Rapid Transit

[SteelTown]

I've been here since 2004 and still waiting patiently for King Street West streetscape, which was approved in 2004, so I can certainly wait 5 years to ride on the new LRT lol.

[LikeHamilton]

From "Raise the Hammer"

Mayor Reflects on LRT Tour
By: RTH Staff
Published: 2008/09/08 (Category: Light Rail)

Mayor Fred Eisenberger agreed to an email interview with Raise the Hammer to share his insights on his tour of light rail systems in Calgary, Portland OR and Charlotte NC.

He explained that the purpose of the trip was "to get a firsthand knowledge of the experience in each of these cities from an infrastructure, political, and funding point of view to see how Hamilton should proceed on this project."
They are all mid-sized cities in various timeframes of having LRT (Charlotte – opened last year, Portland and Calgary around 20-30 years). Portland and Charlotte were very good comparators for Hamilton in terms of scale. City population were around 500,000-600,000 (metro population is larger); the scale of buildings was similar; and ridership in Charlotte was comparable.

Charlotte LRT has exceeded expectations in terms of first year ridership, yet it is still below what current Hamilton East-West ridership is when you take into account all the busses that travel on that route.

Calgary was a useful case study as it was in the Canadian context and not one of the big-three cities.

Eisenberger said of the impact in those cities that "Light rail is transformational – it's about rejuvenating a city, promoting growth and intensification. Four- and five-storey condo buildings were being constructed all along the LRT lines and office uptake in the core was substantial."

He added, "One thing that stood our is how proud each of these Cities were: of their LRT systems, but also of their communities in general. There was a real sense of optimism, ownership, and pride in the systems they had built."

The mayor concluded, "This is a tremendous opportunity for Hamilton. Given the experience and advice from other cites, we are on the right track and ready to go to the next step. We are pushing hard to get in to the first phase of the Metrolinx Regional Transportation Plan."

[DC83]

^^ Nice. I can't wait to see how other Councilors (esp Ferguson) felt about LRT after the trip!

[SteelTown]

  Rapid Transit Feasibility Study – Public Consultation Update

http://www.myhamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/267BC6B2-DB52-41F1-8CBF-FDEB22DD68A9/0/Sep15PW08043b.pdf

Enjoy the reading.

[raisethehammer]

good stuff.
I personally don't care what Ferguson thought of the trip.
It'll all drain right out of his brain the second we start discussing lane reductions on Main and King.
The mayor is the most important one in this process and he really seems to get urban living and wants Hamilton to turn the corner.
it's exciting stuff!

[LikeHamilton]

I love this picture. Can anyone else do something like this?

Rendering of a possible light rail line in Hamilton (Image Credit: Trey Shaughnessy)

From September 11, 2008 “Raise The Hammer”.com

[omro]

Originally Posted by LikeHamilton

I love this picture. Can anyone else do something like this?

Rendering of a possible light rail line in Hamilton (Image Credit: Trey Shaughnessy)

From September 11, 2008 “Raise The Hammer”.com

Very cool, great article in raisethehammer.com too, it's all very exciting :-)

That map from the Toronto paper looks like it has LRT on Barton and an interchange at Centre Mall?

[astroblaster]

great article guys!

[geoff's two cents]

Originally Posted by markbarbera

But that's the thing, they won't be losing this ridership. Rather, this ridership will be served by either the B-Line to the southern end of the campus, or by the local service to the northern end of the campus.A trip on the B-line from downtown to Mac takes 10 minutes. On the University bus, the same trip takes 14 minutes. Not a big deal at all. And those who wish to take the B-line to Mac from futher afield can always get off at Main and Emerson and transfer onto the eastbound University bus, which will drop them off at the Sterling Street entrance to the campus.

The local service is at present hideously and dangerously overcrowded, and the B-line doesn't go where the majority of people who take westbound transit go. It is primarily this factor, not the minute difference in travel time, that makes the new configuration less palatable and less convenient to transit-taking students, faculty and staff than it was before. For those who have to commute from greater distances (ie downtown, east Hamilton, and beyond), can afford to drive, and have been up to this time taking transit for the sake of convenience, taking the car instead might become a viable option.

A temporary stop-gap measure might in this case consist of replacing some single-tier buses (the 51 route, for instance) with articulated models. In my opinion, given the underutilized 10s, this would be a poor use of tax dollars. However, in the best case scenario, it might allow the city to build ridership and density along Main without impairing service along the previous route (as it is currently doing). In fact, maintaining regular and adequate service of some sort along the previous corridor would also allow for the possibility of constructing an alternate or additional LRT route along said corridor at a later (probably much later) date.

[adam]

With regards to the LRT/McMaster discussion started in the other thread.... I wonder if Mac would pay for tracks to be extended into campus? Would this be violating some kind of rule since the campus is private property?

[SteelTown]

Taking the car isn't really a viable option. You have to park way out of the campus. Hop on a shuttle bus and it drops you off near the GO terminal. Takes me 10-15 minutes to walk to my campus building from the drop off area from the shuttle bus. So it takes me almost 20 to 30 minutes from getting out of my car to work. Driving from home to work is faster than from the parking lot to McMaster.

[adam]

I remember the days of undergrad at mac taking parking zone 6 bus to main campus. A parking garage on main campus would be great.. Too bad campus wasn't integrated into the city like at Queen's, U of T, etc...

[SteelTown]

Vast majority support a rapid transit system

September 22, 2008
The Hamilton Spectator

More than 90 per cent of Hamiltonians the city has heard from support developing some kind of rapid transit system.

City staff say they have heard from more than 1,600 people, from all wards, and 94 per cent support a rapid transit system.

In total, 66 per cent backed light rail transit, 8 per cent favoured bus rapid transit, and 20 per cent supported either move.

The numbers are current as of Aug. 11.

City staff have been working on a Rapid Transit Feasibility Study and public consultation is part of that process. Part of the goal is to ensure the city can access funding dollars from regional transportation body Metrolinx, which releases its first five-year capital budget in November.

Metrolinx will be releasing its draft Regional Transportation Plan and Investment Strategy tomorrow. City staff intend to report back to councillors in October with the results of Phase 2 of the feasibility study.

[highwater]

Originally Posted by adam

I agree with you, expanding service is great... BUT why take away service from a large demographic that spends money like its going out of style? .. even if its OSAP or parents' funds .. the city should be trying to get this demographic downtown, and the reduced fare is just one way to encourage it.

The idea of students as big spenders is a bit of a myth, I'm afraid. All the Acuras and SUV's parked in the driveways of student houses give a false impression. The majority of students are living on very tight budgets and don't have much in the way of discretionary income, not to mention that they're gone for 4 months out of the year. With the exception of the Pita Pit, all the other Westdale businesses that tried to cater solely to students found this out the hard way. Don't be betting the farm on this demographic.

Originally Posted by geoff's two cents

I partially agree with what you say above regarding reaching a new demographic of transit riders on Main and south of Main. If the city had plans to re-zone and densify this corridor, thus making it a more transit-oriented community, this might make some sense. Otherwise, it does not. The city would run the risk of losing some substantial Westdale-to-downtown and downtown-to-campus ridership, in order to achieve the meagre gains of running rapid transit down what is by comparison a sparsely-populated and car-oriented corridor.

The city does have plans to densify this corridor. The Ainsley Woods/Westdale Secondary Plan allows for low-rise apartments/condos along Main W. I believe the max is 6 storeys, but the precedent-setting West Village Condos has already exceeded that at 9 storeys. They are trying to encourage similar developments.


I'm afraid it's wishful thinking to think that the University will allow LRT on the campus under the current administration. The University seems intent on continuing its 'suburban island' mentality to planning. The urban landscape is changing however, both in the immediate geographical vicinity, and psychologically, so I don't know how long they'll be able to keep up with their outdated approach. They could sure use some new blood in there, and some senior officials who live somewhere other than Ancaster.

[DC83]

Why did it take The Spec 11 days to publish the exact same info raisethehammer.org published on Sep 11?

I write for my company newsletter every quarter, and I'll be writing it on LRT this term. Can't wait to educate everyone!

[geoff's two cents]

Originally Posted by highwater

The city does have plans to densify this corridor. The Ainsley Woods/Westdale Secondary Plan allows for low-rise apartments/condos along Main W. I believe the max is 6 storeys, but the precedent-setting West Village Condos has already exceeded that at 9 storeys. They are trying to encourage similar developments.

So there's somewhat of a silver lining to this dark cloud. That's good to hear, at least.

Originally Posted by highwater

I'm afraid it's wishful thinking to think that the University will allow LRT on the campus under the current administration. The University seems intent on continuing its 'suburban island' mentality to planning. The urban landscape is changing however, both in the immediate geographical vicinity, and psychologically, so I don't know how long they'll be able to keep up with their outdated approach. They could sure use some new blood in there, and some senior officials who live somewhere other than Ancaster.

Indeed, hopefully some positive development downtown and on Main will change the way most of the entire west end of the city views downtown. There's actually already a lot more here than there was when we first arrived a year ago - mostly in the form of restaurants. The Mac administrative culture unfortunately appears to fit in quite neatly with the existing east/centre-west/Dundas divide.

[SteelTown]

You are invited to an Open House – Updating McMaster's Campus Master Plan

Oct. 2nd, 2008 12:00 - 2:00 pm - Convocation Hall

Last year the University Planning Committee established a working group to refresh the original Campus Plan. The plan, drafted by a collaborative group of McMaster stakeholders (with input from students, faculty, staff, city officials, community members), was approved by the Board of Governors in 2002 .

The working group has focused on updating the Campus Plan by acknowledging new buildings and projects on campus, updating statistical data, adding new information to enhance the understanding of the plan, while improving the pictures and diagrams to make the report easier to read.

The McMaster community is invited to an Open House to learn more about the updated document and to ask questions of the committee members responsible for recommending these changes.

Sincerely,
Members of the Campus Plan Working Group

[SteelTown]

I'll try and attend and ask them about public transit inside the campus.

[DC83]

Good counter-argument on RTH re: taking B-Line off Mac Campus:
http://www.raisethehammer.org/index.asp?id=769

[raisethehammer]

I heard Bill Kelly interview a host of city folks today (Ferguson, Powers, Fred etc...) about LRT.
Kelly of course went on and on about the massive 'gridlock' that already exists at King and Wellington and Main/Dundurn etc....and how will we ever sacrifice a lane for LRT without sheer pandemonium. Lol. Could only shake my head listening to him.