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Sweeter still, city taxpayers would have been on the hook for only $23 million: The rest of London’s share would have come largely from development charges, fees that builders are charged by city hall for the hard services that growth demands. Instead, we’ll pay a little less for a much reduced setup.

Holder, after a marathon seven-hour council committee meeting that killed the intact system and left the city chasing government money for other transportation projects, declared the result the skeleton of a “rapid transit system” that will move more people to and from work, especially in the industrial east and south ends.

That’s a stretch. A rapid transit network that speeds movement through the entire city is a system. One that serves only two quadrants, and not the two fastest-growing ones at that, is just an upgrade. It’s a little like calling an arc around half the city a ring road, when clearly the whole is needed to make it work.

Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa — all three cities were smaller than London is now when they plunged into rapid transit decades ago, starting light-rail systems that shaped their futures or, in Ottawa’s case, a bus rapid transit highway system that’s become integral to moving people around in the national capital region.

Hamilton and Kitchener-Waterloo, rival regional cities to London, are starting light-rail systems, just in time for a climate-changed world demanding cheaper alternatives to slavish devotion to cars and roads.

While others boldly move on, London has managed only a half-step at best.