mass transit

Tuesday April 15, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday April 15, 2017

Crucial vote looms for Hamilton’s LRT project

The survival of Hamilton’s $1 billion LRT project is balancing on a knife-edge.

Hamilton’s LRT gallery

If on Wednesday a deeply-divided council votes against submitting the updated environmental assessment to the province, Mayor Fred Eisenberger and others see it as the kiss of the death.

At this point there’s no telling how the vote will go, other than it’ll be a squeaker.

Only six of the 16 members of council, including the mayor, are firmly committed to keeping the train rolling.

That means, with Robert Pasuta on sick leave and unlikely to attend, Eisenberger must find at least two other supporters.

The most pliable in the mushy middle are probably veteran Tom Jackson from the east Mountain and rookie Arlene VanderBeek from Dundas.

Both are playing their cards close, virtually guaranteeing a cliffhanger.

“I haven’t decided,” says Jackson, who’s grown increasingly cynical about the project since the James Street spur was arbitrarily “de-scoped” by the province.

“I’ve pretty much decided how I’m going to vote, but I’m going to wait for the discussion,” says VanderBeek, noting she needs to find the balance between what’s good for Dundas and the rest of the city.

Stoney Creek’s Maria Pearson, another potential swing pro-vote, is equally guarded. Pearson says she’s still taking in information but admits she has “major concerns.”

To add extra suspense, the results of the councillor-funded poll gauging community support for the project are expected to be released Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the mayor has gone into overdrive — some say belatedly, some say desperately — to rally support. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Saturday January 14, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday January 14, 2017

Hamilton’s $1 billion LRT project may be getting a game-changing shakeup.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger says Metrolinx is considering killing the 2-kilometre James Street North light rail spur line for an alternative that has “greater value and cost efficiency.”

“I don’t know what and when the province is going to announce anything on this but I do know it’s been a topic of conversation.”

Multiple sources have told The Spectator the idea is to replace the James North spur with an express bus service from the waterfront to the airport on James and Upper James — essentially building the A-line route that’s part of the planned city-wide BLAST bus network.

According to sources, an announcement originally planned for Monday is now expected in a couple of weeks.

The proposal does not affect the 11-km east-west LRT route from McMaster to the Queenston traffic circle.

Eisenberger notes the James spur was an “add on” to the provincial funding announcement in 2015 and as such had never undergone a cost-benefit analysis.

“I assume that Metrolinx has done it now and I’m pretty confident it shows that it’s not the most viable business case … for an LRT on James.”

If the spur line is replaced with express buses from the Mountain to the waterfront, Eisenberger thinks it’ll be a better bang for the buck in terms of growing public transit across the city and will likely enjoy good political and public support.

A Metrolinx spokesperson said via email there “will be more news in the coming weeks.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Tuesday December 6, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Tuesday December 6, 2016 New push to add LRT stop at Bay Street A late plea for a Bay Street LRT stop is one of several requested route changes project planners will chew on before spitting out a final design next spring. The city's light rail transit stakeholder committee will formally receive a letter from the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce Nov. 29 asking for a Bay Street stop on the east-west leg of the planned $1-billion LRT line. "It is not a stretch to assume that the Bay Street Station would immediately become the second-busiest station between the two end nodes of the B-line," reads the letter signed by representatives from large downtown players such as McMaster University, the art gallery, Carmen's Group and Vrancor. The city and project lead Metrolinx need to submit an updated environmental assessment Ñ including a finalized route Ñ to the province for approval next spring. But there is still time to consider "reasonable" change requests based on public feedback, said city LRT point person Paul Johnson. "We are looking at a number of requests now, things like pedestrian crossings, intersection changes and yes, stop locations," he said. "Just don't ask us to move the whole thing to Main Street. No, we are not going to look at that.Ó Johnson said public suggestions to date have already resulted in a relocated stop to the border of the International Village. Planners are also revisiting the possibility of a Gage Avenue stop based on a "surprisingly strong" reaction from the public. Similarly, businesses in the International Village have convinced planners to scope out an additional pedestrian crossing along that section of the King Street line. Other merchants have helped tweak partial intersection and street closures. Johnson wouldn't comment on the likelihood of Bay Street being adopted as a new stop, but noted there are some challenges to adding any new stop. It costs "a few million doll

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday December 6, 2016

New push to add LRT stop at Bay Street

A late plea for a Bay Street LRT stop is one of several requested route changes project planners will chew on before spitting out a final design next spring.

The city’s light rail transit stakeholder committee will formally receive a letter from the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce Nov. 29 asking for a Bay Street stop on the east-west leg of the planned $1-billion LRT line.

“It is not a stretch to assume that the Bay Street Station would immediately become the second-busiest station between the two end nodes of the B-line,” reads the letter signed by representatives from large downtown players such as McMaster University, the art gallery, Carmen’s Group and Vrancor.

The city and project lead Metrolinx need to submit an updated environmental assessment — including a finalized route — to the province for approval next spring. But there is still time to consider “reasonable” change requests based on public feedback, said city LRT point person Paul Johnson.

“We are looking at a number of requests now, things like pedestrian crossings, intersection changes and yes, stop locations,” he said. “Just don’t ask us to move the whole thing to Main Street. No, we are not going to look at that.”

Johnson said public suggestions to date have already resulted in a relocated stop to the border of the International Village. Planners are also revisiting the possibility of a Gage Avenue stop based on a “surprisingly strong” reaction from the public.

Similarly, businesses in the International Village have convinced planners to scope out an additional pedestrian crossing along that section of the King Street line. Other merchants have helped tweak partial intersection and street closures.

Johnson wouldn’t comment on the likelihood of Bay Street being adopted as a new stop, but noted there are some challenges to adding any new stop.

It costs “a few million dollars” to add a platform and amenities along a typical LRT line, he said. But he added potential intersection changes and land purchases can inflate the “real cost” dramatically.

The light rail transit line is also meant to be an express service, with an average distance between stops of about 800 metres. Project planners are aiming for peak period wait times of six minutes.

Stops at Queen Street, Bay and James would represent some of the shortest distances between platforms along the route, Johnson said, in some cases under 400 metres.(Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

Wednesday November 19, 2014

Wednesday November 19, 2014Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Wednesday November 19, 2014

The Reptiles of Mass Transit

The HSR plans to fight back against a spike in assaults on drivers by outfitting buses with pricey security cameras — and possibly even protective shields.

Statistics obtained through a Spectator freedom of information request show the number of assaults and threats shot up this year, with 37 recorded in the first 10 months. That’s already a five-year high and nearly double last year’s total.

Wednesday August 14, 2013The city refused to hand over incident reports outlining locations and details, citing employee privacy, but union officials describe routine incidents such as punching, spitting and coffee-throwing over the last several years.

Some of the most egregious cases include a female driver beaten with a coil of steel wire and a male driver dragged off a bus and pummelled by a group of teens.

Newly hired transit director David Dixon said he is concerned and will make a budget request for on-board security cameras for 2015. “Operator and customer safety is a critical issue for me,” he said, adding drivers will also receive more training in “de-escalating” disputes and dealing with mental illness.(Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Meanwhile, every day in cities around the world, on buses and subways and trams, women face sexualized abuse, from taunts, to flashing, threats, groping and worse. In London, England, 15% of female riders have experienced unwanted sexual behaviour on public transit, according to a study by the British Transit Police. (Of those, 90% never brought their complaints to the authorities.) In Vancouver, transit police launched a public crackdown on sexual offences in April after seeing a 23% spike in complaints year over year.

Wednesday April 29, 2014In Toronto, neither the TTC nor the police could provide up-to-date stats on sexual assaults on public transit. Brad Ross, a spokesman for the TTC, said “in general” the numbers aren’t going up. But anecdotally, women say this city’s transit system is rife with sexual predators.

On Monday, police announced they were hunting for a man wanted for three sexual assaults committed on the same bus route since Oct. 21. Last week, a Brampton man was arrested and charged with four counts of sexual assault for attacks that took place on TTC buses between November, 2013 and November, 2014. (Source: National Post)