Raise the Hammer
A new report on the city website outlines a plan to build a new transit terminal at Eastgate Square as part of Phase 1 of the BRT plan. From the report:
Eastgate Square Shopping Centre, located at Queenston Road and Centennial Parkway will be reconstructing their southeast parking lot and ring road in 2007. This will require the relocation and new construction of the existing Eastgate Transit Terminal used by five Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) bus routes, including the Beeline Express route which will evolve into the lower city east-west BRT route. Since Eastgate is one of the primary mixed use centres at the east end of the lower city BRT corridor, it makes sense to establish a permanent terminal for the BRT at this site.
Eastgate Square has updated their shopping centre to create an attractive destination for shopping. The mall's management are enthusiastically supporting a unique public private partnership that cements a long-term transit presence at the shopping centre and supports the integration of transportation infrastructure with land use changes. Experts cite this type of integration as critical in changing the mindset of consumers in terms of their choice of travel mode for day-to-day trip making. The goal is to make using transit as easy as using a car for the majority of trips in the urban area of the city.
The terminal will reflect the latest in Canadian contemporary design for bus transit terminals. It features state-of-the art amenties for passengers includng fully accessible platforms, modern, low maintenance shelters, attractive landscaping and high security lighting.
It includes a covered walkway right into the mall. I'd like to see some drawings, but at $1.6 million it should be a nice terminal.
By Brendan (registered) | Posted May 04, 2007 at 00:06:18
Best in contemporary design? Low maintenance shelters? Talk about damning with faint praise. Couldn't we do something beautiful? Something that will make people -want- to wait there for the bus?
By jason (registered) | Posted May 04, 2007 at 10:43:00
unfortunately, I think that's the way rapid transit is going. Station design in places like Portland and Seattle with light rail and streetcars are very simplistic. larger shelters and real-time arrival/departure info is much more important, yet I don't read anything on here about that. Hopefully it's in the plan though. Also, with the new entrance and stoplights onto Queenston I hope they plan on transit signals to allow buses to have the right of way at all times.
By councilwatch (anonymous) | Posted May 10, 2007 at 04:22:38
Hamilton is still the ambitous city, that is the people of Hamilton are ambitous. Council, hopefully will soon return from lunch.
By Bumpy Ride (anonymous) | Posted May 10, 2007 at 19:52:02
Some cities plan ahead. They locate transportation terminals where population density is desired, keeping in mind issues of convenience and the distances between stops, etc. In Hamilton, apparently, we're still leaving the planning to private developers, then following up with cheaply built transportation "hubs" to support struggling retail centres. I mean, I thought the hot retail concept of the moment were the big box stores on the edge of town? Whose going to the Queenston Mall anymore?
How does this marvellous partnership between public and private interests relate to inter-city connections to Niagara? How does it relate to the previously "essential" roadway connection to the East Mountain? How far away is the planned VIA terminal? Is this a good place for a future GO terminal? How long does it take buses serving the surrounding community out of this terminal to get through traffic on Queenston Road and Centennial Parkway? What, in other words, does the public get out of this partnership with the private interests?
Just a few questions.
By Frank (registered) | Posted May 10, 2007 at 23:45:04
Hey Bumpy Ride, I'm not sure if you meant Queenston or Eastgate Malls... I've been to both and they're both busy... Perhaps you should visit the "edge of town" more frequently and you'll see that what you call the "edge" is actually more than meets the eye. As for a GO link, any BRT end terminal could be used. The terminal being built at Eastgate could easily incorporate GO buses... as for trains, it's hard to get them around the lake so until they start putting superelevation on highspeed GO tracks around the lake, be satisfied with buses that run from terminals into Burlington or Aldershot. Once the RHCE is complete you'll find it much easier to navigate both Queenston and Centennial. Currently Centennial is the only major eastern link to the Linc and it gets heavily used as such. The way the interchange between the RHCE and the Linc is going to be built, the route up Centennial to the Linc will be much less viable. Hope that answers some of your questions
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