Quote:
Originally Posted by drpgq
Still no confirmed start date? Hopefully they continue right after the Pan Am games.
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Definitely -- They are constructing JamesNorth GO for eventual (not right away, but eventual) all-day GO service to Hamilton, so this will eventually be our "surface subway" station to Toronto.
The Aldershot station (next station down the line) is only 3-5 minutes down the rail, and already gets all-day bidirectional (incoming and outgoing) service. For JamesNorth GO, there is a Phase II of construction that will proceed to year 2017 to expand the station. The two extra trains are specifically for PanAm, above-and-beyond regular daily GO service they are bringing to the station. Some construction stuff may be late won't make PanAm but will definitely get built anyway. If there is a boondoggle, the worst thing is they'll build a temporary platform for PanAm, and open full commuter service later than expected after PanAm, but as a Hamiltonian myself dependant on Toronto job, I definitely would hope they get things complete enough before then -- I'd like to stop driving to Aldershot! They already announced Phase 1 for PanAm and Phase 2 for 2017, and they seem to be already building some of the Phase 2 stuff concurrently with the Phase 1, so some of the pictures you see might not be stuff complete for PanAm 2015.
It's designated as a hub station for James, with apparently many renewal opportunities for Hamilton.
The City of Hamilton has big long-term plans with it:
http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/...tyHubStudy.pdf
"The James Street North station area has been identified by Metrolinx as one of 51 Mobility Hubs within the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA)..."
Stuff that may not happen till late this decade or early next, but as you can see -- this isn't a PanAm flash-in-pan.
There's going to be construction onsite till 2017. The pretty artist concept probably isn't going to occur in 2015, they'll be late for that. PanAm was just an excuse to start building this project...