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View Poll Results: Which option would you vote in favour?
Option A 2 33.33%
Option B1 2 33.33%
Option B2 1 16.67%
Option B3 1 16.67%
Voters: 6. You may not vote on this poll

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  #81  
Old Posted Jul 25, 2008, 11:53 AM
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matt602 matt602 is offline
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Awesome, lets get building
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  #82  
Old Posted Jul 25, 2008, 1:13 PM
block43 block43 is offline
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Originally Posted by SteelTown View Post
Politicians will vote on the committee's recommendation at their July 10 council meeting.
Wow...council can now time travel. Maybe they'll go back and approve downtown transportation plan while their at it!
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  #83  
Old Posted Jul 25, 2008, 4:16 PM
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It's kind of refreshing to hear someone on council acknowledge the people that moved downtown.
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  #84  
Old Posted Aug 17, 2008, 5:33 PM
thistleclub thistleclub is offline
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An update from Bratina:

"The removal of buses from the Gore Park area is a step closer thanks to a funding announcement by GO Transit. Under the Council-approved plan to create a multi-modal transportation terminal, some HSR buses will be relocated to the Hunter Street GO Centre. New construction will be required to create platform space for HSR buses at the terminal. In a letter to Scott Stewart, the General Manager of Public Works for the City of Hamilton, GO states that it is prepared to fund the total cost of the bus bay capital works required to provide the facilities for HSR. CEO and Managing Director Gary McNeil says GO supports adding transit services to the Hamilton GO Centre, and has committed to making platform space available and pay for the construction costs. The Multi-Modal Terminal Project is expected to take two years to complete, upon final budget approval. In this case however, some of the work could possibly get underway sooner than expected, thanks to GO's commitment to funding.

The Multi-Modal Terminal plan has two components. Some buses currently stopping at Gore Park will be moved to a new exanded terminal on MacNab Street between King and Main Streets. Others will move to Hunter Street to provide better connections to GO train and bus service. Original plans were to create a new terminal facility on the property next to the Piggott Building at a cost estimated at $18 million dollars. The plan subsequently approved is at least $10 million dollars cheaper and will give HSR riders direct access to GO services to Toronto. The costs associated with providing HSR service directly to the GO Centre are not expected to exceed $100,000."
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  #85  
Old Posted Aug 17, 2008, 6:29 PM
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Awesome and un-expected news.
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  #86  
Old Posted Aug 18, 2008, 11:01 AM
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Act now on King Street buses: Bratina

August 18, 2008
Elisabeth Johns

Removing buses from the Gore Park area is in sight thanks to funds from GO Transit, Councillor Bob Bratina says.

He is urging city staff to get the buses off King Street now since GO Transit has put forward $100,000 to accommodate at least five city buses at its Hunter Street location.

"Now is the time to act," Bratina said. "There's money in place."

The downtown councillor is suggesting buses be removed prior to the construction of the new downtown transit terminal, which is expected to be complete by 2010.

Bratina believes buses could be removed sooner than recommended from King Street, where he said they sit idling and blocking the view of the park. He figured they could be off the street by May, following the redevelopment of the GO Transit terminal.

The $100,000 will go toward creating platforms for the city buses at the GO Transit's Hunter Street terminal, Bratina said.

The rest of the city buses will be moved to the expanded terminal on MacNab Street, between King and Main streets.

But there's not enough room on MacNab Street now to move some of the buses and won't be until the terminal is expanded, warned Kathy Drewitt, the executive director of the Downtown Business Improvement Area.

"It needs to be planned out so it's as seamless as possible and less disjointed to (bus passengers) as possible," Drewitt said. "There isn't enough room until the new structure is built."

The whole point of making King Street near Gore Park a pedestrian-only zone is to encourage people to use transit more to visit downtown, she added.

"Without going through all the steps, it's not going to be as successful as Councillor Bratina would like to see it happen," she said.

This project is expected to cost $8 million. City council is also hoping the province will pick up some of the tab.
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  #87  
Old Posted Aug 18, 2008, 11:53 AM
raisethehammer raisethehammer is offline
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Lol....Wow, Bob must be at home laughing it up.
Mrs Caledonia is telling him what's best for downtown. haha.
I'm surprised she didn't add in "10,000 more surface parking spots and a mega-Walmart".
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  #88  
Old Posted Aug 18, 2008, 1:24 PM
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She makes a good point. I wouldn't want them to rush off and move buses off of King St to Hunter when two years later they might relocate the buses again.

They have from now until May to decide what buses will permanently relocate to Hunter. They better make the right decision before rushing this or it could turn people off of HSR.
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  #89  
Old Posted Aug 18, 2008, 1:28 PM
coalminecanary coalminecanary is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mishap View Post
As for GO pitching in on construction costs, I don't know. The city is going to take GO's parking spaces, and wants money to convert them into HSR bus bays. That's like Kato hitting up OJ for money to expand the guest house.
Yeah, but GO wants easy access to and from their terminal - and since they have no parking at Hunter, they are probably very keen to make transit access super easy.

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Originally Posted by raisethehammer View Post
I think Mishap is going to be right....people won't be walking from one to another. I think they'll all pass each terminal during their route.
In my opinion, transfers are not the only downside of a split terminal. The biggest downside to me is for people arriving on another mode - greyhound or GO specifically. They will be dumped at our "station" and then walk out to the local transit terminal and see only 5 bays. And then what - they have to get on a wrong bus and transfer at macnab? But they have to be sure to get on one that's going to macnab and not one that's just come from there. Or they have to walk to macnab. Possibly in the snow. This is a very lame way to treat commuters - and even worse - visitors and tourists.

The other problem is with signage for pedestrians and casual transit users. Right now, it's a mess near gore because if you get off a bus to transfer, you have no clue about where your next bus will be unless you do some serious research - get a route map or walk around gore and macnab til you find it.

A central terminal would solve this - just wait for the terminal and transfer there - you can get all the info you want and all the buses are in one spot.

IMO this split terminal does not solve this problem. You have to be intimately familiar with the system in order to use it efficiently.

And this is a big deal because some people just don't use transit very often - or not at all. But some of those people might need to use it once in a while, and when these people decide to hop on, the experience needs to be smooth, seamless, easy, and preferably enjoyable. If you start introducing frustrations for casual users, they will never be converted to regular users.

Sure split terminals are easy for regular commuters who spend a few days getting used to it and then they work like clockwork. But as far as increasing ridership, this will have minimal effect.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mishap View Post
Anything they build now is - at least in part - a throwaway cost.
This is the saving grace. I mean, we are all hoping for LRT and when we get that, everything will change.

Here is my dream:

1. Take over and revamp city centre as city hall.
2. Sell old city hall to mcmaster (at a loss even).
3. mcmaster moves their downtown "campus" to old city hall and expands their DT operations.
4. mcmaster's old building becomes our "union station" and the parking lots across hughson and john can be part of it.
5. cover hughson from hunter to main, linking GO to "union" for pedestrians
6. all HSR buses use the "union" forecourt and the parking lots for bays.
7. LRT on main stops at forecourt.
8. A-Line uses john (not james) and takes hunter to claremont, stopping at the NE corner of the GO station on the way
9. huge covered secure bike parking behind the GO
10. a gondola from GO, stop at st joes, up to upper james.

sorry, had to throw the gondola in there ;-)

Here's my DREAM MAP:
http://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?hl=en&...07188&t=h&z=17
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  #90  
Old Posted Aug 18, 2008, 1:31 PM
coalminecanary coalminecanary is offline
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Quote:
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They better make the right decision before rushing this or it could turn people off of HSR.
Something tells me that even if the HSR "rushes it", it would take at least til may simply to change those routes. I mean, they would have to do at least a minor study, then redo schedules, reprint all materials, update the website, etc .. i bet it's a 6 month project even WITHOUT infrastructure changes. They are probably already starting this process in preparation for the completion of the GO bays. I think it's dreaming to expect the HSR to do even this kind of MINOR change in less than even 2 or 3 months.

I'd love to see them off the gore NOW but these giant organizations move painfully slowly.
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  #91  
Old Posted Aug 19, 2008, 12:42 PM
Bob Bratina Bob Bratina is offline
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revisionist reportage re routes

The Spectator article does not accurately reflect what I told the reporter. I said that since we have money in place, thanks to GO, we can start almost immediately to do the work required at the GO Centre to accomodate some HSR buses. There's no reason HSR direct connection to the GO service has to wait for the MacNab Street terminal work. We also have pre-approved $3 million dollars for the project which I think should be enough to do the platform work and road configuration for MacNab between King and Main to accomodate the Gore Park buses. That leaves funding requirements to provide a terminal building at MacNab Street that would provide ticketing, washrooms, and perhaps a coffee shop to serve passengers and HSR operators. This could be accomodated on a temporary basis with a modular building, or by leasing nearby space. Removal of the buses could be phased in by starting with the ones parked between John and Hughson. In my media release it clearly states "some of the work could get underway sooner than expected" which is not what the reporter wrote. I'm used to it though. Kevin Werner contradicts himself in his story, found in these blogs. He says I consider the approval of the hybrid terminal proposal "the most important" of my political life. Read down the story for the accurate quote..."this is one of the most important..." and try to figure why a reporter would make such an obvious error. I would say that securing $3 million dollars for the construction of a new community cente for the high-needs Beasley neighbourhood, or helping bring forward the redevelopment of the Education Centre property....potentially a bigger project than Jackson Square, rank above moving the buses. Of course my hybrid terminal idea is at least $10 million dollars cheaper than what the planners had in mind, and provides direct connections to GO service for HSR riders, so it's still pretty important.
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  #92  
Old Posted Aug 19, 2008, 12:48 PM
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Just wanted to say that you are doing a fine job Mr. Bratina. New community centre for Beasley was so needed. Hopefully the geyser idea will come true one day.
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  #93  
Old Posted Aug 19, 2008, 1:31 PM
raisethehammer raisethehammer is offline
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yup...great job Bob.
Keep it up. It's nice to finally have a strong voice downtown (Lord knows we need it with all the big-mouths in the burbs! lol).
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  #94  
Old Posted Aug 19, 2008, 2:09 PM
coalminecanary coalminecanary is offline
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Also bob - congrats on the GO train "parking" rail installation. can't wait to get some photos of that train parked above the th&b pedestrian tunnel!
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  #95  
Old Posted Aug 20, 2008, 2:28 AM
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Quote:
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Also bob - congrats on the GO train "parking" rail installation. can't wait to get some photos of that train parked above the th&b pedestrian tunnel!
Is that project complete now?
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  #96  
Old Posted Aug 20, 2008, 2:29 AM
raisethehammer raisethehammer is offline
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not quite...they're working a lot now.
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  #97  
Old Posted Oct 2, 2008, 3:08 PM
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It is therefore recommended that the design and tender document preparation be assigned to McCormick Rankin Corporation. McCormick Rankin has been the lead Consultant on the study over the last two years, is familiar with all aspects of the project. They will provide all required design elements necessary to carry out the assignment either through in-house resources or with the assistance of the same associate consultants involved in the study. Given their project involvement and subject expertise, it is very likely they would be the successful consultant in an RFP process.
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  #98  
Old Posted Oct 2, 2008, 5:01 PM
raisethehammer raisethehammer is offline
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the new building on the tracks looks great. Red brick to fit the neighbourhood. Also, I like the brick being used on the two new schools downtown - Queen Vic and the one by Ivor Wynne.
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  #99  
Old Posted Oct 2, 2008, 5:15 PM
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McCormick Rankin is a great company to design our downtown terminal. Should take a look at their portfolio, impressive stuff.
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  #100  
Old Posted Oct 2, 2008, 5:20 PM
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What effect, if any, will the implementation of LRT have on this terminal?

Am guessing that it's not on either LRT route.
If it is, will future LRT connection be considered in the current design?
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