in the downtown, it’s further east […] towards where the planned growth is to be in Cambridge.” Liggett stated.
The development of the second phase of the ION transit system has been twelve years in the making.
The expansion to Cambridge was first approved by Regional Council in 2011, with preparations for the project getting underway three years later.
In 2019, council approved where the ION stops would be located.
The approval of a preliminary design for the project was made in April 2020.
Regional Chair Karen Redman voiced her frustration with the length of the project development.
“We’re the tenth largest metropolitan area, and we need to start acting like it,” Redman remarked. “If I had a criticism of the LRT, it’s the fact that it didn’t start in Waterloo and stop in Cambridge. We have half of an LRT right now.”
Further discussion on light rail expansion into Cambridge will take place in the summer.
