First, councillors gave the brush-off to a list of potential taxes and fees to help pay for major transit projects.

A dozen days later, Russ Powers became the first councillor to officially bail on the city's plans for light rail transit (LRT), arguing that the massive city-building project was unaffordable.

Fresh on the heels of those decisions, councillors on the public works committee balked at a implementing a long-planned bus-only lane on King Street, a pilot project seen as a crucial stepping-stone on the road to LRT. That decision was later reversed with a 9-5 vote at council.

These three developments, which all took place in May, have given the community crucial insight into what some say is council's increasingly shaky stance on LRT. While some councillors have held firm in their support, these decisions have led residents and elected officials alike to wonder whether council support for LRT is dying out.

"I think what we've seen from council is that support for LRT is about a centimetre deep. While they support the reports, the concept of LRT, when it comes to taxpayers funding the programs with new dollars, there's no support," Councillor Brian McHattie said after council rejected mechanisms proposed by Metrolinx, the province's transportation agency, to fund transit projects.

"This is a very consistent position with the three councils I've been a part of. We've put zero municipal levy dollars into public transit in the past 10 years. That is really the measure of where this council sits on transit."

The LRT upheaval has also hit city staff. Last week, the city lost its last dedicated rapid transit manager.

Justin Readman has taken a senior transportation management role with the City of Kitchener. His predecessor, Jill Stephens, resigned in late 2011 to take a similar job with Niagara Region, around the same time Hamilton shrank a six-person rapid transit team to one manager.

The city may not refill the position, said transit director Don Hull, because council has only budgeted cash for dedicated LRT positions until the end of 2013. But, he added, Christine Lee Morrison, manager of mobility programs and special projects, has played a "huge role" in LRT planning and will be in charge of the file.

Despite the recent roadblocks councillors have put up against LRT, council has repeatedly affirmed its philosophical support of rapid transit over the past several years. Councillors have agreed to spend $10 million studying the LRT corridor, $5 million of which came from Metrolinx.

The most recent example of council's support came in February, when councillors endorsed a report that outlined the city's plans to build an east-west LRT line stretching from Eastgate Square to McMaster University. That document, called the Rapid Ready report, has been forwarded to the province in hopes that Premier Kathleen Wynne's Liberal government will endorse the project - and pick up the tab.

Still, McHattie points out that several councillors' endorsement of the Rapid Ready report was restrained. Chad Collins said he's not prepared to offer "blind support" to the project, while Tom Jackson has consistently based his support for LRT on whether there's an "exit ramp" in the future.

"I thought there were a lot of qualifiers from different councillors," McHattie said. "I think it's fair to say that there's not currently a lot of support for transit from councillors."

Rapid Ready said the city could expect three times the development along an LRT corridor compared with maintaining the status quo. Staff also estimated that an LRT line could generate new tax assessment of $22 million, while building permit fees and development charges would bring in $30 million. Bus rapid transit isn't expected to spur nearly the same amount of development and economic spinoff.

It's for reasons like these that LRT has earned the support of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce and the Hamilton Hive, a group for young professionals and entrepreneurs - and why both of these groups want council to keep LRT on the table.

"LRT was one of the few political issues that Hive took a stance on. We were very supportive of it because we saw it as a way to attract and retain young people - to make it fast and easy and cool for young people to get into the core," said Mike Kubes, Hive administrator. "We still support LRT 100 per cent, and really want to see city council act as ambassadors toward that."

But Peter Hutton of the Hamilton Transit Users Group agrees with McHattie. He argues that since LRT is quickly becoming a reality - and an expensive proposition that almost certainly will mean some form of new tolls, taxes or fees imposed by the province - councillors are losing their mettle.

"I genuinely believe the majority of councillors when the idea of LRT was presented to them, they said, 'Yeah, that would be great.' But the money question has always plagued them," said Hutton. "When it comes to putting the money behind those critical decisions, we have, historically, in the City of Hamilton not been able to get the community consensus to make those investments."

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Hull says that's exactly why council should pursue projects like the dedicated bus lane on King Street.

"We were trying to move from a plan into implementation. There comes a time when you have to put the infrastructure in place. And the community will decide, through their councillors, whether they want more of it or none of it," he said.

"I said to (councillors), 'Quite frankly, I don't know if you're ready. I don't know if the community's ready - but the only way to know is to get empirical evidence. We've taken it as far as we can take without an organic or physical example.'"

The $300,000 pilot project is set to begin in the fall.

In terms of McHattie's comments about council's flatlined investment into Hamilton's existing bus system, the HSR, Hull says there's more to those figures than what meets the eye.

While Hamilton has kept relatively in line with comparable municipalities when it comes to funding transit, those investments have taken different forms. Whereas Hamilton - which has a mature, established transit system - has focused on beefing up its service along existing routes to meet demand, other cities, such as Mississauga and Brampton, have been expanding service to meet explosive growth in those areas.

Hamilton needs to address its existing problems before investing in expanded transit service, Hull says. If five or six packed buses are passing riders by because they're too full, those issues should be resolved before the city begins expanding its bus network.

"The very first priority was to address service levels," Hull said. "You can't attract people to transit if their first experience is they can't get on the bus."

However, McHattie correctly points out that over the past 10 years, no investments have been made specifically to expand service. Meanwhile, cities that have invested in expansion are seeing a ridership boost that's not being echoed in Hamilton. In fact, Hamilton's transit ridership dropped by 5 per cent between 2006 and 2011.

Still, Hull says it's not all doom and gloom on Hamilton's transit front. In fact, he says Hamilton's approach to planning transportation - combining the HSR, LRT, bike programs, pedestrian infrastructure, and all other transit initiatives in one office - is "extraordinary."

"They can't exist as independent, mutually exclusive programs anymore. Council took an extraordinary move into consolidating these programs," he said. "My peers across the country can only dream of having that structure within their municipalities. It's not seen by the public, but that was a really critical decision."