Stevenson resurrects BRT debate about north and west routes, Morgan refutes claim

Mayoral candidate Susan Stevenson is renewing calls for bus rapid transit routes in north and west London. CTV London’s Daryl Newcombe reports.

Mayoral candidate Susan Stevenson would tap the brakes on work underway at city hall that lays the groundwork to potentially expand London’s Bus Rapid Transit system with routes in the north and west parts of the city.

“BRT 2.0 is already moving through the planning process,” Stevenson warned at the beginning of her campaign announcement.

She held up documents from a Request for Pre-Qualification procurement process seeking a consultant to do preliminary design, determine property requirements, update cost estimates, and implementation planning.

The anticipated study schedule runs from Fall 2026 to Fall 2027.

“I’m calling for a pause on further commitments to the north and west BRT expansion until Londoners have the costs, the traffic impacts and a real opportunity to weigh the alternatives,” Stevenson announced while standing in the middle of a transit stop along the yet-to-be-completed East London Link route.

Specifically she called for the following steps before Council decides on a path forward:

• Full cost disclosure covering existing commitments, proposed expansion, confirmed funding, and exposure to overruns.
• A coordinated construction plan addressing traffic, business access, emergency routes, and overlapping roadwork.
• Costed alternatives and public input including frequency, express service, and better connections to jobs and growing neighbourhoods

“Josh Morgan is all about bike lanes and BRT, with the goal of getting people out of their cars, and yet the BRT business case only predicted a 5% increase in ridership,” Stevenson emphasized.

However, incumbent mayoral candidate Josh Morgan emphasized that a public decision to extend the BRT system would come after the consultants’ reports are finished.

Morgan pointed to the 25-year Mobility Master Plan (MMP) approved by council this term.

“At best this is a misunderstand of the process, and at worst it’s just an irresponsible way to try to plan transit in the city,” Morgan said about Stevenson’s announcement. “This is part of the Master Mobility Plan, an integrated plan that is not just for rapid transit, or conventional transit, but how we move cars and how we build active transportation across the city.”

“I know it was approved in the Master Mobility Plan, but I don’t know that Londoners are really on board with this,” explained Stevenson. “When I got elected, people were shocked that we were moving forward with the BRT. They thought that they’d voted no to it at election time.”

The 2018 municipal election was dominated by debate about BRT, and whether London should accept provincial and federal funding for the mega-project.