The future of Hamilton's public transit

[SteelTown]

Typical Hamilton council fashion, they've reversed their decision to end the "Fare Assist" program and reverted to the old program; got a mobility device?...free HSR (until June 30, 2024, for council to come up with yet another plan that will drain resources).

[SteelTown]

Hamilton calls for funding help with nearly $400-million bus barn
The city is asking to use leftover provincial pandemic transit funding for the bus storage and maintenance facility in the lower city.

https://www.thespec.com/news/council...d4255165d.html

The bill for Hamilton’s new bus barn is approaching $400 million and spurring new city appeals for funding aid.

The city has sought a new storage and maintenance facility for its growing fleet of HSR buses for nearly a decade.

[ScreamingViking]

Made the mistake of reading news comments today.

I love how LRT creeps into the commentary for many stories and also the letters to the editor. E.g., we can't afford it, we should be using that money for housing the homeless, etc. People do not understand the city isn't forking out anything for capital construction, and has no say in how the money is spent... or they do understand and are just peddling misguided un-truths to stir up more debate.

[Innsertnamehere]

in many of those commenters minds the city can't afford anything but throwing the homeless in jail and repaving roads. See the same discussion about spending mostly provincial and federal money on bike lanes.

That said - there are a ton of very expensive and wasteful design choices on the garage. The city could have delivered it for probably 2/3 of the cost if they had done some serious value engineering on the concept (i.e. swapping employee parking to surface parking instead of structured, shifting the office space to being at grade instead of an elevated structured bridge, using cheaper cladding materials owing to it being a frigging industrial building, etc)

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

That said - there are a ton of very expensive and wasteful design choices on the garage. The city could have delivered it for probably 2/3 of the cost if they had done some serious value engineering on the concept (i.e. swapping employee parking to surface parking instead of structured, shifting the office space to being at grade instead of an elevated structured bridge, using cheaper cladding materials owing to it being a frigging industrial building, etc)

Definitely. Doesn't need to be a showcase building.

[craftbeerdad]

• So the lower city had a bus terminal
  
• City says, wait we need new bus terminal
  
• City builds a new terminal on the mountain
  
• City sells lower city land of old bus terminal
  
• City says we need new fancy bus terminal in lower city that costs $400M
  
• This is a true story

[ScreamingViking]

I understood the reasoning when the facility on Upper James (back then Hwy 6) was built - the city expected to be providing much more transit service in its suburban portions. And the old one on King near Wentworth was ancient. This was a LONG time ago and prior to, I believe, the massive transit cutbacks of ~35 years ago. But there was no planning for the possible need to have multiple facilities.

And what you outline is *exactly* how I feel about the way school planning is done.

Originally Posted by craftbeerdad

• So the lower city had a bus terminal
  
• City says, wait we need new bus terminal
  
• City builds a new terminal on the mountain
  
• City sells lower city land of old bus terminal
  
• City says we need new fancy bus terminal in lower city that costs $400M
  
• This is a true story

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by craftbeerdad

• So the lower city had a bus terminal
  
• City says, wait we need new bus terminal
  
• City builds a new terminal on the mountain
  
• City sells lower city land of old bus terminal
  
• City says we need new fancy bus terminal in lower city that costs $400M
  
• This is a true story

the old bus terminal is still there, actually!

The HSR outgrew it - today it's used by the City's fleet and Accessible Transit Services. So it's still in use. It's actually right next to the new garage being built.

Similarly, HSR doesn't plan on abandoning the upper mountain garage once the new one is done, they will need both.

Right now they shove the buses in the employee parking lot overnight and on a sketchy gravel lot at the back up a steep hill to make things work - there isn't space for any more buses:

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.1854...!1e3?entry=ttu

Once the new garage is done, there will be space for more buses to increase service.

Having a bus garage in the lower city again is also expected to save big money in deadheading costs - i.e. the cost of the buses driving empty to their routes every day, as they will be getting stored much closer to where most of the HSRs services are in the lower city.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

the old bus terminal is still there, actually!

The HSR outgrew it - today it's used by the City's fleet and Accessible Transit Services. So it's still in use. It's actually right next to the new garage being built.

Before that there was a building on land later sold to make way for the new Cathedral high school.

I vaguely recall the old trolley buses accessing it from King.

[matt602]

Yeah, the "old, old" garage was actually a trolley/streetcar barn where Cathedral HS was. There's a plaque that mentions it on the side of the school on Wentworth.

[mishap]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

the old bus terminal is still there, actually!

The HSR outgrew it - today it's used by the City's fleet and Accessible Transit Services. So it's still in use.

It was kind of the other way around... the Wentworth Garage outgrew the HSR. It was opened in 1990, six years after the Mountain Garage. The HSR was using a two-garage system for a decade despite the system shrinking via reduced service and route restructuring. Finally, in 2000, everything was moved up the hill as the HSR abandoned its newer facility. Crazy to think it was only used for its built purpose for ten years.
There are tales that because government funding for transit was involved in its construction, the Wentworth Garage had to be used as a transit facility for a minimum period of time. And the HSR stuck it out for the required minimum before the city got a fairly-new building for other departments to use.

[TheHonestMaple]

That facility is still very much in use. It's used by Darts, and also maintenance for other city owned vehicles.

[Innsertnamehere]

We have to remember as well that the HSR has some pretty aggressive transit growth strategies for the next decade - They are expecting some major service level increases. You need places for buses to do that.

[ScreamingViking]

Definitely. And it's about time.

Instead of letters to the editor suggesting "We don't need LRT. Just add more buses" we will probably start seeing the likes of "There are too many buses clogging our streets"

I wonder where we'd be in every city in the province -- never mind Hamilton -- if the mass cutbacks of ~35 years ago hadn't happened.

[TheHonestMaple]

Has any money been set aside by Metrolinx to renovate the bus terminal at the Hunter station? It's in desperate need of a face lift. I see Metrolinx spending heaps of money on new stations such as Innisfil and others out on the barrie line, but zero here in Hamilton. Ontario's third largest city. Pretty frustrating

[Corktowner]

Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple

Has any money been set aside by Metrolinx to renovate the bus terminal at the Hunter station? It's in desperate need of a face lift. I see Metrolinx spending heaps of money on new stations such as Innisfil and others out on the barrie line, but zero here in Hamilton. Ontario's third largest city. Pretty frustrating

You’re in luck! This month’s Metrolinx board meeting includes an item about station improvements at both Hunter and West Harbour: “parking lot and bus loop improvements, secure and sheltered bicycle parking, digital signage, improved signage and wayfinding, accessibility upgrades and an upgraded station building.” Work is supposed to start this summer.

https://assets.metrolinx.com/image/u...s_GO_UP_EN.pdf

[TheHonestMaple]

Originally Posted by Corktowner

You’re in luck! This month’s Metrolinx board meeting includes an item about station improvements at both Hunter and West Harbour: “parking lot and bus loop improvements, secure and sheltered bicycle parking, digital signage, improved signage and wayfinding, accessibility upgrades and an upgraded station building.” Work is supposed to start this summer.

https://assets.metrolinx.com/image/u...s_GO_UP_EN.pdf

Wow awesome!! Full description:

As part of the Existing Stations Renovations program, a new project will be delivering improvements to GO’s pair of stations in the City of Hamilton, Hamilton GO Centre and West Harbour GO Station. Work planned across these two stations includes parking lot and bus loop improvements, secure and sheltered bicycle parking, digital signage, improved signage and wayfinding, accessibility upgrades and an upgraded station building. The Request for Proposals was released on December 14. Bids are expected this spring, after which construction will begin in summer.

Really curious what upgraded station building means! Can anyone get access to the detailed RFP?

[Innsertnamehere]

Renovations to Hunter GO perhaps? It’s feeling a bit tired. They just finished some modifications to West Harbour.

[TheHonestMaple]

I'm really hoping they replace the canopies at the Hunter bus terminal. Something modern, new glass, would be very nice.

[mishap]

Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple

Really curious what upgraded station building means! Can anyone get access to the detailed RFP?

I'm curious about West Harbour. Are the building plans just for GO, or do they integrate designs for the HSR hub? If separate facilities, will GO at least design theirs for smooth connections? With so much service planned for the station in the future, it wouldn't hurt to have some commercial operations on-site. It will be interesting to see what they come up with. Certainly a far cry from the early days of "fifty daily boardings."