Rapid Transit

[markbarbera]

I like the idea of an LRT runing along Centennial to Elfrida, but this should be a backwards c-shape. The northern end of Centennial should then head west along Burlington Street to service the industrial area, then link up with the A-Line at James North and Burlington Street. At the south end, it should head west along Rymal to link up with the Upper James strech of the A-Line.

[omro]

more lines huh? Cool, the more the merrier. Would have been nice for another downtown though

[raisethehammer]

I agree with Mark's proposal for a C-shaped line. That stuff is all many years away and can be detailed out closer to the time.
The B Line is priority right now.

[LikeHamilton]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Light rail transit adds new proposed routes

This is what I had said in my comment to the city back in July when they where looking for input on LRT in Hamilton.

A Vision of Future Rapid Transit in Hamilton.
At the time the city commits to LRT and the two routes, they should also publish a vision for rapid transit in Hamilton. They should be specific enough that the public, Metrolinx and the federal government would know that we are serious about rapid transit. The timing should be broad but flexible so that if there was talk about more or future funding, we are ready to define extra routes. The vision for the route should be lettered so people can relate and campaign for rapid transit in their area. These routes should be the routes that BRT buses are moved to so they can prove the routes and build rider ship in preparation of LRT. Please take any and all of these ideas.

Suggested routes:

C Line – From the “Ancaster Fair Grounds” (Free parking station) down Hwy 403 to the “Ancaster Power Centre”, along the “Link” to the “Stoney Creek Power Centre” to Hwy 56/Centennial Parkway (Free parking station) and connecting to the D Line, G Line and A Line.

D Line – Hwy 56/Centennial Parkway route. South of Binbrook (Free parking station) to the new power centre @ QEW (and new GO bus and train station) connecting with east – west routes.

E Line – Ancaster/Wilson Street Line Starting at the new fair grounds (Free parking station) along Wilson Street down Hwy 2 hill connecting to the A Line route to McMaster and downtown.

F Line – Ancaster/Mountain/Stoney Creek Mountain. From the Meadowlands Power Centre along Mohawk across the Red Hill Parkway (bridge) along Mud Street connecting to The A Line and the D Line.

G Line – A second north/south route at the east end of the city. Possibly starting south of Rymal down Upper Ottawa, down the Kenilworth access and down Kenilworth or along Lawrence Road and down Ottawa Street to the Centre Mall. Connecting to the B Line, C Line, F Line, K Line and R Line

K Line – Stoney Creek to McMaster. Starting Hwy 8 and King Street along King Street to McMaster. Built to take some of the load off of the successful B Line.

H & W Line – From somewhere north of Waterdown (Free parking station) down Hwy 6 to Plains Road/York Blvd. Here one line would go to the Burlington Go Station (W Line) and the other to downtown Hamilton (GO Centre?) connecting to the A Line, B Line and other bus lines downtown.

L Line – Barton Street from the east end of Stoney Creek to downtown Hamilton.

R Line – Rymal/Garner Road. From Wilson Street and the E line to Centennial and the D line connecting to all of the north/south bus lines and the A line and G Line.

Future expansion of the A Line to the Hamilton Caledonia line or even into Caledonia. (Free parking station)

Future expansion of the B line to 50 Road in the east (Free parking station) and into downtown Dundas and the bottom of the Hwy 8 hill (Free parking station).

The expansion of the lines to rural areas should garner more money from the province, as we would be providing GO Transit type service.

[omro]

Originally Posted by MsMe

That can be a catch 22 issue. With the LTR raising the prices of houses, that will also raise the property taxes as well. Like we don't pay enough of that already uggg.

I doubt the two will happen in sync though and those that want to make money from property and/or cash out and live somewhere else probably will be able to. Someone always makes a profit

[omro]

Is there a map that shows these two new potential lines and the A and B lines?

[raisethehammer]

if someone doesn't want to pay higher taxes, they can buy a house at Burlington Street and Woodward and enjoy the good life with low taxes.

[SteelTown]

Yay I got a Rapid Transit Newsletter today. I'll keep you posted on it.

It has a map of B-Line, A-Line, T-Line and S-Line route map.

[SteelTown]

[Blurr]

What is with all those anti downtown routes. They need an east west line north of main/king.

[raisethehammer]

The rymal one would obviously be BRT. I could see another LRT or streetcar on Barton eventually too. the Mohawk line looks good - Centre Mall to Meadowlands.

[markbarbera]

I like the new routes as shown on the map. However, I still would like to see S line continue north on Centennial to Burlington Street, then west on Burlington to James to connect to northern terminus of A-line. Alternatively, T-line could extend north from Centre Mall to Burlington Street, then west to James and the A-line.

I was wondering about the future of the GO trains in Hamilton. I was thinking, with the elctrified 'Super-GO' serving the former CN station on James North, the morning rush trains departing from the Hamilton GO Centre could actually be scheduled to originate further east of the station, say at Smithville thereby adding commuter service from Lincoln township.

[SteelTown]

Isn't the T Line route almost basically the bus route for Mohawk?

[raisethehammer]

Sounds like it, yes.
I got that newsletter too...pretty cool stuff.
It's amazing how good of a job the city has done on this in such a short time.

[SteelTown]

Yale Properties supports light rail transit......

http://www.myhamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyre...t15Item511.pdf

[Millstone]

it's good to see everybody on board with LRT. is there an updated map of proposed lower city routes? is there something going up jamesville way?

[raisethehammer]

Originally Posted by Millstone

it's good to see everybody on board with LRT. is there an updated map of proposed lower city routes? is there something going up jamesville way?

yup. the A-Line goes right up James North to the waterfront. Would be amazing for that neighbourhood.

[DC83]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Awesome stuff. I really like the Centennial/Rymal BRT route. It should terminate at the new Lakeland Centre/Van Wagner's Rd Loop area, though. I like the term 'Elfrida Growth Area'... I think they mean 'Sprawlsville'! I was just up there for Thanksgiving yesterday and I couldn't believe my eyes! Stonechurch & Upper Mt Albion looks like f'in 'Sauga! Really sad. AND there's even a fake suburban-style lake up there now!

I like the idea that the 'T-Line' would originate at Centre Mall and terminate at Meadowlands, but I still feel an all-mountain SportsPark to Meadowlands route would easier convert to LRT, attracting those Mountaineers who sneer at buses. Plus Mohawk is wide enough as-is (in most areas) to support two-way LRT. But we'll have to wait and see... this is all VERY VERY preliminary info.

[raisethehammer]

this much I am confident of, if we can get the initial line (B-Line) to be an LRT, it will be such a smashing success that these future lines (other than S perhaps) will be LRT as well. This city won't believe what hit it once the BLine LRT gets rolling.

[adam]

We can call the B-line the "Bee-line" and have a logo with a cartoonish bee smiling at you