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- Thread starter drum118
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TheHonestMaple
Active Member
I’ve noticed that all new signals have been installed from West Harbour/Hamilton Centre to Oakville, and work seems to be continuing beyond that. Much heavier duty gantries and much higher than the old ones. Is this related to electrification? I’m assuming it is.
crs1026
Superstar
The old signalling was 60 years or so old, so would have been up for replacement anyways, thanks to advances in LED and microprocessor technology. But you can be sure that it's being done to the electrification spec.
- Paul
crs1026
Superstar
I had an errand in Scarborough today also - so I rode the LSE, and I was impressed at the progress along the line from Cherry Street to Scarborough Jct.
The zone from Cherry Street to Pape, where the Ontario line branches off, no longer looks like one big mud pit…. Foundation work and the Lego-style base for the new embankment is being advanced along the entire length.
East of Pape, sound fencing and grading is largely complete all the way to Scarborough Jct, with only one lengthy rough section east of Warden. Concrete work for new bridge footings is clearly in progress.
There were two puzzling gaps in the work: the fourth platform at Danforth station, and the Birchmount bridge, show no signs of initiation let alone progress. Sure hope those do not represent problems or delay in completion.
- Paul
The zone from Cherry Street to Pape, where the Ontario line branches off, no longer looks like one big mud pit…. Foundation work and the Lego-style base for the new embankment is being advanced along the entire length.
East of Pape, sound fencing and grading is largely complete all the way to Scarborough Jct, with only one lengthy rough section east of Warden. Concrete work for new bridge footings is clearly in progress.
There were two puzzling gaps in the work: the fourth platform at Danforth station, and the Birchmount bridge, show no signs of initiation let alone progress. Sure hope those do not represent problems or delay in completion.
- Paul
nfitz
Superstar
I haven't even seen the public consultation on the changes at Danforth GO yet. There's been several locations over the years - including shifting it further east so it's no longer on the curve! But that seems to have ended now that they've brought in some more competent foreign expertise, that probably laughed at them when they insisted you couldn't put stations on curves.
Wm Perkins Bull
Active Member
Hamilton is the fifth largest city in Ontario, Brampton and Mississauga are significantly larger than Hamilton. And Waterloo Region is also larger than Hamilton, which is why the Kitchener Line is getting a fair bit of attention, that is soon to be 1.5 million people benefiting.
It is worth noting that in order to do Riverwalk, they will need to build stuff to put in a third track over the Etobicoke Creek, then shift all the traffic on to that one track in order to do an open cut and instal culverts under the two current tracks. This will be necessitate stopping midday service beyond Bramalea GO while that is being done. Sylvia dredged that factoid up and talked about it at the end of her article on mobility planning for the Downtown
TheHonestMaple
Active Member
Brampton and Mississauga are not really cities in their own right. And Hamilton-Burlington is much larger than Waterloo region. Also, none of the cities you listed have a proper urban area. Hamilton is Ontario's third city. Also, the Kitchener line is definetely not getting more attention than Lakeshore West lol.
evandyk
Senior Member
Even if you include Cambridge, K-W's CMA is around 20% smaller than Hamilton's.
Chris R.
Senior Member
Yea, this is pretty typical of both Ontario commentary, but also almost every government in Ontario. Hamilton is the third largest CMA in the province but the province always forgets about both Hamilton and Ottawa. Toronto's CMA gets historic investments every year, and then Ottawa, Hamilton, KW and London get forgotten about or are given the scraps, and even the scraps are left delayed, silent, non-transparent.
Hamilton should really be planned for its own all day frequent Go Service, the LRT should have been started like, last year... And they should negotiate with CN and CP to ensure electrification extends from Burlington Station to West Harbour and Confederation at least speeding up trains toward and out of Union. Unlike Brampton and Mississauga, Hamilton is a 3/4 of a million person CMA without a single BRT, LRT, proper train service, or even highway investment from upper levels of government. LRT is supposed to come eventually but it's seeming more and more likely that substantial work won't occur until 2026.
Hamilton is not small, and those that think it is typically haven't explored the urban area that is Burlington's border to Grimsby and seen how massive it is in its own right.
What's even worse is that Hamilton is planned to grow by one of the smallest amounts by the province which I just don't understand. You have empty office buildings, a downtown with 50% of its land as parking lots ripe for redevelopment, underutilized road and transit infrastructure, and yet they're trying to shove more people into Toronto and KW. Hamilton has the bones to be a huge secondary city for the Golden Horseshoe, but instead it's seen as a suburb of Toronto for some reason? 75% of Hamilton residents work in the city. With many not working in Hamilton working in the CMA (Burlington, Grimsby). We are our own city.
evandyk
Senior Member
To be fair, the GTA has twice as many people as Ottawa, Hamilton, KW and London combined.
Chris R.
Senior Member
It doesn't really matter though. Hamilton, KW, Ottawa and London still make up millions of Ontarians and by not investing in these communities whatsoever we bolster a housing crisis as Toronto maintains it's stranglehold on almost all industries, and it also ensures these other cities exist in a constant economic slump.
Transit investment, like Go Expansion will have massive positive knock on effects for housing affordability and economic activities. The $10 or $20 billion spent on Go Expansion will be made back quickly from increased economic activities brought on by increased mobility. Spending a bit of that on Hamilton to provide regular 30 minute or 15 minute service to the city would allow people to enter and leave the city with the comfort of having reliable transit. Hamilton is seeing historic private investment into redevelopment, and entertainment, but we still lack good connections to Go which feels like an afterthought for Hamilton, and transit investment which will provide better access to downtown where there is currently a lack of employment options because the parking lots were full pre-covid and continue to be full during the work day despite a 15% office vacancy rate and buses that get stuck in traffic.
Undead
Senior Member
London doesn't even want their BRT.
Chris R.
Senior Member
And that's part of the problem. KW has had great councils that invest in the city, but Hamilton and London historically have not. The province needs to step in and do a bit more of the planning. I'm normally a big fan of local and community focused planning, but when bad council that listens only to NIMBYs gets in, it results in a city that doesn't rebound from an economic slump because it's afraid of touching anything or changing anything.
Northern Light
Superstar
Whoa there........... No investment whatsoever?
Hamilton: B-Line LRT ; West Harbour Station, Confederation Station, 2-way hourly GO service to WH, rush-hour service to downtown.........
Kitchener: ION LRT, investments that introduced GO service to K-W, investments to increase the speed and frequency of said service and build a new intermodal terminal.
You're welcome to critique the amount of investment, or the quality of same, but lets keep it real, the above is billions of dollars, not nothing whatsoever.
The bolded is coming.......stay tuned.........but it will be headed to Confederation, not downtown.
****
As to improving things into downtown Hamilton, I support that, but someone has to actually proposed digging down in the tunnel so that it can accommodate double-stack freight cars AND two tracks. That will be an expensive endeavour, its also one that will likely temporarily eliminate GO Trains from downtown Hamilton while the work is done.
Until that project happens, there is limited room for service improvement in that corridor (There is some)
I would also support moving ahead with A-Line connecting downtown to the Mountain, but no one seems to be pushing it forward and the LRT is moving at a snail's pace as it is.
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TheHonestMaple
Active Member
I feel like expanding the Hunter Street tunnel is not something that needs to disrupt current service levels. It's the 21st century, this can be well planned out to maintain a single track. Metrolinx is spending billions elsewhere for less important projects north of Toronto, im sure they could put some attention to downtown Hamilton.
Also, yes, we're supposedly getting billions of dollars in investment for the Hamilton LRT. But when?? It's now over 15 years since they first proposed it..... still nothing.