West Harbour GO Station | ? | 3 fl | Complete

[HamiltonPlanning]

very impressive!! glad to see this project almost finished!

[ScreamingViking]

It's looking really great.

The only thing I don't care for (and it's minor) are the steel cages/catwalks along the sides. But I assume those are to make it easy to clean the windows of the diesel soot that will inevitably accumulate. The pedestrian bridge at Burlington station has catwalks too.

Perhaps they'll paint them to match the paneling on the station exterior.

[thmx]

West Harbour GO Station - July 8, 2015 by vgedris, on Twitter

[thmx]

Arriving train at West Harbour GO Station by Joe, on Flickr


Arriving train at West Harbour GO Station by Joe, on Flickr


Arriving train at West Harbour GO Station by Joe, on Flickr


Arriving train at West Harbour GO Station by Joe, on Flickr


Custom House and crane at West Harbour GO Station by Joe, on Flickr


West Harbour GO Station track view by Joe, on Flickr


Bicycle racks at West Harbour GO Station by Joe, on Flickr


Bicycle rack at West Harbour GO Station by Joe, on Flickr

[davidcappi]

I can't wait to see this completed. I'm really curious as to what they're doing with the dirt areas; hopefully not just grass, but some kind of natural landscaping.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by davidcappi

I can't wait to see this completed. I'm really curious as to what they're doing with the dirt areas; hopefully not just grass, but some kind of natural landscaping.

The latest presentation deck on the project (from the West Harbour page on the GO website) notes that the sloped area will be "Shade and Evergreen Trees, Shrubs and Meadow" (slide 16) and the previous slide says "Planting over 150 trees, 500 shrubs and bushes, 2,000 perennials, and small areas of grass across the site" and "Plant materials were chosen based on visual, drought-resistant and indigenous qualities"

That deck is a year old, but unless plans have been altered the ramp could be temporary (it's not shown on the site plan or circulation map -- slides 13-14)

[thmx]

New West Harbour GO Station & Old CNR Station by Derek Doyle, on Twitter

[king10]

So now that the pan ams are done, when does construction start up again?

[matt602]

Originally Posted by king10

So now that the pan ams are done, when does construction start up again?

It never stopped.

[thmx]

• Video Link

[Jon Dalton]

Fred looks pretty badass in those sunglasses

[matt602]

Those are indeed some slick mayor glasses. Fred's fashion game seems to usually be pretty on point.

[thmx]

West Harbour GO Station Parking Structure by Joe, on Flickr

[mdrejhon]

Hello,

Article writer here. For those not yet aware, I have written two major special features articles for RaiseTheHammer, which are:

GO Part 1: Major GO Train Construction for Hamilton
GO Part 2: Weekend All-Day GO Trains Possible In Hamilton 2016

Although the Niagara seasonal train season is now over; it's worth noting that the summertime Niagara seasonal GO all-day 2-way weekend trains ALREADY (during season) pass West Harbour GO without stopping. 16 trains per summer weekend; including 8 towards Toronto and 8 towards Niagara. So Hamilton could get all-day summer weekend Toronto GO trains too; just by having the return Niagara GO train stop.

• Video Link

This is currently because West Harbour is still a stub of a track:



The work is already funded to extend the track as ongoing work according to publicly available info; approximately similar to this guesstimate of a map.



The question is whether this happens by 2016, 2017, 2018 or 2019 (upcoming Centennial Pkwy station). For such a short extension, it should be sooner rather than later.

This is needed thanks to the Lewis Road GO Layover Facility, which is being built in Site #3:



Several months ago during the summer, I appear to have been the first person to have ever published construction photographs of the trackage at Site 3, the Lewis Road facility:




(Credit: Mark Rejhon)

The facility completes very shortly (operational 2016), which probably is when they will double the number of peak trains at West Harbour GO (and hopefully an 8:00am train...). As a bonus, hopefully this will also introduce summer weekend all-day GO train service (by virtue of Niagara Seasonal GO trains stopping at West Harbour GO). If not for Spring 2016, then at least hopefully by Supercrawl 2016.

It really is just a short section of track extension, and probably double-tracking of West Harbour (both platforms open), which looks like it could finish 2016 -- except for the potential logistics howstoppers shown in GO Part #2: Weekend All-Day GO Trains that I wrote for RaiseTheHammer. Working with CN can be a challenge, with all the



We will see if weekend all-day GO service arrives in Hamilton within the next year (and no later than two, at worse case) as a result of the Niagara GO trains stopping...

Exciting times indeed as finally lots of GO construction is happening at 3 different Hamilton construction sites (photographed in Part 1).

[Beedok]

I think they're doing the connection for West Harbour, otherwise the Stoney Creek stop would make very little sense.

[mdrejhon]

Originally Posted by Beedok

I think they're doing the connection for West Harbour, otherwise the Stoney Creek stop would make very little sense.

Yep. Exactly.

But Stoney Creek isn't opening till 2019.

We could make use of pass-through GO trains much sooner (2016) --
Niagara Seasonal GO Trains would also provide all-day weekend Toronto GO train service to Hamilton.
(These weekend semiexpress trains are faster than weekday commuter trains; only 55 minutes to Toronto)
16 existing trains per weekend, 8 towards Toronto, 8 towards Niagara.
So weekend 2-way service with Toronto AND 2-way service with Niagara Falls, via an existing GO train.

Existing GO trains that passed West Harbour every weekend from late spring through early fall.



We can't have West Harbour GO ignore these great opportunity of existing GO trains till 2019.

This is what the article advocates: Get those Niagara trains stopping ASAP at West Harbour GO. It's really a low-lying apple that would actually pay immediately (more fares -- the benefit of reducing the operating cost of running that existing Niagara GO train -- by picking up Hamiltonians and bringing visitors to Hamilton too)

So that's the purpose of the Article Part #2 -- There's been conflicting information by multiple different parties about "when" these trains can stop. Rumors are there are potential delays caused by the interagency co-ordination (even things like the rumored John St bridge rebuild, financed by CN, which can be known to be slow). This article advocate getting the pre-requisites "sooner rather than later" to take advantage ASAP of the revenue-generating opportunity of stopping an existing GO train that currently just whooshes by.

[drpgq]

Personally I think Hamilton should be advocating for one express train in the morning to Toronto (one stop in Burlington and one in Oakville) that stops in Niagara first. Probably pretty difficult and I doubt GO would do it, but why not at least have the city ask? Anything over an hour on the train is brutal for a commute.

[thmx]

West Harbour GO Station - December 11, 2015 by kathyrenwald, on Twitter


West Harbour GO Station (New Benches) - December 7, 2015 by kathyrenwald, on Twitter

[Dr Awesomesauce]

^Love the new station!

[king10]

Some people were saying that parking garage was going to be 4 or 5 level. It looks to be only two. Is it made to be expanded higher if the demand warrants it?

I have also heard that the surface parking lot further west of bay street can be converted to a parking garage if needed.