City councillor wants to bring back rail cut idea

Councillor Matt Whitman is looking to start a fresh conversation about an old idea.

The idea is to use the existing south end rail cut to get trucks and buses into the downtown core. Buses would come into the city on a paved stretch next to the south end traintracks in the mornings and afternoons, and trucks would go back and forth all day. Whitman says that would ease both the traffic flow into the downtown core, and the damage to our roads from trucks and buses.

He says the idea had some popularity a few years ago, but it trailed off. He’s hoping to bring it back.

“This will be a long time before anything comes to fruition, so I want to put it on the table now and see if we can get some action on it,” he told the Rick Howe Show.

He thinks the time is right, with a council a mayor that he says are looking to get things done. He believes the idea would have support from much of council, though he doesn’t count South End Councillor Waye Mason as a supporter of this idea. He says that’s because people in the South End “don’t like the idea because the thought of having any more traffic in the rail cut than is currently there is not popular,” so Mason can’t politically support it.

Cost is another concern. Whitman says estimates have been tabled in the past, but he doesn’t trust those numbers, and says new ones would have to be generated, along with an analysis of the overall effects. But he doesn’t see the price as being prohibitive, but rather sees it as a way to increase transit ridership.

“It’s just a smart move using our existing infrastructure,” he said. “It ties in with what Councillor Outhit wants to achieve from Bedford and Waverley to get folks in public transit.”

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