Waterloo Region's LRT project issues not so bad: Pembina report

As rapid transit becomes part of many communities in Ontario, the Pembina Institute in Toronto took a closer look at how these projects were being implemented.

On March 15, they released a report called Getting on Board: learning from planning and engagement around rapid transit projects in Ontario, which studied rapid transit projects in various stages of construction in Hamilton, Mississauga, Ottawa and Waterloo region.

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Lindsay Wiginton, a transportation analyst with Pembina and author of the report, told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo they spoke with city staff, planning teams, community and business leaders about the challenges and key success factors in all four rapid transit projects.

"In many of the communities where [rapid transit] is being built, like in Waterloo region, rapid transit is new," she told  The Morning Edition, adding that ultimately the report authors wanted to create a guide book on how rapid transit infrastructure projects can succeed.

"It's a key part of responding to the rapid population growth that we are feeling in Ontario cities. And so we wanted to look at how we are getting it right and how we can do even better."

Challenges and success factors

The report looked at two general areas: stakeholder and public engagement, and implementing transit-supportive land use and urban design policies.

The study and came up with 10 success factors that highlighted important recommendations, including:

• Having early public engagement.
• Planning for the impact of construction.
• Establishing clear process.
• Working with developers and landowners.

As for challenges, Wiginton said that there were some that were common in all four projects such as concerns around construction and keeping the community engaged throughout all stages of rapid transit.

How did Waterloo region do?

From the four cities that were studied, Waterloo Region's ION was unique in that it's an upper-tier municipal (regional) government that is leading the transit project and each municipality is doing its own work on the land use planning.

Wiginton said that Waterloo Region did well in making sure that the engagement process was inclusive by having a regional and municipal online platform where the community could participate.

She adds that communicating clearly and using visual tools to help people envision what the project will look like, such as having open houses or using 3D models, was another success factor.

"This is a piece of the puzzle in terms of making participation in the process available for more people," she said.

Since construction is ongoing, Waterloo region's ION LRT was able to provide the most information in terms of understanding challenges regarding the construction phase as well.

However, the report says the impact of traffic disruptions and road closures during construction are a source of concern for businesses along the LRT route, and that Waterloo Region did try to address them.

"When we talk about mitigating construction concerns, there are best practices around that. There is scheduling construction in a way that is in line with local events [and] investing in marketing campaigns to encourage the local businesses."

"These are things we have seen the Region made an effort to do," she said.