sunnyside said:
Would the new garage enable better service somehow? I’m not entirely familiar with the role they play in the scheme of things.
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Yes, -ish.

As NoahB pointed out, it does allow them to more efficiently store and maintain a larger fleet, which is one thing that HSR has been working on over the past several years. They have lots of space at their current garage, but it was only built to maintain a fleet of about 250 vehicles. They're well beyond that now, and that number is only going to grow in the coming years.

The other thing that it gives the transit agency is the ability to shorten deadheads to a from routes. This is where the "-ish" part comes into play - by shortening deadheads, they also shorten the amount of time that the bus and driver are on the road, and thus save costs. It may not be much, but a 15 minute savings each across a fleet of 40 buses in daily service can save enough money to put another bus in service for a shift.

Of course, this does need to be countered with the overhead costs of running and staffing an additional garage. 20+ years ago, the TTC estimated that it cost them $3mil in staffing and overhead for any garage regardless of size - and that cost has only gone up since then.

Dan
 
NoahB said:
More garage space means more buses. More buses, ideally, means more service. Sometimes the service is underfunded and not enough operators are hired to drive all the new buses.
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smallspy said:
Yes, -ish.

As NoahB pointed out, it does allow them to more efficiently store and maintain a larger fleet, which is one thing that HSR has been working on over the past several years. They have lots of space at their current garage, but it was only built to maintain a fleet of about 250 vehicles. They're well beyond that now, and that number is only going to grow in the coming years.

The other thing that it gives the transit agency is the ability to shorten deadheads to a from routes. This is where the "-ish" part comes into play - by shortening deadheads, they also shorten the amount of time that the bus and driver are on the road, and thus save costs. It may not be much, but a 15 minute savings each across a fleet of 40 buses in daily service can save enough money to put another bus in service for a shift.

Of course, this does need to be countered with the overhead costs of running and staffing an additional garage. 20+ years ago, the TTC estimated that it cost them $3mil in staffing and overhead for any garage regardless of size - and that cost has only gone up since then.

Dan
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Thank you. The deadheading part makes a lot of sense, and I can see how that would improve operations. But, I would think that the HSR doesn’t have the financial means for the increased bus fleet itself yet. Ie, wouldnt they be moving on the garage if they had the extra buses already?

Also apologies, I’m not entirely familiar with info on the HSR despite being local because I find it very difficult to find any information.
 
sunnyside said:
Thank you. The deadheading part makes a lot of sense, and I can see how that would improve operations. But, I would think that the HSR doesn’t have the financial means for the increased bus fleet itself yet. Ie, wouldnt they be moving on the garage if they had the extra buses already?

Also apologies, I’m not entirely familiar with info on the HSR despite being local because I find it very difficult to find any information.
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https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/Hamilton_Street_Railway - And then click your way through some of the latest deliveries.

It's not obvious at first blush, but they've added over 30 net new buses to the fleet over the past 4 years. Of the buses coming next year, there's another half-dozen or more for expansion. That's a lot of new and additional service that can be run.

Dan
 
Why did HSR give up their Wentworth Garage, which was built in the 1980s to replace the ancient Sanford/King car barns? Cutbacks? The new HSR garage seems to be very close to the old Wentworth garage.
 
ShonTron said:
Why did HSR give up their Wentworth Garage, which was built in the 1980s to replace the ancient Sanford/King car barns? Cutbacks? The new HSR garage seems to be very close to the old Wentworth garage.
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That's a very good question. I think that Wentworth was largely built to maintain the trolleys, and once they were gone there wasn't much of a need at the time to maintain the two garages. The fact that the Mountain Garage was built with so much additional land around it and thus capacity - some of which has since been used - probably didn't help, either.

Dan
 
Update in recent Spec article:
--------------------------------------------------

Metrolinx restarts LRT demolitions and land deals for long-delayed transit project
Provincial transit agency knocking down apartment this month and approaching more landowners about selling other buildings in the way of the 14-kilometre light-rail line

https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilto...emolition.html

Metrolinx has started knocking down more buildings — and knocking on doors to buy more land — for Hamilton’s off-again, on-again light-rail transit line.

The planned Main-King corridor LRT was infamously cancelled over budget woes in 2019, but resurrected in May 2021 thanks to a $3.4-billion funding partnership between the province and federal government — both of which praised it as a “shovel-ready” project.

News about progress on the 14-kilometre line has been relatively sparse since, with the provincial transit agency so far only willing to say major construction is not expected before 2024. A “request for qualifications” for bidders expected last year has yet to go ahead and a city pitch to use excess project land for affordable housing remains up in the air.

But behind the scenes, the agency has restarted efforts to buy up to 30 more buildings needed to make room for the project, said Shane Rayman, a lawyer specializing in expropriation law who has clients on the LRT route. Metrolinx previously spent $80 million buying 60 properties for the first iteration of the project.

“They are reaching out again … (but) they are slow-playing it,” said Rayman, who is also representing a city workers’ union, CUPE 5167, in a $2.5-million lawsuit against Metrolinx over a failed project land negotiation along the route dating back to 2017.

Visible work is happening, too.

On the weekend, demolition crews starting tearing down one of the biggest buildings in the way of the train: a three-storey brick apartment building at the corner of Holton and King streets.

A notice to residents from ward councillor Nrinder Nann said the demolition should be done by the end of the month. One section of the King Street East sidewalk will be off-limits during construction.

That 20-plus unit apartment was among the earliest to have been emptied of tenants in 2018. It was also briefly eyed by advocates as a building that could be resurrected for emergency housing after the project was briefly cancelled in 2019.

City officials redirected project update questions Monday to Metrolinx, which said via email more information about a public project office and the procurement process will become available in the coming months.

More information may be available March 31, when the new council holds its first LRT subcommittee meeting.
 
ShonTron said:
Why did HSR give up their Wentworth Garage, which was built in the 1980s to replace the ancient Sanford/King car barns? Cutbacks? The new HSR garage seems to be very close to the old Wentworth garage.
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I believe they still use the wentworth garage for DARTS, Hamilton's Wheeltrans equivalent, and the general city fleet. The building is definitely still there. And yes, it's immediately next door to the new bus barn.
 
ShonTron said:
Why did HSR give up their Wentworth Garage, which was built in the 1980s to replace the ancient Sanford/King car barns? Cutbacks? The new HSR garage seems to be very close to the old Wentworth garage.
Click to expand...
innsertnamehere said:
I believe they still use the wentworth garage for DARTS, Hamilton's Wheeltrans equivalent, and the general city fleet. The building is definitely still there. And yes, it's immediately next door to the new bus barn.
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Explainer on the whole thing from 2016 in Raise the Hammer:

Old Wentworth Street Transportation Centre May Become New LRT Facility - Raise the Hammer

www.raisethehammer.org www.raisethehammer.org

Interesting to note that the older Wentworth facility, that once served the streetcars, appears to now be a High School.

The immediately preceding Wentworth facility is indeed still standing, as described by the article: (aerial was best as the Streetview pics are obscured and distant)

1678908396840.png
 
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Here's the report going to the LRT Committee this week. There's nothing in here of note that I see...just some expected dates for Metrolinx to present their updated designs and community benefits (May 26) and operating model (July 26).


Procurement timelines are still unknown: "Metrolinx is leading the procurement process for the Hamilton LRT project, which is anticipated to start sometime this year. At the May 26, 2023 LRT Sub-Committee, Staff expect to provide an update on procurement, including the associated timelines."
 
sunnyside said:
I wonder how much has changed, if anything. This project has been no stranger to alterations
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I don't expect major changes. Possible a shifting / removal of a couple of signals, some changes to the lane configurations for vehicular traffic to optimize traffic flow based on updated modelling, changes to sidewalk designs, etc. Tweaking on the edges.
 
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