A new report criticizing Hamilton’s LRT plans has been written up by the office of mountain councillor Terry Whitehead, and sent to fellow councillors and the media. One of Whitehead’s main sources of information was quite dismissive of the report today. Chris Higgins is a post-doctoral researcher at McMaster University who has been studying LRT. He doesn’t want to talk on camera yet because he’s still studying the impact the LRT will have on land values in Hamilton and wants to wait until the research is done. Whitehead quotes his work extensively, but Higgins says Whitehead makes incorrect assumptions, contradicts himself, and does not understand some of the original research. His line-by-line criticism of Whitehead’s report was posted online.

“Ultimately, the grand claims made in the introduction are not substantiated in the text,” he writes. “Nor is the report comprehensive”, but rather

“the ‘evidence’ looks to be cherry-picked for maximum effect rather than to present a balanced analysis,”

Ryan McGreal has been involved in the LRT debate for years, as a citizen advocate. He says most research shows LRT giving the biggest return on investment. Councillor Mattew Green says there have been 10 years worth of debate on the LRT, including lots of input from experts and six million dollars have already been spent .

There is an LRT sub-committee meeting at city hall tomorrow, so councillors could respond to Whitehead’s work then. There are also reports due in September, including the McMaster study on potential impact on land values around the LRT lines and the operating agreement is expected then, so there will be more info for council to weigh.