Dear Councillor,

I am writing to urge you not to support a two-phase light rail plan calling for a downtown tunnel, and instead propose the Friends of the O-Train plan to council.

Although I support a rail technology to reduce congestion downtown, the subway is an ill-conceived and poorly thought out suggestion. There are three key reasons why I feel this is a bad idea:

1. Spending huge amounts of money to essentially replace the existing O-Train with a different technology on the same run makes no sense. The need for rail transit southward from downtown is already being serviced by the current technology, and it is not at capacity. Extension is possible.
2. The future subway project will likely never go forward. The massive expense of this solution will never fly in the current political environment against debt. It is unwise to pin the solution to our transit woes upon a “just so” story about how the project could be expanded later.
3. The right solution has already been proposed. The cheap, efficient, frequent and reliable plan put forward during the election by the Friends of the O-Train would cost much less than a tunnel. It would bring the same benefits in terms of reduction of buses downtown and improved transit.

The subway plan has not been considered by council or citizens and so it is improper to throw it out there and vote on it in a kneejerk manner.

It is not clear why the Friends of the O-Train plan is not being given serious consideration. It isn’t clear what’s wrong with this plan except that it did not originate within the transportation department.

I urge you to table the friends’ plan as an option. It is better thought out and more complete than the vague subway proposal, which can never work.