Source
[LINK] - Design for new James North GO station unveiled
Daniel Nolan
Tue Apr 30 2013 22:48:00
Passenger service is proposed to return to James Street North in the form of a two-storey glass building that is reminiscent of the MacNab Street Transit Terminal in downtown Hamilton.
The proposed station, set to open in time for the 2015 Pan Am Games, will be located just east of the MacNab Street North bridge.
It will be attached to a plaza that will stretch to James Street North — just across from LIUNA Station (which was built as the CN station in 1930) — and the plaza is proposed to have bus bays, pedestrian walkways and areas for public art.
The station will be level with MacNab Street and the bottom floor will be about eight metres below and level with the tracks. This is because the rail line is located in a bit of a valley between Stuart Street and Strachan Street West.
That, at any rate, was the vision shown to about 40 people specially invited to a Metrolinx meeting Tuesday night at the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre on Stuart Street.
Those stakeholders in attendance included Mayor Bob Bratina, councillors Brian McHattie and Jason Farr, plus city officials, representatives of neighbourhood associations, the waterfront trust and the Hamilton-Burlington Society of Architects.
The station is to be a supplement to the Hamilton GO Centre (the former TH&B station) several blocks south of the proposed site, although attendees were told it will be developed as a mobility hub. It will connect with other transit such as buses and the proposed A-line Light Rail Transit (LRT) between the bayfront and the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport.
There are plans for a parking garage, easy exit for cars and a kiss-and-go spot.
Metrolinx official Randal Dreise said the platforms will be 350 metres long, stretching from James Street North to Hess Street North and Stuart Street.
That will see it stretch onto land that once housed a majestic train station linked to Hamilton’s development. A station was built off Stuart Street by the Great Western Railway in 1875. The GWR was swallowed up by the Grand Trunk Railway in the 1880s.
The station stood until the 1920s, when it was replaced by the CN station. The new station opened in 1931 and served passengers — the last being GO commuters — until 1993.
Dreise said, however, negotiations remain to make the station a reality — negotiations with CN to acquire tracks for the GO trains, negotiations with CN to provide all-day GO service and negotiations with land owners to build the plaza.
Bratina, a well-known rail buff who pushed for the return of GO service at James Street North, said he liked the proposed station design and that he never expected there would be some “grand station.”
“It’s the service that counts, but a simple and elegant plan would enhance the neighbourhood,” he said. “I think it goes in hand with the growth of the service, but the desire to keep costs in hand.”
Prev
[/QUOTE]
It will look pretty sweet once phases 3 & 4 are done.
Linear Mode
