Rapid Transit

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Doady

It's sad how much public transit in Hamilton has been neglected since the 90s. In the past 10 years, the per capita transit ridership of Hamilton has fallen even behind Mississauga and Brampton Transit. That's just ridiculous and LRT won't reverse this decline. London, Winnipeg and Quebec City don't need LRT either. I hope for LRT in Hamilton but LRT is just such a small part of building successful transit and building healthy and vibrant downtowns. The transit system of Hamilton should be 30% bigger than it is now and the province and the lack of LRT are really not the main reasons for that. If Hamilton had transit ridership on par with London (60 riders per capita instead of 45), the case for LRT would have been even harder to ignore, and the LRT probably would have already been built by now.

You want LRT? Then start investing in buses. Start laying the foundation for LRT. No LRT can exist in isolation. Plenty of US systems build LRT and then neglect buses, LRT expansion motivated by anti-bus attitudes, and so transit ridership decline down there continues. No matter what Hamilton eventually builds, LRT or BRT or nothing, the City of Hamilton needs to invest in major expansion of its bus services.

About 30 years ago there were massive cuts to the local transit system, due (I believe) because of provincial funding cuts. The HSR was drastically reduced in fleet size and routes/scheduling. Ridership subsequently shrank in a big way as well. I often wonder where things would be today if those cuts had not happened.

Investment in transit is every local politician's favourite "need", but when it comes time to step up and vote for that investment many of them find a reason to put things off. Hence a 10-year plan that was approved several years ago, which is now 2 or 3 years delayed. Yet the road expansions seem to pass without a sweat. They're needed too in many cases, but the difference in attitudes toward what are complementary forms of transportation is laughably large.

In the early 1980s Hamilton city council also passed on a "skytrain" type system the province was willing to build (fully-funded) to demonstrate its investment in technology. Neighbourhood opposition was fierce, but the city council of the day was probably even more reticent about such projects than the current one is. Had the initial line been built, I have no doubt it would have been expanded across more parts of the city. Instead we saw Vancouver embrace the technology and improve its own transit system, which continues to be expanded as the decades pass.

It's frustrating.

[LikeHamilton]

Metrolinx plans to demolish 21 buildings in LRT ‘ghost town’ prompting ire from housing advocates

By Matthew Van Dongen Spectator Reporter Fri., Sept. 11, 2020

Sharon Miller’s rented home will soon be one of the only buildings left standing in the “LRT ghost town” of vacant, boarded-up houses on her King Street East block.

Provincial transit agency Metrolinx has decided to demolish at least 21 of the buildings it bought for Hamilton’s now-cancelled light rail transit line — despite community calls to resurrect the empty homes for affordable housing.

If the mass demolition goes ahead, Miller’s two-storey brick home near the CP rail spur will become a lonely monument to “waste and stupidity,” said the irate 65-year-old, who watched her neighbours relocate over two years for a contentious LRT project that was axed after the block emptied.

“So they kicked all these people out for no reason ... And we literally have people living in tent cities. Why wouldn’t you let people live in these buildings?” she asked Friday. “It’s just horrible. What a waste.”

Metrolinx had already spent $80 million buying 60 homes and businesses along the King-Main corridor — forcing dozens of tenants to relocate along the way — when the Progressive Conservative government abruptly killed a planned light rail line last December citing a ballooning budget.


Miller cheered the announcement, hoping it would allow her to remain in her affordable rental home of 20 years — and ideally, for neighbours to return and fill the “ghost town” of empty buildings.


She joined tenant advocates in January who demanded the empty buildings be turned over to the city for affordable housing, arguing more than 100 rental units were needlessly boarded up in the middle of a housing crisis.

Since then, a provincial task force has recommended revisiting LRT or bus rapid transit in the corridor — but no decisions have been made.

Regardless, Metrolinx has decided to knock down vacant buildings judged to be safety risks due to trespassing and fire, said spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins. The decision was not related to any planned transit project.

Many of the targeted buildings are homes along a stretch of King between The Delta neighbourhood and Gage Avenue. Others are commercial buildings, including the well-known former Martin’s Bowling Alley.

Aikins said she was “not aware” of any discussions about repurposing the buildings for affordable housing, adding many have unheated for more than a year. “Demolition is necessary due to the precarious state of the buildings and anticipated cost of making these suitable for tenancy,” she said.

Aikins also noted the properties were purchased with provincial cash and cannot be “turned over” to another owner, even the city, without going through a provincial surplus land process.

The Ministry of Transportation did not address the question of whether the province considered repurposing the buildings for housing, but reiterated the targeted buildings “pose several hazards” to the public.

Ward 3 Coun. Nrinder Nann said she would have preferred Metrolinx to “reach out to the city” about potential building uses — particularly given the need for pandemic housing.

But she added she has asked for a meeting with the agency in case any other Metrolinx-owned buildings might be made available for temporary housing or as shelters, perhaps with help from COVID emergency funding. “I’d like to find out if it is a pipe dream or a possibility,” she said.

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Miller is not looking forward to living in a “demolition zone,” but is more worried about whether she can stay in the one-bedroom unit that sees her pay $550 a month. So far, she has “heard nothing” from her provincial landlord.

So far, tenants like Miller who remain in Metrolinx-owned homes have not been told to leave, said Aikins, who added the agency understands the “extraordinarily difficult” circumstances tenants face during COVID.

But Aikins added the transit agency is “not renewing” some building leases and tenants in at least two more buildings are expected to move out in the near future, allowing further demolition. “We are not a housing agency,” she said. “The plan from the beginning was for all of the buildings to come down.”

Internal Metrolinx documents showed the agency was worried about “public safety issues” even before the LRT was cancelled. (Both Miller and former Martin’s Bowling owner Jim Pappas have reported area break-in attempts.)

Experts also warned empty, unheated buildings can become mould traps or succumb to animal and weather damage.

But Shawn Selway, an organizer with an LRT corridor tenant rights group, argued Metrolinx has an obligation to maintain the vacant buildings in “repairable condition” until a final decision is reached on LRT. “What they are doing is demolition by neglect,” he said.

Metrolinx has hired Budget Demolition to knock down the buildings once permits are acquired, likely in October through early 2021. So far, no applications have been submitted to the city.

Matthew Van Dongen is a Hamilton-based reporter covering transportation for The Spectator. Reach him via email: mvandongen@thespec.com

https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilto...host-town.html

[SteelTown]

Province wants to help Hamilton get LRT off the ground, mayor says
Provincial and federal governments say they're talking LRT, but still need full proposals

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamil...DtWTPRsBG1Xcs0

Hamilton's mayor says the province wants to make light-rail transit (LRT) happen with a mix of provincial, federal and private-sector money, and he expects the province will say more "in the coming weeks."

The feds and the province, meanwhile, are in talks, but both say they still need more details before committing.

Fred Eisenberger said during his annual state-of-the-city question-and-answer session Wednesday that the province hopes to get the project going under a different funding model. This would include money from Ottawa and the private sector.

"I'm more hopeful today than I have been in the last couple of years," Eisenberger said of the project's future.

In a statement Thursday, the Ministry of Transportation says it's looking at several projects, including LRT, bus rapid transit (BRT) and more GO service. Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario is doing a technical review of these options right now, the ministry says.

As for Ottawa's involvement, "while the federal government has expressed an interest in an LRT project for Hamilton, the province has not received a firm funding commitment or funding proposal towards this. Moving forward, we will explore all options to leverage our $1 billion in funding with any potential funding partners, including the federal government, in an effort to get transit built for the people of Hamilton."

Announcement soon?

Meanwhile, federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine McKenna, a Hamilton native, says she's been in regular contact with Ontario Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney about LRT, as well as Hamilton businesses. But she wants more information.

"I look forward to receiving a full proposal for this project so that we can finally move things forward," she said.

"Having grown up in Hamilton, I understand how important good public transit is to the city in terms of creating jobs, attracting businesses and helping people get around in faster, cleaner and more affordable ways."

McKenna has long said she's open to putting federal money into Hamilton LRT, but that the province hadn't asked for help. The comments show that — informally at least — the two are in talks to work on the project together.

Eisenberger said during Wednesday's Cable 14 session that "I'm anticipating some sort of an announcement from the provincial government soon."

How we got here

The current LRT project design would see the train run alternately down King and Main streets from McMaster University to Eastgate Square. The project has been in the works since 2007.

In 2015, then-Premier Kathleen Wynne announced $1 billion for the capital cost alone of building LRT. Her Liberal government was voted out, and Mulroney cancelled the project last December, saying it would cost too much.

There are mixed reports on how much more it would cost. Last December, Mulroney said operating, maintenance, life cycle and capital costs were around $5.5 billion. A heavily redacted version of a Turner and Townsend report, provided to the government and obtained by CBC News, only shows $2.32 billion in capital costs and $818.8 million in operating, maintenance and life cycle costs.

This summer, the Laborers' International Union of North America (LiUNA) released its own analysis showing the project would cost $3.4 billion to $3.6 billion.

That review also proposes the project get subsidies of $1.2 billion from each the provincial government and federal government, and be finished with private sector investment.

Mulroney also struck a task force, which recommended the province's $1 billion be used on LRT or BRT.

[TheRitsman]

I vote Hamilton LRT as the most annoying infrastructure project in the world.

[ChildishGavino]

Originally Posted by TheRitsman

I vote Hamilton LRT as the most annoying infrastructure project in the world.

and they haven't even ripped up the street yet!

[SteelTown]

Who needs rapid transit? Metrolinx studying new BRT link — between Toronto and Waterdown

Matthew Van Dongen
https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilto...waterdown.html

Months after Hamilton’s infamous LRT derailment, Metrolinx is eyeing another major rapid transit link to the city.

No, not light rail in the lower city — bus rapid transit along Dundas Street into Waterdown.

Don’t feel badly if you’ve forgotten the Dundas Street BRT. The 40-kilometre rapid bus service was part of the first wave of provincial Big Move projects unveiled more than a decade ago that also prioritized Hamilton’s now-cancelled LRT.

Back then, a benefits case study for Dundas Street only looked at rapid transit from the Kipling subway station in Toronto to Brant Street in Burlington.

But a decade later, Metrolinx has dusted off the $500-million proposal and is again planning BRT on the old Highway 5 corridor — this time, with a link to the village of Waterdown.

An “ecstatic” Coun. Judi Partridge said a rapid transit link to Toronto would be welcomed in her fast-growing suburban community, which is expected to nearly double in population to 39,000 residents by 2031.

The proposed transit line is supposed to stop around Centre Road — but Partridge is lobbying to bring buses all the way to growing business parks near Highway 6. “I’m hoping there is room to tweak the plan,” she said.

She said the project could also help kick-start other BRT routes “across the city,” which the LRT opponent argued is preferable to the city’s recently axed plan for a “hugely expensive” light rail line.

That cancelled LRT on the Main-King corridor could still be resurrected — or reborn as a BRT route — depending on the results of a provincial review expected this fall.

But could Waterdown now see rapid transit before Hamilton’s lower city?

Probably not — although it’s tough to say officially, since Metrolinx declined an interview request Friday and refused to share any details from its “initial business case,” including prospective timelines or updated costs.

But Metrolinx did share a draft copy with Hamilton — a summary of which ended up in a memo to councillors.

The upshot: BRT could happen fast along the portion of Dundas Street through congested Mississauga, where that city has applied for provincial-federal project money and volunteered to help fund fast-tracked planning.

But if Waterdown is linked to the proposed BRT route, “it would probably be more of a mixed-traffic type of situation,” said Steve Molloy, a Hamilton manager of transportation planning.

True BRT usually means dedicated, separated bus lanes served by raised platforms. But Metrolinx sometimes calls express buses in mixed-traffic “BRT-lite.”

Molloy noted Dundas Street entering Waterdown is narrow and flanked by downtown heritage buildings that would make widening for dedicated BRT lanes unrealistic.

He said the draft study also found travel demand in the corridor by 2041 would be far greater in Toronto and Mississauga, where 66 per cent of trips are expected to originate. Only five per cent of trips would start in Hamilton.

That means the early preference is for bus rapid transit from Toronto through Mississauga, with high occupancy (HOV) lanes that could eventually morph into BRT in Oakville and Burlington.

Still, Molloy said the Dundas Street transit project would be valuable to Hamilton and aid ongoing efforts to connect Waterdown to the GO commuter network. “There is definitely demand on the Dundas corridor.”

The city will bring up the Metrolinx plan in a virtual meeting on Waterdown’s transportation future Oct. 21 at 5:30 p.m.

[SteelTown]

Metrolinx to begin demolition on buildings bought for Hamilton’s now-cancelled LRT in November

Teviah Moro
https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilto...-november.html

Metrolinx plans to demolish 21 vacant buildings next month it bought for Hamilton’s LRT before the province abruptly cancelled the project in December.

But Mayor Fred Eisenberger remains hopeful the flattened buildings will still serve to widen King Street East for a rail line despite its flatlined status.

“I am filled with optimism that we are still moving forward with LRT,” Eisenberger said Thursday, citing recent expressions of support from Premier Doug Ford.

In the meantime, Metrolinx, the project’s provincial lead, has deemed buildings along the line’s would-be route unsafe due to subpar conditions, fire hazards and break-ins.

The agency also found the cost of renovating the buildings to make them inhabitable was “prohibitive,” spokesperson Matt Llewellyn said.

“It was determined in the case of these 21 properties, that the best course of action would be to in fact take them down.”

Metrolinx plans to raze the boarded-up properties next month. A contract for two more buildings is scheduled for demolition next year.

But 37 properties the agency purchased for the cancelled project won’t be demolished.

Some of them are occupied, Llewellyn noted. “As long as those tenants are in good standing, they’ll continue to pay rent and we’ll continue to be a landlord.”

Others will re-enter the market and be available for businesses or non-profit agencies on short-term leases, he added.

Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government cancelled Hamilton’s LRT in December after spending $80 million on 60 properties and moving dozens of residents elsewhere.

At the time, Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney said the province had axed the project based on budget estimates that had escalated to $5.5 billion from $3.6 billion.

Initially, the McMaster-to-Eastgate Square line hinged on a $1-billion capital commitment from the previous Liberal government. Project supporters rejected Mulroney’s figures.

Since then, the plan to demolish homes has riled tenant advocates, such as Mike Wood, who’d pushed since January to use the vacant buildings to help alleviate the city’s homelessness crisis. Wood questioned whether properties on November’s demo list couldn’t be refurbished and turned into affordable housing.

“I’ve seen places that have been in much worse condition and still people buy the property up and renovate them,” he said.

Eisenberger said a consolidation of properties to build denser housing was always a main goal of LRT. “So it opens the door to renewed housing in any event, whether LRT comes sooner rather than later.”

The mayor said his optimism draws fuel from Ford’s recent public and private remarks on the project.

Asked for comment Thursday, a spokesperson for the premier’s office referred to what Ford said during a visit to Hamilton in September.

Ford said he and Eisenberger had “agreed that we’re going to work together,” expressing enthusiasm in the potential role Laborers’ International Union of North America could play in a private-public partnership.

LIUNA has proposed to build the LRT line for $3.5 billion using a combination of government and private dollars.

Eisenberger said the federal government has indicated support but awaits direction from Mulroney, who’s reviewing a task force’s recommendation to spend $1 billion on “higher-order” transit.

For him, that should be LRT, but others on council argue bus rapid transit makes most sense.

[ChildishGavino]

Finally! Those buildings are decrepit and depressing. I dislike hearing the counterargument for this because they could just... build larger buildings with the altered street. Ones without asbestos in the walls and lead in the pipes

Originally Posted by SteelTown

[B]Eisenberger said the federal government has indicated support but awaits direction from Mulroney, who’s reviewing a task force’s recommendation to spend $1 billion on “higher-order” transit.

The Minister is going to ruin things again, isn't she...

Fucking furious.

[ZTrade]

Originally Posted by ChildishGavino

Finally! Those buildings are decrepit and depressing. I dislike hearing the counterargument for this because they could just... build larger buildings with the altered street. Ones without asbestos in the walls and lead in the pipes



The Minister is going to ruin things again, isn't she...

Fucking furious.

Tell me about it. Every other Facebook comment is "build affordable housing reeeeeeeeee". You know what a better plan would be? Let Metrolinx move ahead, build the LRT and increase density along the corridor. That way, there is more supply an they could even mandate developers include affordable housing.

The opponents of this are either stupid (can't think ahead) or uninformed and too lazy to actually learn about the project.

[ChildishGavino]

Exactly!! There's a smear ad I remember seeing that shows the apartment block near Victoria which says essentially "this could be affordable housing but nooo we gotta build da streetcar." Imagine 3/5 floor apartments like that all along King Street... the dream

[bvbborussia]

Forgive me but is anyone else worried about the demolition of these buildings in the absence of a firm plan for LRT? I don't see the rush to level these buildings without a firm plan to move forward with LRT.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a supporter of the project but I fear we could be stuck with alot of vacant lots if the province or indeed the city decide LRT is not on the cards.

[ChildishGavino]

As infirm as they might be I have a mix of confidence and hope that this project will happen. It’s been in the works for the better part of 15 years and by the sounds of things, the reworked plan will go ahead with cooperation from the 3 layers of government just as soon as the ministry gives the go-ahead.

Though, therein lies the problem.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by bvbborussia

Forgive me but is anyone else worried about the demolition of these buildings in the absence of a firm plan for LRT? I don't see the rush to level these buildings without a firm plan to move forward with LRT.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a supporter of the project but I fear we could be stuck with alot of vacant lots if the province or indeed the city decide LRT is not on the cards.

I take your point, but given the state that these buildings are in, it won't be long before they end up looking horrid. They already do, boarded up as they are. The risk of bad things happening to them must be growing as well (e.g., fire)

If LRT is not built, the properties would likely be sold for development at some point. Though that would mean the current LRT design plan can't just be dusted off and used if a future government were to want to implement it.

[SantaClo]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamil...nsit-1.5799640

[ScreamingViking]

The drama continues. Hopefully they're sincere but I feel like Dougie is only playing "good cop" for the press.

[ChildishGavino]

This is a g o n y

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Just end it. Either way. I don't care anymore...

[ChildishGavino]

I still care, quite a bit actually. All this is doing is making me disdain the men in government that make this happen

[Innsertnamehere]

Yup. It’s looking good as all levels are expressing willingness to move forward, i just want them to make it official already. And talk about a big time delay.

[SteelTown]

Let's say they do agree on a funding formula it would still be months away from LRT construction. We would have to re-open the Rapid Transit office that closed in December, hire staff or maybe re-hire some back and re-submit another RFP.