It almost sounds like a game show: Millions of dollars at stake and the clock ticking down toward a tight deadline.

Over the next few weeks, London city staff and council face a series of decisions that will go a long way toward shaping the city's transit future, and clarifying this council's commitment to the $500-million bus rapid transit (BRT) plan.

A motion by Coun. Michael van Holst will come to the city's civic works committee Tuesday afternoon. It asks staff to come up with a list of city projects eligible to tap into transit infrastructure money on the table from the provincial ($170 million) and federal governments ($204 million).

The parameters of the funding programs mean the money must be used for projects that can deliver a significant improvement to London transit.

Among the options will be BRT, the controversial plan to have city buses run in dedicated traffic lanes along corridors that connect downtown with surrounding neighbourhoods.

Kelly Scherr, the city's managing director of environmental and engineering services, said BRT would meet the criteria of senior governments, but said council could also ask that the money be used to fund other city transit projects that qualify.

"We would want to provide a range of projects that use the full value of funding," she said.

So if not BRT, then what? And if council asks that the money be used for other transit plans, where would that leave BRT, which stands to become the largest public works project in London's history?

In his state of the city address last month, Mayor Ed Holder said the money could be used for transit infrastructure projects that "might lie inside or outside of the current BRT plan."

The city has already spent millions to develop BRT and last year council voted to approve the routes, prompting then mayor Matt Brown to say "BRT is happening in London."

But that was another council, and another mayor. The group of councillors elected last fall is roughly split between BRT supporters and opponents. Holder is not a BRT supporter.

'It's hundreds of millions of dollars'

Van Holst said whichever transit projects get approved for the application, they will have to reflect the new political reality at city hall. Staff will recommend a list of projects, but they'll ultimately have to be approved by council.

"The plan that we've got right now in its entirety, I don't believe will be the one that ends up going forward," he said. "Our goal is to not spend a lot of time squabbling, but to put together a plan that everybody can agree on. It's hundreds of millions of dollars and that's a big deal for London."

Which transit projects get approved for the application will say a lot about how much of BRT this council wants to keep, and how much could fall by the wayside.

Council doesn't have much time to decide.

Scherr said the application needs to be submitted by the end of March to ensure no money from senior governments is left on the table. A federal election coming in October could complicate the process if council hasn't filed its application by then.

Coun. Jesse Helmer won his Ward 4 seat on a pro-BRT platform. He'll consider other ideas but for now, he believes BRT should be central to the city's transit funding application.

He pointed to a planned BRT transit hub that would serve the corner of Highbury and Oxford Streets, where a large development is planned on the former grounds of the London Psychiatric Hospital.

"It's the best transit project that I'm aware of that's eligible for this fund and that can be built in the time frame we're talking about," he said. "Until I see something better, that's the project I want to proceed with."