I’d suggest, in pretty strong terms, that you look at what has caused the escalation. This is a more complex, higher grade project than stage 1 with a lot more grade separation… the infrastructure costs of which first and foremost stem from topographic issues that any highway expansion ALSO HAS. It would be one thing to push the expansion out another decade while shoulder bus lanes can handle the capacity (and I’d suggest that the highway express GRT has proposed is aimed at doing exactly that), but with the regions growth being what it is, big infrastructure will be needed on a less than multi decadal timeframe and none of this is getting cheaper.
Bearing in mind that Ion was always promised as a single project in two stages, I’d suggest that it’s also a long way from fair to assign all stage 2 costs to Cambridge rather than looking at the line as a whole… 4.5 billion for the Cambridge extension isn’t great, but 5.5 -6 for the whole Waterloo region spine isn’t bad at all.
