Staff recommend staying on track and extending light rail transit to Cambridge

An LRT train is stopped at the ION platform at Waterloo Town Square. (Dan Lauckner / CTV Kitchener)

After years of discussion, studies and reports, Region of Waterloo staff are ready to formally recommend extending light rail transit to Cambridge.

A report will be present to council next Tuesday with a recommendation to push ahead with a plan to run the trains from Fairway Road in Kitchener to Ainslie Street in Galt.

“This isn’t simply just a Cambridge project,” Doug Craig, a regional councillor representing Cambridge, said. “It’s a project to complete a transit system in the Region of Waterloo.”

According to the report, 78 per cent of people who participated in their survey supported the extension into Cambridge.

Developers were also supportive of the idea.

“This has been a long time coming,” said Joseph Puopolo, co-CEO at Polocorp, a land development company.

He believes an investment in mass transit will help drive development in the tri-cities.

Last month, the Region of Waterloo released a report touting the potential economic benefits of extending light rail transit.

The trains, regional staff noted, come with higher capital, operating and maintenance costs compared to BRT [Bus Rapid Transit], but they delivered greater overall returns.

A BRT option was also explored. That plan would involve creating dedicated, separate lanes for high-frequency buses from Fairway Station to downtown Cambridge.

“What we found is with the extra transfers, with not hitting certain destinations, they did not have the same economic benefits in terms of transit ridership but also in terms of supporting growth, housing, jobs and hitting downtown Cambridge where we have existing density,” explained Matthew O’Neil, manager of rapid transit coordination for the region.

Puopolo believes the light rail transit option is the right way to go.

“People are not going to make large scale investments for a BRT route or a bus route,” he said. “People are looking for fixed, stable infrastructure.”

Many politicians also seemed to be onboard with the plan.

“The surprise is the overwhelming support by regional officials, by regional politicians, by other people throughout the region,” Craig said.

Investment of this scale does come with a price tag to match; the project is expected to cost $4.3 billion, and that cost could continue to grow as time goes on.

Craig hoped multiple levels of government would pitch in to make the plan a reality.

“We’re expecting the province or the feds together to fund the whole capital project. We’ve paid our dues in terms of paying into the LRT and KW. We’re expecting this to be with no expense to Cambridge citizens.”

Regional council is expected to vote on the recommendation on Nov. 4.