Rapid Transit

[SteelTown]

Just back from the session. Good stuff, support mostly for LRT. Good number of seniors showed up (probably a majority) and they like having a stable not to bumpy transit vehicle and wheel or roll in (LRT). So even the seniors support LRT.

Oh and put down Tom Jackson and Scott Duvall as supporter of LRT as well. Both attended. A no show for Whitehead, he never did email me back about supporting LRT.

[SteelTown]

Oh and all of the presentation boards will be up online by the end of the week. They showed what it would look like to have a transit lane along King, Main, James and Upper James.

If you have questions (May 8th) look for Helen, she's supper nice and helpful. She even drew down what the transit lane would look like for me. Also I noticed all of the staff from Public Works (well at least for rapid transit) are females.

[chris k]

Yeah i was also there at sackville. I would say there was maybe about half the people then the May 1 meeting. It was a little less exciting but they did have more information and nice diagrams on the boards. Im assuming there will be more people at the thursday meeting hopefully. Overall, some stupid things said but generally support for LRT.

Cheers

[SteelTown]

Most of the stupid questions was from that old lady with a yellow shirt, she would moon everyone behind her every time she would get up from the chair lol. Even Tom Jackson who was right behind me made smirks here and there at times when she spoke. She was all like "we can't afford it blah blah blah". "Why now?". CAUSE DALTON IS GIVING UP $300 MILLION DUMBASS. One person thought A and B-Line would mean NO CARS on Main/King and James/Upper James, jeez lol.

[chris k]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Most of the stupid questions was from that old lady with a yellow shirt, she would moon everyone behind her every time she would get up from the chair lol. Even Tom Jackson who was right behind me made smirks here and there at times when she spoke. She was all like "we can't afford it blah blah blah". "Why now?". CAUSE DALTON IS GIVING UP $300 MILLION DUMBASS. One person thought A and B-Line would mean NO CARS on Main/King and James/Upper James, jeez lol.

YEah the mooning lol i just looked away

The stupid question i was reffering to was the REALLY old lady who said that rapid transit is a step in the wrong direction. I laughed at that one. Hopefully city doesnt take her comment sheet to seriously

[SteelTown]

Yea she was behind the mooning lady, must have been a pack of em. I just rolled my eyes.

[Gurnett71]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

A no show for Whitehead, he never did email me back about supporting LRT.

Me either. Maybe his email server has been inundated with so many pro-LRT emails, he doesn't have time to respond to them. No, that can't be it.

[SteelTown]

Oh Lillian also said the new yard would likely be located near McMaster for all the storage. That's something new I got from the session.

[raisethehammer]

I couldn't attend tonight since I'm out of town, but I plan on attending Thursday.
I'll be back in town, and it might be the last time ever that I step foot inside the Board of Ed building. Once they move to a cinderbox in the burbs, I'll never step foot there again.

Were the images of King/Main realistic or just a train plopped onto a picture with photoshop?

[SteelTown]

No, satellite views of some sections of streets like King, Main, Upper James, etc with the dedicated transit lane to get an idea of the impact of the rapid transit. Some sections had no dedicated transit lane.

[SteelTown]

Dundas added to LRT plan

Dundas has been added to a proposal for rapid transit lines in the Hamilton area.

City officials told a public meeting on the issue last night the end of an east-west line across the city has been extended to University Plaza on Osler Drive from McMaster University.

Jill Stephen, Hamilton’s manger of strategic planning, said afterwards it was decided last month to extend the proposed line into Dundas because it is already the western terminus for bus service returning from Eastgate Square at the Stoney Creek border.

Proposed funding from Ottawa and Queen’s Park under the Move Ontario 2020 plan had envisioned the western end of the rapid transit line being McMaster.

“The University Plaza part is new,” Stephen said. “The Move Ontario 2020 announcement only went to McMaster University, but our existing B line goes to University Plaza. It’s a logical extension.”

She said the extension does not add any costs and has been figured in by city officials.

The capital cost estimate for bus rapid transit (BRT) is between $6.5 million and $9 million, and between $15 million and $25 million for light rail transit (LRT).

About 50 people attended the first public meeting about rapid transit options for Hamilton.

The meeting was held at the Sackville Hill Seniors Centre.

A study has identified two rapid transit routes: the A line, on James Street and Upper James from the waterfront to the airport, and the B line, on Main and King streets from University Plaza to Eastgate.

The routes were included in the $17.5-billion Move Ontario 2020 announcement last year.

If comments from the audience are any indication, Hamiltonians prefer light rail on the two routes over bus rapid transit. Some spoke of their experiences using LRT in other countries and said Canada was far behind on getting people out of their cars and helping to reduce pollution.

One man spoke of riding LRT in Switzerland and not seeing any cars. He learned later cars were parked outside the community.

“We thought they had banned them. It was a fantastic system,” he said.

Grant Ranalli, a school teacher and a member of the Hamilton Light Rail interest group, said he believed LRT would help the city’s economy. Stephen noted Portland, Ore. figured it got a 1,400 per cent return in development
spending compared to what it spent on LRT lines.

“This could be a real economic stimulus for Hamilton and I think the ambitious city can be ambitious again,” Ranalli said.

Bernice Price, however, said LRT would cost billions and people would not stop using their cars to get around the city.

“We had transit like this years ago and they ripped it down,” she said.

“Forget it. They’re trying to throw out the baby with the bath water.”

Another public meeting is set for tomorrow night at the Education Centre on Main Street West (across from City Hall). It runs from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. with a presentation by Stephen at 7 p.m.

[SteelTown]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Bernice Price, however, said LRT would cost billions and people would not stop using their cars to get around the city.

“We had transit like this years ago and they ripped it down,” she said.

“Forget it. They’re trying to throw out the baby with the bath water.”

HA! They quoted that old lady! LOL

[HAMRetrofit]

^ a particular Hamilton stereotype comes to mind with regards to her blasphemous comments

Perhaps she is the one who needs to be thrown out with the bath water. The city would be better of without individuals like this.

[mishap]

Dundas added to LRT plan

Dundas has been added to a proposal for rapid transit lines in the Hamilton area.

“The University Plaza part is new,” Stephen said. “The Move Ontario 2020 announcement only went to McMaster University, but our existing B line goes to University Plaza. It’s a logical extension.”

I don't see how that's necessarily "logical," just because they decided to send a bus there. I don't know if University Plaza is really the best terminus for the B-Line, even as a bus route. If you're going that far, then go right into downtown Dundas. The Grafton Square/ Town Hall area is walkable for a large number of Dundas residents, and the rest can be shuttled further on local routes, even possibly as far as Greensville and Flamborough Downs.

And if you're not going all the way into Dundas, there's really no point running a rail line across the valley. Stop at Main and Osler, and let buses take passengers the rest of the way into Dundas and Ancaster from there. Some services may be better off coming in via Cootes Drive. If LRT becomes popular enough, they should re-evaluate that Hydro corridor running from Main and Osler to Scenic and Lavender. That's conveniently close to the Meadowlands, and possibly a better direction for the rails to go.

Should they consider running the LRT line beyond McMaster? Absolutely. It's better to take some of the load off of a McMaster terminal by having some passengers on the train to/from points beyond. They should actually be considering the same thing for Eastgate Square, which will be a dumping ground for future Centennial Parkway services. University Plaza just seems like too arbitrary an endpoint, and I say this as someone who lived in Dundas for five of the last ten years (and would have loved and LRT line).

I'm curious why University Plaza is "logical," yet Fiesta Mall is not. How many people live within the urban boundary beyond University Plaza? 20,000, maybe 25,000? Now how about east of Fiesta Mall? Probably just as many. Didn't the original Beeline run to Fiesta anyway? Maybe they're looking in the wrong direction for the first extension.

[matt602]

Great to see that people are getting involved and speaking up for LRT. I will be at the meeting tomorrow night, I'm very excited about it. I think the crowd is gonna be huge. Downtown and the lower city in general seems to be full of excited LRT supporters.

I also agree with mishap that if the line is going to go as far West as University Plaza, it should also at least go to Fiesta in the East. Stoney Creek is still horribly under-serviced in my opinion, and LRT would be a great push to close that gap. The Red Hill Valley Parkway is going to stimulate a ton of growth in the East end and Stoney Creek and we need to build infrastructure for it now before it becomes a problem. If the transit solutions are in place before the new residents and businesses arrive, it will become their primary use.

[flar]

LRT should go to Dundas eventually, but should go into downtown Dundas. In Dundas, transit is mostly used by senior citizens who live in the midrises near downtown. The B-Line goes to University Plaza now but barely anyone uses it. I occasionally drive to U Plaza to catch the B-Line. The only good thing is there is lots of free parking for people to do that; the bad thing is only 3 or 4 people get on the bus. The 52 routes that go into Dundas are much, much busier.

[SteelTown]

Did you notice the title though? "Dundas added to LRT plan"

Even the Spec knows the public wants LRT for rapid transit.

The decision to extend LRT to University Plaza probably has a lot to do with locating the LRT yard near the Hydro Corridor, Jill said that's where the yard would go.

Also she REALLY didn't want to set a timeline but I believe she did slip out "5 years" for B-Line.

[flar]

^^I didn't catch that. A lot of things are looking favourable for LRT lately. We shouldn't get complacent though, because someone might try to pull the rug out. Which reminds me, I better send in my rapid transit questionnaires today...

[Jon Dalton]

CRUD. I can't go thursday. Can someone who lives downtown maybe pick up an extra comment form?

If the mountain one went well, the downtown one should be nuts.

[SteelTown]

^ You can find the comment form online www.hamilton.ca/rapid-transit

Fill it out and mail it.