Outcry over staff recommendation that Hamilton LRT be run privately pushes discussion to March

Hamilton's light rail transit (LRT) subcommittee voted to defer a decision on the city's role in future LRT operations after receiving an earful from members of the public Monday.

Staff had recommended the city's role be limited to customer interactions, such as customer service and fare enforcement, but people opposed to that recommendation packed council chambers and pushed for greater public involvement. 

"There's never been a more crucial crossroad for transit in Hamilton," Eric Tuck, president of Amalgamated Transit Unit Local 107, told the committee in a delegation.

Emphasizing the complexity and importance of the issue, subcommittee members voted to refer the topic to the General Issues Committee — the committee to which the subcommittee reports — for more discussion on March 21. 

Any decision would still be presented to Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency, which has the final say. 

Staff report says private operations would mean less costs, fewer risks

On Monday, the LRT subcommittee, whose membership includes councillors and non-voting citizen advisors, heard and received submissions from delegates with local environmental, anti-poverty, labour and urban planning organizations, as well as unions. 

ATU Canada, the national body of the Amalgamated Transit Union, has been leading a coalition called Keep Transit Public, which advocates for public ownership of transit in Ontario. 

Tuck said the staffing model recommended by city staff is "the worst choice for Hamilton," and would lock the city into a bad situation. He recommended instead that the Hamilton Street Railway — whose workers Tuck represents — run the LRT.

The question of who should run the LRT has been much debated, coming before council several years ago before the project was cancelled and revived.

Ahead of Monday's meeting, city staff recommended a model in which the city would handle customer service and fare enforcement, with a contractor handling operations and maintenance. The recommendation gives the option for Hamilton to revisit the arrangement after a decade and take more public control if desired. 

Staff presented four possible models:

1. A third party fully operates the LRT.

2. The city performs "passenger interface activities," such as fare enforcement and customer relations as in the case of the Region of Waterloo's LRT and the planned Hazel McCallion Line in Peel Region.

3. The city shares operations and performs passenger interface activities.

4. The city performs all operational activities, as is the case with the Toronto Transit Commission's forthcoming Eglinton Crosstown and Finch West lines, and the City of Ottawa's Confederation Line.

The report said staff considered customer experience, risks and liability, costs to the city, and how different parties would work together, in that order, when making the recommendation. 

Model 2 would present "a relatively seamless customer experience," staff wrote. It would also mean minimized risks from construction, design, operations and maintenance, since "risks related to drivers, collisions, etc., are borne by the third party operator, not the city."

That option would "likely be one of the lowest cost options for the city," staff said.

Cities need direct oversight: Toronto councillor

Several delegates said they disagreed with the staff assessment.

Tuck said public-private partnerships "put profits over people," without necessarily saving money. What's more, he said, public ownership would mean creating unionized jobs and their associated benefits, whereas outsourcing may not. 

Delegates also spoke to concerns involving accountability, accessibility and affordability, which they felt the city was better positioned to provide than a private company. 

WATCH: A look at construction inside Toronto's Eglinton Crosstown station

A look at construction inside the new Eglinton Crosstown station

12 months ago

Duration 1:10

The Eglinton Crosstown LRT has been under construction for more than a decade. In an update Friday, Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster said the team still can’t confirm an opening date — but gave reporters a look inside the station at Yonge Street. and Eglinton Avenue West.

In December, the LRT subcommittee heard from Mike Murray, the former chief bureaucrat for Waterloo Region, who shared his experience with that region's Ion LRT, saying it worked well for. 

On Monday, the committee heard a different perspective. Toronto city councillor and recent mayoral candidate Josh Matlow delegated virtually, telling Hamilton councillors that potential cost savings of a public-private partnership must be weighed against the "long-term cost of providing oversight."

He said in his experience with the Eglinton LRT in Toronto, which runs through his ward and has yet to open, the ownership model has made it challenging to answer important questions around delays in construction, for example. 

"If we don't have direct oversight and accountability as local councillors, we can't provide the service our constituents expect," he said. 

Hamilton Ward 2 councillor Cameron Kroetsch moved a motion that the subcommittee instead accept Model 4, the fully public model, with the amendment that Hamilton also be in charge of facilities and maintenance, too. 

"I agree with practically everything the delegates said today," he said. "Keeping these projects public can have a range of benefits."