Mac Nab Terminal now open
http://www.thespec.com/news/local/ar...minal-now-open
Danielle Wong
January 2, 2011
Hamilton’s downtown underwent a historic change Sunday as the long-awaited MacNab Street bus terminal finally opened.
This moves buses out of the south leg of Gore Park, which was the Hamilton Street Railway’s downtown hub for more than a century.
The new modern terminal on the east side of MacNab between King and Main streets features heated platforms, new bus shelters, a landscaped “green” roof, enhanced access for wheelchairs and bikes and public washrooms.
The terminal is a key step in the city’s vision to turn Gore Park into a Victorian-style pedestrian mall, featuring wider sidewalks, public art, veterans memorials and raised flower beds.
Garry Francis, 57, who has been driving for the HSR for eight years, said the move is a progressive step for the city, as there were too many close calls with passengers running in front of buses.
“It’s going to make Gore Park a public place where people can go and you don’t have the buses down there rumbling through,” Francis said.
But the move also marked a shift in drivers’ historical routes as there aren’t many longtime drivers who don’t have their own stories about Gore Park, he said. “It is in fact a historical moment. It’s changing Hamilton’s footprint. Kids that ride the bus and go down there now, their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents I’m sure caught buses down to that area.”
Francis and a group of other HSR drivers gathered at Gore Park to ride the last bus out of Gore Park at about midnight Sunday.
But not all passengers are fully on board with the change. Adela Berrios, 55, said the move made it inconvenient for riders from the Mountain.
Berrios had to take the bus first from her home to the MacNab hub and walk back to King Street on the north side of Gore Park to catch the 34 bus west to work Sunday afternoon. “I think it’s going to be a little complicated for the people on the Mountain,” she said.
She knew about the move weeks ago because there was signage in the bus shelter. Berrios said other passengers will probably still be confused for the first while.
But Gerry Belford, 69, a retired truck driver who has been taking the HSR for decades, said he was happy about the change. “I don’t like the idea of cars on that street,” he said, pointing to the two-way King Street. “It should be all park.”
Belford added it will be nice to finally have shelter from the rain and a warm place to wait, as commuters tend to huddle under businesses and shops’ canopies along the sidewalk in bad weather.
The co-ordinator of the Hamilton Transit Users Group, Peter Hutton, however, said a Hunter Street terminal would have been a more ideal location, as it would have interfaced with GO buses and would connect more easily for transfers.
The MacNab hub was originally slated to open in August, but was delayed to mid-October and then again to Sunday’s date because of several factors. They included the time it took to install plastic underground tubing to heat the pavement and platforms during the winter, as well as to assign bus operators new schedules and carry out dry runs at the terminal.
Transit routes 21-27, 33 and 35 at Gore Park were moved to the new MacNab terminal.
The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 107 vice-president Eric Tuck said the move was “long overdue.”
Washrooms, in fact, are one of the main benefits for bus operators with the new facility, Tuck said. “We’ve always had to rely on generosity of merchants downtown to use the facilities, so it’ll be nice to have our own facilities.”
Prev
Linear Mode
