Article content continued

“If we were to employ a (bus rapid transit) approach to the West LRT alignment, the first thing we’d get is a great big savings in money that we might redirect then into providing service to those that are losing it,” Cartmell said in an interview with Postmedia Monday.

The final vote on the bus network is expected at Tuesday’s council meeting and Cartmell gave notice on social media Friday afternoon to a motion he plans to bring forward to delay the decision.

“It’s not to kill transit funding. It is to shape transit investments and the transit system into something that represents what Edmonton needs at this time,” he said. “Let’s wait before we make our final decisions until we’ve had the LRT discussion two weeks from now and whatever comes out of that discussion.”

But Cartmell’s proposed motion has been met with opposition by some of his council colleagues, arguing the line is already moving forward and the investment it will bring supersedes the initial construction costs.

“LRT has so many more significant financial benefits to the city, comparing them like they’re equal couldn’t be anything further from the truth,” west end Ward 5 Coun. Sarah Hamilton said of the comparison to bus rapid transit. “We decided it a year ago so it’s disappointing to see the councillor be so opportunistic as to use a serious question about how Edmonton is going to invest in capital projects going forward to further an idea that council soundly rejected a year ago.”