During its public session on Friday, February 19, the Metrolinx board of directors will consider a report offering a high-level analysis of an east-west rapid transit line in Hamilton.
The report considers various options for a line along Queenston Road, Main Street East, King Streets East and West, Paradise Road and Main Street West between Eastgate Square and McMaster University.
The report concludes that rapid transit would, not surprisingly, benefit Hamilton. (You can read the report here. (.pdf))
The Metrolinx consultants studied three options for the line:
- bus rapid transit;
- light rail transit for the entire line;
- “phased” light rail transit, meaning that, west of Ottawa Street, the line would be light rail, while east of Ottawa, the line would first be bus rapid transit and then convert to light rail transit by 2030.
The City must convert King and Main Streets to two-streets before it can build and operate a rapid transit line along the streets.
Stations would stand at Eastgate, Nash Road, Parkdale, Strathearne and Kenilworth Avenues, Ottawa Street, Gage and Sherman Avenues, Wentworth Street, Victoria Avenue / Wellington Street, Gore Park, Bay, Queen and Dundurn Street, “Westdale” (probably on King Street West at Macklin Street or Paradise Road), Longwood Road and McMaster.
Although the report’s authors make no recommendations, they do advise that light rail transit would benefit Hamilton the most, although it would also be the most expensive to build. The report also suggests that, whichever option Metrolinx decides to support, service would start in 2015.
A light rail transit line would cost $850 million instead of $313 million for bus rapid transit.
Several commentators have pointed out that this report does not recommend that Metrolinx fund any of the rapid transit options for Hamilton.
Read Steve Munro’s comments here.
The website, Hamilton Light Rail, has posted an article by Nicholas Kevlachan (the article originally appeared in Raise the Hammer), expressing disappointment that Metrolinx has failed to commit financially to the project.
On his website, Hamilton Transit History, Tom Luton reports that, meanwhile, the “City of Hamilton is moving on with a call for tenders for a massive study of potential impacts from rapid transit in Hamilton. The study will look at such things like the impacts on property owners, potential economic uplift, station locations and traffic impact between Barton and the Escarpment, from Eastgate Mall to University Plaza. The tendering for the report will close February 8, and the report is expected by March 2011.”
Rapid transit in Hamilton was one of 52 southern Ontario transportation projects that Premier Dalton McGuinty announced in June 2007 as part of his MoveOntario 2020 plan.
An east-west rapid transit line through lower Hamilton was one of 15 priority projects that Metrolinx identified in September 2008, when it launched, The Big Move, its regional transportation plan.
You can find out more about rapid transit in Hamilton here.
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