I personally think it would be neat to see Hamilton build a metro system.. But that is of course full fantasy. Something akin to the Canada Line in Vancouver could be a great addition. Elevated from McMaster to Dundurn, underground from there to Queenston Traffic Circle, and elevated again to Eastgate Square. Keep it cut and cover through downtown to minimize costs, with 40m platforms. You could do Eastgate Square to Mcmaster in 23-24 minutes. THAT would get people out of their cars.

The Canada line has about 5.5km of elevated rail and 9km of tunneled rail. My proposed Hamilton metro would have 8km of tunnels and 5.5km of elevated line. Canada line cost about $2 billion. I bet you could do the Hamilton Metro for $3-4.
 
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Honestly, it isn't a crazy idea, I have thought about it before but from the context of the geographic challenge in the Mountain for a north-south rapid transit route, rather than replacing the Main Street LRT scheme - though Eastgate Square to Mcmaster in 23-24 minutes does sound nice.

We just need a shifting of priorities from the province.

Set a goal for Hamilton to have a transit mode share equivalent to Toronto by year xxxx, and then go from there in designing a system that would allow for that revolution to take place.
 
Hamilton has a population of 536,917 (2016).

Etobicoke has a population of 365,143 (2016). Yet Etobicoke already has a heavy rail transit line (subway to Kipling) and a streetcar line (Lake Shore Blvd. W.). They are currently building a light rail transit line along Finch Avenue West, and are planning for a light rail transit line extension along Eglinton Avenue West (in a subway because Doug Ford lives near the proposed line).

What's wrong with this decision?
 
W. K. Lis said:
Hamilton has a population of 536,917 (2016).

Etobicoke has a population of 365,143 (2016). Yet Etobicoke already has a heavy rail transit line (subway to Kipling) and a streetcar line (Lake Shore Blvd. W.). They are currently building a light rail transit line along Finch Avenue West, and are planning for a light rail transit line extension along Eglinton Avenue West (in a subway because Doug Ford lives near the proposed line).

What's wrong with this decision?
Click to expand...
Wrong location and a new line as well a split city in having the line.

The Eglinton West extension will not be seen until 2030+ and only to Renforth until the final plan and design is done for the airport new transit hub, as well having the funds to build it. As long as the line remain underground, the longer it will take to get built due to the extra cost making it a subway than a surface line.

Streetcar line in Etobicoke was built as an interurban around 1900 and became part of TTC in the 20's. It was cut back to Long Branch from Port Credit later on. It was also re-gauge to TTC standards.

The Subway to Kipling was plan for in the 60's and open 1980.

Finch in Etobicoke is a small part at this time and is plan to service the airport in the future.

I agree that the line should be built now, but until anti transit politicians that are in power move on, hard to get it built. Even if you have super business case for building anything transit these days, it will get shot down by anti transit politicians who will make it a Mickey Mouse project to meet their needs, not transit riders needs.

You need to look at the big picture, not a small window for transit planning these days and something Metrolinx has fail badly at since day one.
 
Hamilton's streetcar network in 1940...

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From link.
 

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W. K. Lis said:
Hamilton has a population of 536,917 (2016).

Etobicoke has a population of 365,143 (2016). Yet Etobicoke already has a heavy rail transit line (subway to Kipling) and a streetcar line (Lake Shore Blvd. W.). They are currently building a light rail transit line along Finch Avenue West, and are planning for a light rail transit line extension along Eglinton Avenue West (in a subway because Doug Ford lives near the proposed line).

What's wrong with this decision?
Click to expand...

While I support the light rail in Hamilton, this comparison isn't fully apples-to-apples. All Etobicoke rail lines, the existing and the planned ones, connect it to its bigger neighbour. The pattern is pretty common if you look at New York or London or Paris; many integrated suburbs have one or a few "trunk" rail lines running into the metropolitan centre.
 
The Etobicoke subways also see lots of ridership from Mississauga.

similarly, the Hamilton population includes probably 150-200,000 people that are nowhere close to the LRT and won’t really use it or be served by it.
 
innsertnamehere said:
The Etobicoke subways also see lots of ridership from Mississauga.

similarly, the Hamilton population includes probably 150-200,000 people that are nowhere close to the LRT and won’t really use it or be served by it.
Click to expand...

I imagine that suburbanites might use the Hamilton LRT as well in time. Downtown Hamilton has a staggering amount of surface parking at the moment, which seems to encourage people who work downtown to drive to work. However, the city is seeing more and more demand for downtown living, which is apparent in the new condos that are going up.

Hamilton would be better off redeveloping the surface parking lots and having the middle class downtown workers either living downtown or using transit to get to and from work. Then, downtown Hamilton would be more vibrant and economically developed rather than relatively stagnant on account of all the vacant land used for parking. There's a potential pool of 763,445 riders for the LRT if both a north/south and east/west line were to be built. People could drive to the stations or use enhanced bus services.
 
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I visited Hamilton last summer for the first time in many years. It was eye opening. Despite all the talk of hipsters and artists fleeing there from Toronto in recent years, it's still gritty as hell. It looks and feels like Toronto in the early 80's.
 
junctionist said:
I imagine that suburbanites might use the Hamilton LRT as well in time. Downtown Hamilton has a staggering amount of surface parking at the moment, which seems to encourage people who work downtown to drive to work. However, the city is seeing more and more demand for downtown living, which is apparent in the new condos that are going up.

Hamilton would be better off redeveloping the surface parking lots and having the middle class downtown workers either working downtown or using transit to get to and from work. Then, downtown Hamilton would be more vibrant and economically developed rather than relatively stagnant on account of all the vacant land used for parking. There's a potential pool of 763,445 riders for the LRT if both a north/south and east/west line were to be built. People could drive to the stations or use enhanced bus services.
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How exactly are you reaching a number greater than the population of Hamilton as potential riders?

Towered said:
I visited Hamilton last summer for the first time in many years. It was eye opening. Despite all the talk of hipsters and artists fleeing there from Toronto in recent years, it's still gritty as hell. It looks and feels like Toronto in the early 80's.
Click to expand...
Some people prefer gritty over sterile and extremely expensive condos, with the same chains over and over in the podium base.
 
Hamilton is flipping, but it has a long way to go still.

Streets like Locke are more or less fully "gentrified" right now. Others like Ottawa are starting to change, but have a long way to go.

James North reminds me of Ossington 10 years ago, for example.

The lower city was in such rough shape for so long in general that it's going to take a lot to really turn it around.

If you check MLS the entire lower city is full of two kinds of listings:
1. houses in terrible shape advertised as a good reno candidate
2. houses that have been recently renovated.

Investment and money is flowing in right now, but the city needs so much of it, it will take time. It's already feeling much cleaner than it did even 5 years ago. The amount of terrible shape houses is steadily dropping. Lots of duplex units are getting converted back to single family dwellings which brings in wealthier residents to support the "nicer" businesses.

The downtown also has five large apartment buildings under construction right now, with another one planned to start before the end of the year.

Hamilton has had maybe 2 large apartment buildings in the last 20 years, and even those two were built in the last 5 years. Things are changing, and rapidly.
 
Towered said:
I visited Hamilton last summer for the first time in many years. It was eye opening. Despite all the talk of hipsters and artists fleeing there from Toronto in recent years, it's still gritty as hell. It looks and feels like Toronto in the early 80's.
Click to expand...

True. It should be noted that there are various urban neighbourhoods with an interesting mix of blue collar and middle class people too. It's like Toronto a few decades back before seemingly every walkable urban neighbourhood gentrified.
 
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