In a 10-0 vote Monday evening, Brampton council killed a staff proposal for an LRT tunnel under Main St. that would have cost between $410 million and $570 million.

Instead, council decided to move forward on one of two alternative LRT routes north of Steeles Ave., either partially up Main St., then east to a new hospital under construction, on to Queen St. and over to the downtown GO Train station, or up Kennedy Rd. to Queen St., then on to the downtown GO station.

“We need to have a position . . . and then try to get government funding,” Councillor John Sprovieri said during a two-hour debate at Monday’s planning committee meeting. Council considered a staff report recommending the tunnel option under the previously rejected Main St. route, which council killed in October.

Staff told council the tunnel option was brought forward even though council had rejected the route because only a “surface” option up Main St. to the downtown GO station was killed, before alternatives were asked for.

“What if we don’t get funding?” Councillor Dhillon asked, regarding the only two options now on the table.

He pointed out that council, in killing the Main St. option in October, said no to the fully funded route. The province pledged last year to fund all of the $1.6-billion cost of the Hurontario-Main LRT (it will now stop at Steeles). Council’s goal is to have that route extended on the new corridor that will now be selected.

Planning chair Elaine Moore told Dhillon that there was no funding in place when the Hurontario-Main LRT was first debated.

“We now have a clear direction,” she said after the meeting. “We are going to have the two options studied and when we have our final choice we will go to both higher levels of government to get funding. We needed to move forward. The tunnel option, as you saw, was not feasible.”

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