The feeder bus -> LRT model works very well in the NE, South and Northwest (and increasingly so the further out you go) because the distance that the (usually circular) bus route doubles back on itself (from the trip origin) to get to the LRT station is much smaller in scale than the distance to downtown (the destination).
With the west (and probably most pronounced in the Coach Hill community), the double-back distance is much more comparable in scale to the distance that would otherwise be traveled in a straight-line distance to downtown.
The trip time (or perceived trip time due to the transfer, which psychologically feels longer) may be added to if you were to compare it to directly before LRT implementation to directly after.
Where the new network will shine is days when the road network is congested and the LRT's exclusive right of way can bypass it.
As road routes to/from downtown are inevitably more clogged in the future, the feeder -> LRT system will become more attractive and will actually offset the effects of this congestion for everyone else (i.e. it will delay, probably permanently, the need for road improvements or augments to/from the core).
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