Raise the Hammer

Touching on the GO portion of Ryan's original article:

The talk for some time has been a GO station on James Street North at Liuna Station. I am not sure if that would replace the Hunter Street terminal (I hope not), or if it would just enable more trains to go into Hamilton and open an opportunity for a Niagara bound GO train. Currently, the last morning train leaves around 7:30 and in the evening, only every other train goes all the way into Hamilton, with GO buses located at Burlington (Fairview) GO), to shuttle people into Hamilton, Niagara, etc.

When Ivor Wynne Stadium was put back on the table last week, people talked of a GO stop at Gage. They made reference to other such stops in Ontario that this location would resemble but either way, how beneficial would a GO stop there be?

As I have stated before on this site, it would be huge for me. It would greatly reduce my current 1 ½ hour travel time from the Center on Barton to the Appleby GO. I could hop on at Gage and be at Appleby in 15 minutes probably. Add approximately 15 minutes to walk/bike over and I just saved myself an hour. Not to mention avoiding a very crowded morning/evening Barton bus ride.

How much land is available around Gage Avenue and the CN ROW? I already demonstrated with this map, how many bus routes pass by Ivor Wynne and now you add GO service. Is Gage more accessible as a main station than Liuna even? Just posing the question. Obviously Liuna is a nice location and it’s easily accessible to downtown, but so is the Hunter station. I would think only one station would be required for dropping passengers off downtown (every other train as it is now), and a second stop further down at Gage perhaps (every other train going to this station), that continues on to Niagara.

Is there more parking available at Gage, than there ever would be at Liuna, considering the lots at Aldershot, Burlington GO on Fairview, and Appleby are all jam packed? Hamilton has long been the weakest link in the Hamilton to Toronto GO/Lakeshore line. I haven’t been to the Oakville terminal in awhile but I remember it always being very busy as well.

Does Liuna then become the ‘stop along the way’, and Gage the main Toronto/Niagara terminal? I am not trying to take something away from downtown here, it just made me wonder.

Not to knock my own neighborhood, but the area around the tracks is certainly not the least bit as attractive as Liuna or even Aldershot which is the nicest location on the route that I travel, but how does a new terminal surrounded by tones of parking and some newly planted trees and greenery change that dynamic?

Appleby (my stop), is fairly new residential on one side of the tracks, and industrial (mind you a well kept industrial), on the other. Poor bus service in my eyes exists on the north side, and the smell of dead pig and an asphalt plant not far off, make it one of the smelliest stops along the way. But that lot is jam-packed every day, and GO recently purchased and paved over, a very large piece of adjacent land to be able to offer even more parking.

If Aldershot, Fairview, and Appleby are any indicators, there must be substantial space surrounding a proposed GO station to allow for parking growth. Does it exist at Liuna? Does it exist at Gage?

When we were presented with a 6,000 car parking lot in the EM plans, we wondered what would happen with all those spots the other 354 days of the year? If Bob Young is talking about satellite parking lots, if they are at or adjacent to the GO station, we now have a 365 day a year use for all that surface parking. Cat’s games are on the weekend or a Thursday night, so for the most part those lots would be open for large events like Cats games, soccer games, or even Festival of Friends parking/shuttles. A portion of one of these lots would simply have to be reserved for weekend GO passengers.

But of course, the Cat’s wants to own and get revenue from these satellite spots. My answer, no. They should be GO lots which are free for its ‘customers’ like every other lot, and use of these lots would be a complimentary service in a deal worked out between the Cats/City and GO. If the Cats were to charge parking for their events or the stadium management committee was to charge for parking, it should be a minimal fee with ALL proceeds going to wages for the persons who run the lots during events, and for upkeep of those lots which would offset some GO overhead. But not for money to go into anybodies wallets.

That of course would be between the parties involved, but that is just my take on how I would see this all working. Brian Timmis will give the Cats 1,000+ extra spots and its associated revenue, plus what they make at Scott Park FIELD. FIELD

More parking in the area alone (even free parking) would seem to be a benefit, making it easier for their fans to get to the stadium, in itself creating more revenue.