Comment 67182

By H+H (registered) - website | Posted August 02, 2011 at 09:51:39

This is a very good read.

Whether all-day GO trains will result in more workers coming into Hamilton every day, or more going out, is for others to help forecast and to measure. Obviously, if it means more coming in, you have to ask, why? What would have to happen for more people to come into Hamilton everyday to go to work? Jobs is a good first answer.

For that to happen, and for it to have been fostered by enhanced GO train service, you'd have to ask, "What kind of jobs would have to exist to cause someone to buy a more expensive house in a more expensive community (Oakville, MIssissauga) and commute into Hamilton, when he or she could afford a better/more interesting residence (living larger for the same money) or the same/cheaper residence (pocket the difference or lower your mortgage payments accordingly)?

Having people move here and work here is an ideal outcome. But, like I said, what kind of jobs would need to be on offer for that to happen? Currently, our top 2 employers are healthcare and the COH itself.

Will all-day GO bring jobs, or mostly more residents? Both? Over what time horizon? Etc. I simply don't have the expertise to know the answers to these questions. But I know enough that we should be asking these questions and many more right now. The train service is nearly a fact. The implications that service are to be determined.

I'm really not a fan of the false (in fact non-existent) debate about the immediacy of all-day GO versus the longer term LRT, it's a meaningless premise. It's like saying to people at 10:00 p.m. that the sun will rise well before it sets again. It's a fact, but the point is.....?

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