Rapid Transit

[Innsertnamehere]

They will definitely be important, don’t get me wrong - but most of Rymal is still a 2 lane rural cross section. It just won’t need LRT level capacity any time soon. Buses, likely in a BRT lite form, will be more than enough for decades to come.

[SteelTown]

Feds announce Hamilton will get $200 million for HSR.

[Innsertnamehere]

Probably for the new bus garage by the sounds of it?

[SteelTown]

Today, the Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities; the Honourable Filomena Tassi, Minister of Labour and Member of Parliament for Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas; Stan Cho, Associate Minister of Transportation; and His Worship Fred Eisenberger, Mayor of Hamilton, announced joint funding for seven projects to improve public transit and provide additional active transportation options to Hamilton residents.

The Government of Canada is investing over $201.8 million in these projects through the Public Transit Infrastructure Stream (PTIS) of the Investing in Canada infrastructure program. The Government of Ontario is providing more than $168.2 million, and the City of Hamilton is contributing over $148.8 million to these projects.

Among the projects funded, the construction of a new 60,000 square metre public transit maintenance and storage facility that will include a 30-bus maintenance area, storage for 200 conventional size buses, approximately 4000 square metres of administration space, and a four-level parking structure. Once completed, the new facility will improve the capacity of public transit infrastructure in the City and improve the quality and safety of the existing and future transit system.

In addition, improvements to Hamilton's bus transit network and upgrades to the City's 16 km-long A-Line rapid transit corridor will result in a faster and more reliable public transit experience. The upgrades involve the construction of five new queue jump lines and 17 km of new sidewalks along 12 different segments of rapid transit roadway, the implementation of transit signal priority measures at various intersections, and improvements to approximately 19 transit stops along the corridor.

Once completed, these projects will contribute to the City of Hamilton's network of BLAST corridors designed to connect residents from the lower city, to the mountain, to the waterfront and the airport. This gives Hamilton the tools to deliver exceptional transit to move within the city, and conveniently access regional transportation choices.

All orders of government continue to work together for the people of Ontario to make strategic infrastructure investments in communities across the province when needed most.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/ca...for-residents-of-hamilton-889221932.html

[Innsertnamehere]

Projects include:

Replacement of Birch Avenue Bridge and Associated Road Work /Construction of Salt Management Facility

Replacement of a rail bridge, the completion of associated road work, and the construction of a salt management facility. This includes the replacement of Birch Avenue bridge, the reconstruction of 800 metres of road, the installation of a storm water pump station and applicable pipe reconfiguration to manage road drainage, the installation of approximately 97 metres of the water main, and the construction of a salt management facility.

Dispatching and AVL Hardware and Software Replacement

Installation of new dispatch and automatic vehicle location systems on buses in the transit fleet to provide automated real-time detour and service interruption information to transit users.

Expansion of Transit Fleet to Support Service Growth

Purchase of up to 85 forty-foot Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses, which will enable the City of Hamilton to expand its fleet and increase public transit service by an additional 300,000 service hours by 2026, in accordance with the city's 10-Year Transit Strategy.

Construction of Active Transportation Connections

Construction of an approximately 185 m active transportation bridge, 1.4 km of new bike paths, 420m of upgraded bike paths, 3.4 km of new multi-use connections to transit, and up to 500 new bike parking spaces (including sheltered and long-term secure parking). The project also includes 30 new bike-share stations, repairs to existing damaged bike-share stations, and approximately 17.8km of new sidewalks.

Implement Priority Bus Measures along A-Line Corridor

Implementation of priority bus movement on the 16 km-long A-Line rapid transit route. Work includes the construction of five new queue jump lanes, the implementation of transit signal priority measures at approximately 26 intersections, improvements to approximately 19 transit stops along the corridor, and approximately 17 km of new sidewalk construction along 12 different segments of rapid transit roadway to provide improved active transportation connection options to public transit users.

Replacement of Transit Fleet

Replacement of conventional buses in the Hamilton transit fleet. This involves the procurement of approximately 92 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses to replace buses that have reached the end of their lifecycle. This will include 40' buses (approximately 72) and 60' buses (approximately 20).

New Maintenance & Storage Facility

Construction of a new 60,000 square metre public transit maintenance and storage facility. The facility will include a 30 bus maintenance area, two indoor compressed natural gas fueling lanes, 2 bus wash rack systems, storage for 200 conventional size buses, approximately 4,000 sq. m of administration space, and a four-level parking structure to accommodate approximately 400 parking spaces for employees.

[Innsertnamehere]

So it looks like it's funding to build the new bus garage, replace about half of the HSR bus fleet, increase the bus fleet by about 50% for service enhancements (especially interesting as the LRT will remove the need for a lot of buses), and some pretty major BRT-Lite improvements for the A-line. Also replacement of the Birch Street underpass underneath the CN line, which had an EA completed a few years ago and is intended to service the new bus garage. When they reconstructed Birch Avenue south of Barton last year they did it with concrete in anticipation of the heavy bus volumes that will be on the street accessing the garage in the future.

I wonder what the cycling infrastructure funding will go to. Given the detailed list, I suspect they have specific projects in mind. Exciting to see an expansion of Bike Share too!

[ScreamingViking]

This is huge. Probably the largest non-LRT funding announcement for transit in Hamilton's history. A big shot of catch-up for the 10-year strategy.

And it will all be very necessary not just to support route connections to the LRT but hopefully to establish new express services such as along the L, S, and T corridors if that continues to be the plan.

EDIT: I wonder if they considered electric buses instead of CNG. Other cities are buying them.

[TheRitsman]

Hamilton really needs to get Transit Oriented Corridor zoning by-laws for A-Line and preferably the entire BLAST network asap. Plan for the future.

[ScreamingViking]

From the CBC:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/hamilton-transit-funding-1.6108160

"This is about the BLAST network," McKenna said. "That's a hugely ambitious transit plan that the city came up with. We support local decision-making."

"We need to connect Hamiltonians from the lower city to the mountain, from the waterfront to the airport. We need good transit across the board, that is exactly what we are investing in."

...

Meanwhile, Eisenberger said the development of the city's 10-year transit strategy had been delayed for a couple of years because of funding, but can now advance with Monday's announcement.

"Now we have our … municipal, federal and provincial funding in place and we can go full steam ahead in developing a much improved, a much expanded, wonderful transit system that every community and every city absolutely needs," he said.

Maureen Cosyn Heath, Hamilton's director of transit, said the money will support the reenvisioning of how transit is delivered and support a system redesign based on customer needs now and customer needs for years into the future.


...though Freddy isn't giving the whole story about the delays in the plan, leaving out the bits about city council's ditherings and not making transit funding a priority, even while they were waiting for senior governments to step up.



From the Spec, not much different from previous posts but includes a projected cost for the maintenance/storage facility and its ability to support electrics in future:
https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-re...on-to-improve-expand-hsr-bus-system.html

Highlights include:

- A $260-million bus barn in the lower city that will eventually be capable of charging and maintaining 100 electric buses;

- Eighty-five new buses by 2026 meant to beef up service on critical corridors like the north-south A Line between the waterfront and the airport;

- Improvements to speed up transit on the A Line, including signal priority measures and queue-jumping lanes; and

- Ninety-two new compressed natural gas buses to replace aging standard-sized and large, articulated vehicles.

[craftbeerdad]

Sort of confused on the no electric buses as well versus the CNG iterations. If you can re-tool the transit routes to be more efficient with LRT, seems like you could use that saved money to invest in more expensive electric buses upfront versus the CNG. Even if they could get 60 (making a number up) vs 92, much rather have that and minimize the environmental impact. Another great example of our cities taking the climate emergency seriously! Better build that sprawl & infrastructure out to Elfrida and beyond so people can have mcmansions

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by craftbeerdad

Sort of confused on the no electric buses as well versus the CNG iterations. If you can re-tool the transit routes to be more efficient with LRT, seems like you could use that saved money to invest in more expensive electric buses upfront versus the CNG. Even if they could get 60 (making a number up) vs 92, much rather have that and minimize the environmental impact.

Just thinking that perhaps the city has a long-term contract for natural gas, and they'll phase in electric buses as the others retire.

After such slow and small incremental capacity improvement over the past couple of decades, going in with as many new vehicles as they can appeals too.

[SteelTown]

You'd think with this funding it'll basically complete the 10-year transit strategy that Bob Bratina would have been part of the announcement. He must be really in the dog house and locked in.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

You'd think with this funding it'll basically complete the 10-year transit strategy that Bob Bratina would have been part of the announcement. He must be really in the dog house and locked in.

Maybe he needed a diaper change. Big baby.

Didn't he basically say he was done, aside from handling constituency issues?

[Beedok]

Hopefully this funding to the A-line corridor quiets up a lot of the people complaining about the B-Line LRT saying that it’s at the cost of the rest of the city…

[Innsertnamehere]

Those complaining about short changing the rest of the city are simply obstructionists - I can assure you they don’t actually care about bud servicd

[Beedok]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Those complaining about short changing the rest of the city are simply obstructionists - I can assure you they don’t actually care about bud servicd

Oh, yes, I realise that. But it’s harder for them to say it now, and I’m not sure if some are creative enough to come up with another excuse to complain.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Beedok

Oh, yes, I realise that. But it’s harder for them to say it now, and I’m not sure if some are creative enough to come up with another excuse to complain.

How about "But the A-Line will not be LRT!"

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by Beedok

Oh, yes, I realise that. But it’s harder for them to say it now, and I’m not sure if some are creative enough to come up with another excuse to complain.

They’ll complain about how 3-4 bus drivers could get laid off for a year because of it instead, as the illustrious Councillor Partridge attempted..

[mattgrande]

Curious about the Birch Ave bridge replacement. There are three rail bridges over Birch. Which one is getting replaced?

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by mattgrande

Curious about the Birch Ave bridge replacement. There are three rail bridges over Birch. Which one is getting replaced?

Hamilton did the EA a few years ago:

https://www.hamilton.ca/city-planning/ma...h-avenue-barton-street-burlington-street

The CN/GO underpass will be replaced, the existing underpass beside the future bus barn will be demolished and removed as there is no longer any rail on it, and the furthest north rail underpass will see the existing bridge structure retained with the road grade excavated lower to provide modern clear heights.