Metrolinx - MoveOntario 2020

[SteelTown]

Now that this A-Line will become a reality Mohawk College should work to get free public transit like McMaster, well it's not free just covered under tuition cost. More ridership = more transit money, especially gas taxes.

[DC83]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

The city actually changed the name from Bee Line to B-Line recently, suppose to be a stepping stone to BRT.

Did they???
I like 'Eh-Line'! hahaha

[chris k]

Since the 35 becomes the 27, does that mean the articulated buses will be travelling the college route aswell? Or will they be making a whole new A-line?

[Da Warrior]

Originally Posted by hamiltonguy

No it doesn't. The 27 continues to the Mountain Transit Centre.

The 35 loops East from West 5th along stone church to upper james
and then south to Rymal then west to Garth terminating at St. Elizabeths. Then North along Garth to Limeridge and then East on Limeridge to West 5th again.

Right but heading Northbound(Downtown) the 35-College switches into the 27-Up.James and 27-Up.James switches into the 35-College when they reach Gore park.

[Da Warrior]

Originally Posted by chris k

Since the 35 becomes the 27, does that mean the articulated buses will be travelling the college route aswell? Or will they be making a whole new A-line?

Good question. I would think so during the school year Sept-March maybe during Mohawk peak hours, since HSR is improving Mohawk's terminal or until Up.James gets dedicated transit lanes

[DC83]

^^ That would be a great connection from Mohawk's Main Campus to the (rumoured) Music Dep't at Lister.

The 27 isn't currently running up to the aiport? But the article says it is... or will it start once the new buses are in?

[SteelTown]

27 stops at the HSR Mountain building. There used to be an Airport Express bus, but got cut after amalgamation. That's why there's a private shuttle service from the Airport. This will help employees around the Mountain get good public transit.

For the NEW A-Line route there will be a connection to the Airport. I guess now the city better work up the finance for a new transit terminal at the Airport.

[DC83]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

For the NEW A-Line route there will be a connection to the Airport. I guess now the city better work up the finance for a new transit terminal at the Airport.

A new transit terminal at the aiport would be AWESOME.
It would show that the City is commited to better transit connections (aiport to downtown to possible GO/VIA stn).

[hamiltonguy]

Most likely the A-line is going up James Mtn Road to Mohawk then across Fennell to Upper James then down Upper James.

[SteelTown]

Here's a map to show you the route for the A-Line



Basically it's the same route from the downtown to Mohawk College as 35 College but instead of going up West 5th it'll it turn on Fennell after Mohawk College to turn on Upper James and straight up to the Airport.

[SteelTown]

A bit of a wait for six new buses

John Burman
The Hamilton Spectator
(Dec 14, 2007)

Six new articulated buses running on Upper James Street will someday connect Hamilton airport to downtown and GO Transit service.

The province announced yesterday it will provide $5.5 million to pay for the diesel-electric hybrid buses.

But Hamilton has to find the money to operate the route between downtown, the GO Centre, Mohawk College and the airport.

Nevertheless, Mayor Fred Eisenberger welcomes the buses and the recognition public transit matters reflected in Finance Minister Dwight Duncan's commitment of at least $400 million in new transit funding -- including $100 million for the new regional Metrolinx.

It could be as long as a year before the buses run the new route, he said.

That's because details about so-called one-agency procurement -- municipalities all buying their new buses in one lot to save costs -- have to be worked out.

Operating costs for the buses have not been calculated but could be between $100,000 and $150,000 per year per bus.

"It certainly expands our capability to utilize our airport more fully," Eisenberger, a member of Metrolinx board of directors, said last night.

"It would be a direct line, in the transportation sense, that connects all of the city of Hamilton to the airport by bus and would also connect that to the GO service."

[coalminecanary]

this article screams for a mention of LRT but they passed up the chance. the spec should be talking about LRT in all available blank space on any slow news day

Spending the provinces money on LRT would go a long way toward solving our operating-expense woes.

I can see it now.. we'll grab all of the 2020 money, buy a dumpload of new buses, then the city can't afford to pay any more drivers or buy gas for them so they'll sit unused for all time

[DC83]

^^ This is The Spec we're talking about.
They prolly think LRT is a typo for Long Term Relationship.
"Why do all these ppl keep mentioning relationships and WHAT does it have to do with transit!?" hahaha

[SteelTown]

So I guess the A-Line will start at the downtown area and not from the waterfront, perhaps it'll extend down towards the waterfront if GO Transit builds the platforms near Liuna Station in the future.

So I guess with the limited stops there should be stops at.....downtown, Hunter GO Terminal, St. Joesph's, Mohawk College, stop next to Mountain Plaza, Mohawk and Upper James, the Linc, Stone Church, Rymal, HSR building, Mount Hope and then the Airport.

[SteelTown]

Ontario cuts transit red tape
TheStar.com

Environmental reviews of proposed projects limited to six months
February 08, 2008
Kerry Gillespie
Tess Kalinowski
Staff Reporters

People who don't want new streetcars or subways running through their neighbourhoods will no longer be able to use prolonged environmental assessments to delay them.

Because the process was often used as a stalling tactic by not-in-my-backyard opponents, Premier Dalton McGuinty's cabinet has approved a six-month time limit for environmental assessments on transit projects.

The new regulation, approved on Wednesday, is expected to become law by June. It will apply to all projects receiving provincial funding, sources told the Toronto Star.

"I think it's going to make a real difference in terms of our ability to get public transit up," McGuinty said yesterday.

Under existing rules, environmental assessments on transit projects take, on average, two years. The TTC's Spadina subway extension assessment took three years and it was just an update of a previous assessment. Waterloo started a rapid transit assessment in 2004 that isn't expected to be completed until this fall.

The dedicated lane for Toronto's St. Clair streetcar, for example, was held up for months at the assessment stage with fights over curb heights, which had nothing to do with the environment. In the end it took two years to get through the assessment.

Under existing rules, if someone objects to a streetcar, the transit authority has to come back with a study showing the implications of a bus, train, or even a hot-air balloon servicing the corridor instead.

"If someone wanted to talk about a new idea using cable cars or catapults you would have to evaluate them," TTC chair Adam Giambrone said.

This new regulation ends those fights by limiting the scope of discussion to environmental concerns about the approved project and, for the first time, limiting public consultation to 85 days. Right now, it can go on forever.

It also limits the government's ability to delay. Once the assessment is complete, the environment minister has to decide within 35 days whether or not the project can go forward.

The six-month limit on environmental assessments applies just to transit projects, but sources said the government will consider whether a similar approach could shorten the process for projects such as highways and landfills.

It began with transit projects to ensure the province's ambitious $11.5 billion transit plan, Move Ontario 2020 – designed to get people out of cars and on to transit – doesn't get held up in red tape.

As one provincial official put it: "An environmental assessment process being used to hold up projects that are good for the environment is kind of ironic."

As part of Move Ontario, Toronto-area transportation planners face the challenge of building 52 transit projects approved by the province. Those include extensions of the Spadina and Yonge subway lines, more GO service, enhanced regional bus service and Toronto's ambitious Transit City light rail plan.

Getting those shovels in the ground would help the Toronto area catch up with cities that have spent the past two decades investing in public transit, says Rob MacIsaac, chair of regional transportation planning agency Metrolinx.

"When people look at what a place like Madrid has accomplished in 10 years, well the (environmental assessment) process is one of the things that slows us down," he said.

Madrid, which requires significantly less public consultation for transit, has built about 150 kilometres of subway in the past 12 years at a lower cost per kilometre than Toronto's Sheppard line.

It isn't about taking away people's right to object to a project, MacIsaac said.

"There are lots of public processes that allow people to have their say and make sure their concerns are heard. When a city does its official plan, when a city does its master transportation plan, those are the times that people need to get involved. There are plenty of ways in which they can do that. At some point we have to say, `Decisions have to be taken and projects have to move forward.'"

Toronto's $6 billion Transit City plan, which would put streetcar lines on seven major routes stretching into the suburbs, can't afford the delays encountered by the St. Clair streetcar right-of-way, said the TTC's Giambrone, who hopes to have three light rail lines under construction by 2010.

The new regulations are "critical to advancing Transit City and getting the improvements that the people of Toronto expect and need," he said.

The Eglinton subway is a classic example of an opportunity curtailed by the environmental assessment process, he said. The Conservative Mike Harris government wouldn't have been able to kill the Eglinton subway if it had been further along in its development, Giambrone said.

Many believe that a subway would have made more sense than the Sheppard line that was eventually built instead.

The new regulation will be posted for comments before it becomes law. While there will be some who say this stifles public input, the government is expecting the feedback to be largely positive.

"Most people will realize what this is about and they'll be happy about it," a provincial official said.

Environmental assessments for new transit projects will be faster and more focused under rules approved this week and expected to be law by June. Changes include:

An assessment must be complete in six months. Now there is no limit; a transit project review takes, on average, two years.

Public consultation is limited to 85 days. There is now no limit.

The minister of the environment has 35 days to review and rule on a project. There is no concrete time frame at present.

The scope is limited to environmental concerns. Right now, everything that was argued over during the municipal planning process, including how wide a dedicated bus lane should be or whether a streetcar project is even needed, is rehashed at the environmental assessment.

[DC83]

Interesting... but I can't see anyone in Hamilton wanting a prolonged report for Light Rail running down Main Street... but who knows in this city!
This is definately a positive for Rapid Trasnit... I hope it doesn't get approved for Highways :s

[raisethehammer]

yea, it wouldn't make sense to apply this to highways. In today's Star one of the folks involved in this proposed change made a good point - transit helps the environment. As long as they allow for real public input. Otherwise you'd have cities like Hamilton come up with a half-baked plan and only need to sit back and pretend to get input for 6 months before going ahead with their plan.
The fact is, "activists" or involved citizens usually end up making projects better. I'd hate to see public involvement muzzled.
But yes, getting rid of these ridiculous delays for years and years is a good move. Especially for something like transit. Highways obviously damage the environment so I can't see them applying this to their construction.
If they do, you can spell the end of Hamilton as we know it. City hall would go crazy building highways all over the place.

[Goldfinger]

Originally Posted by raisethehammer

The fact is, "activists" or involved citizens usually end up making projects better. I'd hate to see public involvement muzzled.
City hall would go crazy building highways all over the place.

That's not fact, that's your personal opinion. Where is the evidence to back this claim up?

I can see activists are doing wonders for the Lister project.

[raisethehammer]

Originally Posted by Goldfinger

That's not fact, that's your personal opinion. Where is the evidence to back this claim up?

I can see activists are doing wonders for the Lister project.

You're right.
In fact you can thank involved citizens for us even having Lister still. If not for their intervention it would have been demo'd and we'd have yet another surface lot downtown. If you don't mind paying your hard-earned money to backroom mobsters corrupting city hall be my guest. Thankfully, many citizens and a few politicians in this city don't, and so far have earned us $7 million from the province and are currently working on a plan to save a piece of history.

Red Hill - love it or hate it, it's much better now than the original proposal thanks to the people who fought long and hard to see the environment and nature given some consideration instead of the old bulldoze and pave plan the city had originally.

Involved citizens in my own neighbourhood have helped developed wonderful plans for Victoria Park, the Strathcona Secondary Plan (this has also happened in many other Hamilton neighbourhoods) and now Transportation Plan.

Involved citizens are currently working hard to bring LRT to Hamilton instead of sitting back and allowing the city to throw away provincial transit money on BRT.

Involved citizens are currently fighting to keep the Board of Ed downtown instead of fleeing for a box in the burbs.

Involved citizens helped kill plans for the Dundas Valley Expressway and North End Perimeter Expressway near the Bayfront.

Involved citizens have had major input on the West Harbour planning area and so far the results have been good with more great plans to come.

Go over to the Downtown section and check out the update on the Terraces on King. Involved citizens helped kill a proposal for that site for another homeless shelter and pushed hard to see this apartment building built instead.

Involved citizens have played a key role in the conversion of James and John to two way and we've seen more new business open on those streets in the past 2 years than the previous decade or more.

Involved citizens built us Hamilton Place, restored Dundurn Castle and brought McMaster University here from Toronto.

The Pigott building continues to stand downtown thanks to the intervention of involved citizens.

I could go on all night, but I don't want to crash the board.
The last thing I'll EVER do is sit back on my hands and expect government to run my life and do everything for me. Sure, that's just my opinion but I'd much rather attend meetings, offer input and help bring change to my city and community instead of sitting around on my duff complaining about the government like too many people do. Some people call it participatory democracy. I call it democracy. It's sad that we've had to add the word 'participatory' to that. Democracy isn't about voting every 4 years. It's about ensuring that proper decision are being made in my city. The Spec can call it 'wacko activism' all they want. The fact is, Hamilton is an insanely better place thanks to hard working, involved citizens.

[matt602]

Goldfinger, honestly man give it a rest. Lister Block doesn't even have ANYTHING to do with the topic here. I understand you seem to have some kind of vendetta out for most of the members on here, but leave it in threads that it's actually applicable to. You had NOTHING at all to contribute to this thread, you just came in here to try and pick a fight with RTH.

I resolved to not reply but since RTH took a bite, I figured I'd have a go. I won't go any further with it though.