Comment 98195

By jason (registered) | Posted March 05, 2014 at 09:42:56

I gotta give him credit. It must have taken a long time to come up with a route that would cost a ton more than currently being proposed and offer virtually no opportunity for ROI. Over half of that route runs through protected greenbelt and escarpment property.
If someone is looking to suggest phase 1 compromise routes, I have no problem with that. But at the very least, let's stick with the goals of ROI, Ec-Dev and making the line as accessible to as many transit riders as possible. The B-Line of course, does all of this, but Hamilton isn't committed to revitalizing Code Red or downtown neighbourhoods yet.

I could even see the logic in someone proposing that Phase 1 be built with portions of the B, T and A lines.

  • B Line: Mac to Ottawa Street: a turnaround partway up Ottawa St North would be ideal.

  • A Line: Waterfront to new Transit Terminal at Mohawk College.

  • T Line: Mohawk College to Upper James to Limeridge Mall. In reality, the A-line would run from the waterfront to Limeridge Mall, but we can see the future plans for an extended A-line and extended T-line.

This would require much less track than this rail trail route, while connecting seamlessly to several big destination/employers as well as large population centres in the city. The new transit terminal at Mohawk College would be the northern terminus for the A-Line buses, and various other Mountain routes which could be reconfigured. Ditto for the B-line buses which wouldn't need to come further west than Ottawa St.

We free up a ton of bus capacity in order to beef up routes city-wide, while still laying the framework for our LRT network.

Personally I think the entire B-line LRT with full BRT A-line as Phase 1 makes more sense, but I'm simply showing the types of legit compromises someone could come up with if there was a true desire to suggest something helpful.

Comment edited by jason on 2014-03-05 09:44:38

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