Raise the Hammer

Great news! Very happy about this and to see all the supporters' hard work realized. As for the rail line, I hope Main Street is also considered–especially through downtown where King Street is very narrow. The width of Main is plenty!

Main should go two-way as was originally proposed by Metrolinx analysis study. City Hall are the ones who tried to kill that part of the plan.

2 lanes each way with parking on one-side and left turn lanes at all intersections. Done.

Amazing!! Didn't think we'd see this day come. Now let's get to work on design and construction plans! LOVED McMeekin's shout-out to Ryan McGreal. Very WELL deserved.

Didn't think I'd see this. Congrats to all involved in bringing this to Hamilton.

I have a question for anyone with an informed idea: to what extent are the plans that staff made still usable? I ask since the routing will evidently be changed. Will other aspects of the route also be opened back up for discussion? Do they need to be- in other words, are the plans somewhat stale now and we have to go back to the drawing board?

as far as I know, all prior plans are still very much usable. We were around 35% finished design work. The only changes now should be ending the line at Queenston Traffic Circle and coming up with the routing for connections to the West Harbour GO Station.

My personal preference would be to run the northbound line up James St from King in mixed traffic. Northbound traffic is always light on James as it used to be a southbound street. Much more traffic uses it south-bound. Then run LRT in it's own lane south on Hughson back to King. If they insist on it having it's own lane through the entire route (which simply can't happen through International Village), perhaps they could use the Northbound curb parking lane on James from King to Vine, then Vine to MacNab for northbound trains, and Hughson for southbound trains.

why not take the line off king down hughson or even john street and then over to the go station? both of those streets have vastly greater need for the development potential of an lrt line. james street is already well on its way to being a great street, why not spread the love around? john street especially is just screaming for new development north of king william. all those parking lots! what would james really gain?

I really hope the spur is a little bit more substantial and cuts down Barton to Wellington/Victoria before coming back to King. This way Barton Village and HGH can get some much needed love and the return trip to King can help another neighborhood.

agree with both the above comments. james will probably be more congested with vehicular traffic than the adjacent streets when the new station is operational (LRT or not, people are going to be driving there regardless) and by allowing some of hamilton's many neglected neighbourhoods some infrastructure investment this lovely tide will help raise all boats, rather than a few already well-off ones.

Comment edited by ItJustIs on 2015-05-26 09:19:02

great news, though i still hope for an extension to eastgate some day (not going to hold my breath).

I am thrilled by this news!

This day happened due to all the advocacy work and the Liberals recognizing the importance of LRT to growth in Hamilton. Even with all the noise that emerged, LRT emerged as the logical choice for investment.

We still have work to do to overcome a lot of the misinformation around LRT. But with this announcement the naysayers will need to rethink their position and recognize that Hamilton is positioned for growth.

Something tells me you didn't have much interest in supporting Hamilton's core before the announcement.

Again, it sounds like LRT has absolutely nothing to do with your admitted avoidance of downtown. I welcome you to give it another chance. I've lived in Hamilton for only two years and even in such a short period of time I've noted a marked improvement.