‘Couplet’ route gains traction at latest public meeting on London’s rapid transit plan

While some previous meetings debating London’s bus rapid transit (BRT) plan have been crowded and contentious, the turnout for Tuesday night’s public input session was smaller and more subdued.

Fewer than two dozen business owners from King Street and Queens Avenue attended the meeting at Centennial Hall, where a potential route compromise appeared to gain traction.

Staff initially proposed reducing vehicular traffic to one lane on King near Budweiser Gardens, while adding east and westbound BRT exclusive lanes.

The “couplet” alternative would see dual bus lanes on King exist only east of Wellington Road. West of Wellington, the eastbound BRT lane would run on King while the westbound would be on Queens. The lanes would join back together on Riverside Drive, on the other side of the Thames River.

Owner of the Richmond Hotel and Tavern Mark Denchev feels the couplet is the only way to maintain access to his business.

“Right now, we really depend on the loading lane that we have on King Street to allow us to get our deliveries in, especially our beer deliveries and taxi cabs for our patrons,” he said. “If the rapid transit were to remain two-way on King Street, we would lose all access for all of our delivery vehicles and all access for taxis to be able to safely pick up patrons.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Right now, we really depend on the loading lane that we have on King Street to allow us to get our deliveries in, especially our beer deliveries and taxi cabs for our patrons," he said. "If the rapid transit were to remain two-way on King Street, we would lose all access for all of our delivery vehicles and all access for taxis to be able to safely pick up patrons."

City engineer Kelly Scherr admitted there are some benefits to the alternate route.

“The couplet provides us with stronger traffic circulation and allows more capacity on King Street to remain, and we know that’s a high-demand traffic area,” she said. “It does split up some of the impacts a little bit, instead of concentrating them all in one place, which lets us allow for parking and for loading.”

However, Scherr noted the couplet would add a few million dollars to the overall cost of the project.

“Certainly we’re looking at a magnitude cost here that is relatively small relative to the whole project. It’s likely some extra pavement, some extra signing, some extra stations.”

Denchev is confident it would be worth the higher cost.

“‘Option A’ being the original two-way route on King Street, if it’s wrong, which to me it seems wrong for business, it’s going to be a heck of a lot more expensive than a few million dollars for all of the businesses concerned on King Street. I think it’s a big enough project that you can’t afford to get wrong.”

READ MORE: Tourism London says current BRT plans have ‘potential of encumbering’ London tourism

Another meeting is scheduled Wednesday for property owners along Western and Wharncliffe roads to discuss the potential BRT corridor there, which was offered as an alternate to the Richmond Row route.

Residents are invited to a city-wide public meeting at Budweiser Gardens on May 3, before council potentially finalizes the routes on May 16.