With the ink still drying on London’s $880-million rapid transit proposal, a radical change to the main downtown route may be in the works.

The Free Press has learned city officials are considering removing the high-volume buses or trains — and the portal taking them into an underground tunnel — from the traffic-heavy stretch of Richmond Street running through the core.

The significant switch, if ultimately approved, would spike the until-now proposed plan to run a southbound rapid transit line along Richmond and shift it over to Clarence Street, where a northbound line is already planned.

So, that means the north and south lines, starting and stopping at the York Street Via station, would both run along Clarence. And the southern portal to the tunnel — designed to avoid the traffic-clogging rail crossing at Richmond Row — would be built at the northern end of Clarence, essentially behind the Victoria Park bandshell.

The tunnel’s southern portal was slated to go smack dab in the middle of Richmond Row. But concerns from the public and businesses about its impact on congestion and pedestrian flow on Richmond sparked the potential change.



City hall's proposal for a rapid transit system is far from finalized, and a major potential change may loom -- moving the line, whether it's rail or bus, off Richmond Street's downtown stretch.



Like the overall rapid transit plan itself, none of this is etched in stone — much less officially approved by city council.

But the potential move off Richmond is “promising,” according to the core ward’s city councillor.

“This location (for the tunnel opening, on Clarence) is an attractive proposal,” Coun. Tanya Park said Monday.

“Not only would moving the entrance off Richmond create less of an impact to Richmond Row businesses, but it would also be a fantastic location because all the ingredients for a successful transit village already exist in close proximity” such as public spaces, shops and homes.

Rapid transit only works if it’s rapid — and that can’t happen if the light rail or buses are delayed by freight trains rumbling across the level rail crossing on Richmond Row.

Hence, the need for the underground tunnel.

Moving the southern tunnel portal to Clarence would make a huge difference for downtown, especially Richmond Row. But little else for the pre-existing proposal appears to be changing at this time:

*While the tunnel’s southern portal shifts to Clarence behind the Victoria Park bandshell, it would run underground and its northern portal back above ground stays the same — near the Richmond-Grosvenor Street intersection, close to St. Joseph’s hospital.

*From there, the proposed line, as previously planned, would continue along Richmond, juking west at the Western University gates and cutting through campus to Western Road.

*The rapid transit line would then head up Western Road, merging again with Richmond Street and continuing to its northern end-point, Masonville Place Mall.

Concerns over a rapid transit corridor upending Richmond Street’s downtown corridor have been no secret. Janette MacDonald, who represents core merchants, is pleased with the potential change.

“We were worried about Richmond Street,” she said of the rapid transit plan. “Anything that was going to effectively alter the cache of Richmond Row, we wouldn’t be happy about that.”

No part of the proposal — really, even whether London will have a rapid transit system at all — has yet been approved by city council. It’s also heavily dependent on hundreds of millions of dollars in not-yet-secured funding from Queen’s Park and Ottawa.

City council must decide whether it wants light rail, bus rapid transit or a hybrid of both.

Western University, for one, has expressed resistance to light rail, citing its potential impact on their campus.

A rail-bus hybrid would cost about $880 million. A bus-only system would cost as much as $525 million. Either one would be the largest single infrastructure project in city history.

patrick.maloney@sunmedia.ca

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RAPID TRANSIT BASICS