The Future of the HSR

This bus took 150 years to get here

The HSR is 150 years old. It’s a little hard to believe that Hamilton’s mass transit system has been operating for a century and a half. When the first trips were made on the HSR, Sir John A. MacDonald was still Prime Minister, Ben Charlton was Hamilton’s mayor, and Tasmanian Tigers still roamed in the wild. Not in Hamilton, mind you, but the point still stands: the HSR is an institution with a long history in the city.

The system was started with horse-drawn streetcars (where the HSR gets the “street railroad” part of its name). By 1882, the whole fleet was electrified and, over the next 50 or so years, the HSR gobbled up the little private lines still running in the city and expanded the network to serve every part of the growing city with a mix of streetcars and busses.

As with most cities, by the end of the Second World War, streetcars were looking like obsolete technology (spoiler: they aren’t). Coupled with the rise of the private automobile, the HSR made the decision to convert the fleet to electric trolleybuses. The last of the trolleybuses persisted until the early 90’s, when the fleet looked like this:

After the end of trolleybus service, we got the new busses we have today. Since then, there have been minor tweaks and changes, it is clear the system has been strained, particularly as our roads fill up with more and more private vehicles and governments slowly reduce their public expenditures to meet vague “austerity but make it sexy” goals.

A reworked HSR map

As Hamilton prepares for LRT, a new transit map has been unveiled in conjunction with a report from Moataz Mohamed and Gamal Eldeeb from McMaster’s Department of Civil Engineering.

The new map is a proposal, and is certainly not what the final updated HSR system will look like, but it shows us the direction being pursued as we ramp up LRT readiness. The proposal suggests 39 new HSR routes (one of which has two branches, so technically 40), with some lines getting minor changes, some lines dramatically reimagined, and some lines eliminated entirely. Importantly, the new map includes 6 rapid transit lines along major corridors.

This updates Hamilton’s BLAST plan, which was the original vision for rapid transit along 5 key lines:

• B-Line: West-to-east, connecting McMaster to Eastgate

• L-Line: Connecting Waterdown to Downtown

• A-Line: North-to-south, connecting West Habour to the Airport

• S-Line: running through the ‘burbs, connecting Ancaster to Eastgate and the proposed Confederation GO station

• T-Line: from the Meadowlands to the Centre Mall along Mohawk and Kenilworth/Ottawa

But a lot has happened since that plan was first announced in (checks notes) 2007. Confederation GO is online, the Centre Mall is now the “Centre on Barton”, and I’ve been feeling older than ever.

The new plan adds an “E-Line” (running from the Confederation GO Station, through Eastgate and a future “Elfrida Gateway”, to Heritage Greene), but that changes the acronym a little. So now we have to go with the “BLEATS”, “STABLE” or “TABLES” plan. I’m personally in favour of BLEATS.

The new system will be divided into four main categories: 6 Rapid lines, 16 Core lines, 2 Feeder lines, and 15 Local lines. The main goal of the plan is to reroute most busses through central hubs, of which it identifies 20 in Hamilton. The West Harbour GO Station and Eastgate Square are the busiest of those hubs, with 12 and 11 lines running through or terminating in each respectively.

So let’s take a look at the proposed system map. What we know, what’s still unclear, what’s good, what’s less than good, and what we can expect.

What we know

• LRT ready - This is an ambitious project intended to prepare Hamilton for higher-order transit. One confirmed LRT line and a series of rapid busses (of varying rapidity) across the city, connecting in mainly with the GO Transit network and using GO stations as hubs.

• GO GO GO - Speaking of connecting to GO stations…this plan dramatically reorients the city’s transit network to use existing GO infrastructure as a way to connect the city. In some cases, that’s just using an already-existing hub (the Hunter Street GO Centre) and, in other cases, shifts the hub for many stops nearly 2 kilometres to the north, from the city’s own MacNab Terminal to the new(ish) West Harbour GO Station.

• In a future… - The LRT construction date keeps getting pushed back. Sure, the delays from the province and the city didn’t help and I’m sure we can blame the supply chain, but boy oh boy does it seem likely that LRT might not be done until 2027 or, at the extreme end, 2030. This whole map is predicated on the idea that busses will shuttle people to LRT and the GO network. So this map is likely not going to come into effect for many years. That’s 1 to 2 municipal elections, 1 to +4 possible provincial elections, and ∞ federal elections away. Funding can change, priorities can shift, and the world might be a very different place by the time we’re ready for this map.

What we don’t know

• Stop right there, thank you very much - Little is known about where these new lines will be stopping outside major termini and their end points. Some of the designations (Rapid Limited Stop and Rapid All Stop) are slightly confusing, but point to a similar model to what the A-Line runs now, namely operating as an express bus on the mountain and a regular service bus downtown. But, even then, we don’t know where exactly stops will be along each line.

• The design of stations - A new map like this will require considerable reworking of existing stations and the construction of new platforms in places where stations don’t presently exist. In the case of this new map, there are stations that are anticipated to be major hubs, even though they don’t exist: Elfrida Gateway, Ancaster Gateway, Stoney Creek Gateway, and the Waterdown Gateway. Gateways galore! And some major stops will need to be reworked, including the Meadowlands, Dundas, Mac, Centre on Barton, Confederation Walmart (I hope we find a better name there), and Winona Crossing, which will require the building of new transit infrastructure where none exists. The most significant questions are around the Dundas “station” and how Parkdale+Queenston will be reconfigured to be the terminus of 5 major lines, including a new rapid transit line, and be a stop for two other bus routes AND the LRT. Until then, all we get is this in the map:

• Exact routing of lines - the map presented is a hybrid between a subway-style map and an actual service map. It is stylized and attractive (I am a geographer and I will not be judged), but it doesn’t provide specifics where some would be helpful. Take the routing around the West Harbour station. The new Garth bus (29 - replacing the College) ends at West Harbour. On this map, it jaunts down Queen, keeps going along Stuart, then…umm…gets into the station…somehow? It isn’t clear if it keeps going down Stuart, so does it turn into the underground parking at the station? If so, how does it then get back up and out to James Street? Does it loop back on Strachan? And what about the reworked 2 - Barton bus? Or the new 71 - Ancaster Wilson bus? So some questions still remain about the specific routes these busses will take.

• Where on the map is MacNab? - The new(ish) MacNab Terminal opened in 2011. Last year, it was renamed to honour Frank Cooke, the HSR’s general manager for nearly 40 years. Right now, 10 lines run through the terminal, including the A-Line express bus. The MacNab terminal doesn’t even show up on this new map. This indicates the plan is to abandon the terminal, but, given that it is only 12 years old, it seems a little early to even think about giving up on it. It is hard to say if this is part of a larger plan or if the focus will now be on LRT and GO connectivity at the expense of bus terminus centrality. MacNab between King and Main is way more central than West Harbour. But, as with many things re: this plan, the fate of the Frank A. Cooke Transit Terminal on MacNab is still unknown.

• A little trolley on the waterfront - The 99 is an adorable little bus. Made up to look like an old streetcar, it shuttles folks from downtown to Pier 8, allowing people to access the bayfront for free. Sure, I’m a transit nerd, but that thing is objectively cute. I mean…look at it. But this map doesn’t include the 99. Sure, the 20 will still head to Pier 8 as it does today. Who knows if the days of the 99 are numbered?

• Gateways to Hamilton - As mentioned before, there are a lot of proposed “Gateway” stops. Questions I have about these are if they’ll be designed like transit stations in the conventional sense (less emphasis on parking and more of a focus on providing pedestrian access to the surrounding area), whether they’ll be more like the carpool lots along the 407 that GO uses (parking-forward, intended for “park-and-ride” style operations), if they’ll be designed similar to the Mississauga transitway stations (parking, but a clearly defined hub for multiple routes), or if they’re just going to be stops that have some kind of special designation like the current Upper James and Rymal bus stop does (nice, new shelters and maybe a fancy electronic sign).

What’s good?

• LRT - Ahh, LRT. You magnificent light train. We’ve been waiting for you for a long time. In successive elections, Hamiltonians have returned pro-LRT voices with impressive majorities. In 2014, the top 2 pro-LRT mayoral candidates pulled in over 60% of the vote. As the lone pro-LRTer in 2018, Fred Eisenberger won a decisive majority of 54%, beating explicitly anti-LRT candidate Vito Sgro by 16 points. And in 2022, both Andrea Horwath and Keanin Loomis were supportive of LRT, and earned a combined 82% of the vote. So like…we’re all on board for LRT. This map centres LRT and recognizes that it’ll be a major workhorse for the HSR.1 Every single LRT stop has accompanying bus connections2 and 5 of the 17 stops have rapid transit tie-in. #WeNeedLRT

• Going both ways - A good number of the new routes are designed on the expectation that the one-way system is on its way out. Awesome. Queen and Main are both identified as new two-ways with bi-directional bus service on significant portions of each road. Awesome. Awesome awesome awesome. Sure, Charlton, Herkimer, Wellington, and Victoria all seem to be one-ways still, but we’re making progress.

• A 51 with purpose - The 51 remains the University bus and now has a more logical endpoint than before. Not that I have much against the West Hamilton Loop, just that stopping a bus at a strange loop without any services 1/5th of the way up a mountain access near only a nature preserve, two garden centres, and a church of indeterminate denomination isn’t exactly in service of a cohesive transit network. Running the 51 into Dundas is a smart move that connects the Valley Town to the wider west-end community. The accompanying report also indicates this new 51 will run 7 days a week and, reading between the lines, all year long.

•  The Death of Delaware - Delaware Avenue runs east-west from just beyond Wentworth Street along to Sherman Avenue. The total length of the street is 925 metres. Not even a full kilometre. And yet, four core branch lines of the HSR and both Dundas lines are considered “Delaware” busses - The 5A, 5C, 5E, 5, 52, and 52A. The 51 started off as a Delaware. Under this new plan, the immensely confusing subdivided Delaware line has been struck from this mortal coil and replaced with far more logical numeric designations. In fact, there’s only one weird letter: the 60 and the 60A. These are the new L-Line, one of which runs from the Centre on Barton to Waterdown (60) and the other from the Centre on Barton to the West Harbour station (60A). The Delaware busses were confusing and seemed like they were cobbled together, Frankenstein’s monster-like, to address need without changing other routes. The death of these routes is more symbolic: it represents a significant change and an effort to address system-wide problems in a holistic way.

• A reasonable effort made to service employment lands - The first time I saw the routing of the new 41 - Red Hill, I thought “wow, what a weird little bus route”. Running from the hypothetical Parkdale station, up the Red Hill Valley Expressway, into Heritage Greene (to me, it will always be the Bizarro Meadowlands), and ending near the Mountain Transfer Station (the itty bitty dump), the route seemed to be doubling up on already well-served lines with little detours off to nowhere. And then I realized it tracks right through the Red Hill Business Park, past the HBSPCA, and down to the new industrial developments around Twenty Road. The seemingly bizarre 13 - Lake route goes to similar soft industrial developments along the QEW. The 20 - A-Line and the 27 - Upper James actually stop directly in front of the new Amazon facility near the airport. And each of these lines connect in to rapid transit and/or the LRT. This is an actual, meaningful effort to provide transit service to commuters and offer a real alternative to driving to work. I have massive ethical issues about many of the developments and businesses I’ve mentioned, but providing regular bus service to these places is a good thing for working people and those trying to get around in a more sustainable way. Credit where credit is warranted, I suppose.

What’s not so good?

• An express bus is not really rapid transit - Rapid transit. Two words. Rapid. Transit. (taps sign) RAPID. The new “rapid” lines all appear to run along the same roads cars use. The 60 - L-Line and 30 - S-Line both use highways. Of the five new rapid bus lines, four use mountain accesses, and one of those (the 60/60A) uses them twice. If we don’t transition folks away from using their cars for every little trip, the highways and accesses will still get clogged at certain times of day, delaying the “rapid” busses, which will have the consequence of reducing confidence in the HSR and encouraging people to use their cars more, and so on and so on. One big ouroboros made up of bendy busses and missed opportunities. Real rapid transit means BRT or Bus Rapid Transit. Carve out dedicated and separated bus lanes with easily-identifiable stops, just like we will for LRT. The City of Ottawa built a series of BRT lines in the 1980s which helped pave the way for regular bus use and created the space for LRT (which they managed to screw up, but that’s because they went with a public-private partnership which is a guaranteed way to make construction firms and investors rich, local residents angry, and ensure municipal politicians get the blame for something they don’t control…but they get to hold a fancy commission to investigate their poor decision in the future, so it is a bit of a win). If Hamilton was serious about rapid transit, the L-Line, T-Line, and E-Line would be BRT from Day 1, with plans to convert other “rapid” routes to BRT as quickly as possible.

• But maybe actually BRT? - So this is where things get confusing. The Eldeeb and Mohamed report talks about 2 BRT lines. It doesn’t say which of the proposed rapid lines would be BRT. And it says that the BRT lines might run…along the LRT corridor? This raises a lot of questions and frankly confuses the entire redesign. Because adding BRT would be a gamechanger, but only if we know where and when BRT would be added AND if they mean that we get BRT in addition to LRT. This has to be put under the “not great” category because, at best, it is confusing and, at worst, means that LRT might still be converted to BRT, which seems like a backward step at this point.

• Change in the suburbs - While some areas seem to be well-served by transit (mainly upper and lower Stoney Creek), both Ancaster and Dundas lose some regular transit service. While there are indications on the new map that efforts will be made to provide HSR MyRide On-Demand service to those communities losing regular service, that program may need to be explained to residents very carefully. I mean, I’m a huge transit nerd and I don’t even know what it really means. All I’ve heard about MyRide have been complaints that it doesn’t work as well as it could. Dundas and Ancaster deserve to be connected to Hamilton better than this map proposes. And once we figure out the world’s most confusing concept (area rating), we can begin providing transit access beyond those communities too.

• Still waiting for the bus - Many of the smaller routes (particularly the non-downtown local routes) have a peak frequency of every 20 minutes. Which, honestly, is not great. And that’s peak frequency. Imagine being someone who works at Lime Ridge or in the Meadowlands and needs to bus home on the new 34 - Mohawk to the intersection of Issac Brock Drive and First Road West in Upper Stoney Creek after your shift ends at 9:00 PM. Miss that bus by 5 minutes and you’ll be thinking a drive home doesn’t sound so bad.

• Access denied - Quite a few of the mountain accesses are still used in this new plan, including the Claremont. Not my favourite use of the space we have in the city. The new routing of the 27 - Upper James relies entirely on a fully-functional and bi-directional Claremont, which, as we all know, is not a guarantee. There are some changes that could be made (maybe the Claremont becomes another LRT route?), but the fact that the accesses are used so heavily is concerning.

• An Aldershot in the dark - Poor old Aldershot station.3 Not a single HSR or Burlington Transit bus running through a busy GO Transit station. And not just a GO Transit station. That’s the closest VIA Train station to Hamilton. VIA pulled out of Hamilton in the late 80’s/early 90’s and despite Bob Bratina promising to return VIA service to the city, that hasn’t happened. When I was back in Montreal and wanted to visit my parents on the mountain, I’d need to get up bright and early to take a metro to the Montreal station, a VIA train to Union in Toronto, a GO train to Aldershot, a GO bus to MacNab, and hope the last Upper Paradise bus hadn’t left. So the end-point for many GO trains and an important national rail station is completely unserved by local transit. This route re-do was an opportunity to activate Aldershot station a little more, but it remains unserved by the HSR.

What’s like…both good and bad?

• Whither University Plaza? - The B-Line and the 1A - King both stop at University Plaza. The 52 - Dundas runs right by it. The plaza is a natural end point for routes and offers drivers a chance to grab some food. The new map bypasses Uni Plaza altogether, running the new 51 - University right by it. The loss of the Metro there and the complications around the new Beverly Tire site, coupled with the impending discontinuation of regular transit service mean that Uni Plaza’s days might be numbered. Let’s be clear: that whole plaza is a prime target for intensification. Big ‘ol parking lot and car centricity like it’s 1954. But irregular transit service makes any redevelopment unappealing. We have a catch-22 on our hands here. Seeing some targeted intensification at the plaza would be great, but the loss of consistent transit means the folks in the area lose a great connection to the rest of the city.

Onward and forward

This report was received by council’s Public Works Committee as a discussion item on Monday, April 3rd. There will be months and years of discussion, debate, and dialogue about this moving forward. Councillors will hold public meetings, updates will be made when we learn more about LRT and GO priorities, and we’ll certainly see changes if (when) government priorities move around.

This needs to be made very clear: the map I am discussing is not the final plan for the HSR and you should not expect to hop on any of these busses in the coming weeks. What we’re looking at is a proposal that will inevitably be reworked.

You, dear reader, will play an important role in the future of this map. If you have critiques, there will be plenty of opportunities to make your frustrations known. Suggesting fact-based, realistic alternatives that consider the vitality of the whole HSR network can help realign the transit goals of the city and improve this map for everyone. And, if you generally agree with the map or have only minor critiques, still show up to public meetings and talk about this map. Because you know that anti-transit forces are out there, keen to complain about every bus route that travels near their home, every line that will “bring undesirables” into their enclaves, and every dime of public money spent on transit.

This map has flaws, sure, but it also contains some really great things and sets a new vision for the HSR that will propel public transit in Hamilton for the next few decades. This map, even if it were to be accepted as is, offers a much stronger foundation onto which we can build a world-class, high-efficiency, well-used, abundantly-hyphenated public transit system than the current map. We can add to it, fill in the gaps, activate under-used terminals and stations, and make changes as the city grows.

Hamilton deserves a great transit system. This map gets us on that track. We aren’t all the way there yet, but we’re making progress.

Puttering around

We’re finally having an honest conversation about Hamilton’s municipal golf courses. And it couldn’t happen soon enough. I’ll write more about this in the future, but some facts to remember are that the city’s two public golf courses, Chedoke and King’s Forest, constitute around 10% of the city’s parkland. That’s 2.3 square kilometres or just under 570 acres. All for golf. To bonk around a ball that has a diameter of 43 millimeters. Chedoke Golf Course itself (in red) is larger than all those portions of Kirkendall north of Aberdeen and the townhome developments at Beddoe and Studholme (in blue).

Sure, both courses made $213,266 last year. But the latest usership numbers from 2019 indicate a total of 65,634 games played at both courses. Even if each of these rounds was played by one person in the city and they only played once a year, that still only comes to 11.5% of the city’s population. But we know that there are repeat visitors and folks who will go to both courses multiple times over a season.

Once again, we need to ask ourselves if this is an equitable distribution of land in our community. Is setting aside 10% of the city’s parkland for one game really worth it?

There’s nothing more fun than talking about campaign financial returns

Late last week, I had a lovely chat with freelance CBC reporter Aura Carreño Rosas about campaign spending during the 2022 Hamilton municipal election, which you can read more about on CBC Hamilton.

You can also take a look at the filed financial returns here.

Campaign spending is a really fascinating component of municipal elections and gives us an insight into the priorities and experience of candidates. A number of high-profile candidates including Bob Bratina, Jason Farr, Max Francis, Louie Milojevic, and Larry Masters have not yet submitted campaign finance documents. Candidates have until May 1st to submit their documentation and pay a fine, otherwise, they’ll be ruled ineligible to run for office again in 2026.

There are only 1,299 days until our next municipal election, so these candidates better jump on that quick!

Cool Facts for Cool People

• Here’s the thing about local history in Hamilton: every time you find a little fact that you want to know more about, you become like a Steeltown Indiana Jones (bonus points to anyone who can come up with a better name. I got stuck on “Barton Bill”, because that sounds more like a seedy nightclub owner than an adventurer). One little line in a newspaper can spark months of research, looking through newspaper archives and local history books and old maps to try and find exactly where an event happened, when it happened, and to whom it happened. Take the 1881 story of a perfect 300 game of 10-pin bowling that happened in Hamilton. Spec columnist Mark McNeil wrote about it on Tuesday. Apparently, the perfect game, bowled by Frank Young in 1881 was the very first perfect game in 10-pin bowling in North America. But here’s the thing: we have no idea where he played that game. The Spec never reported where it happened when they ran the article on February 1, 1881. Local history buffs point out there were two identified bowling alleys in Hamilton then: one at Dundurn and the other on the Beach Strip. But were there more? Who else was there? What are the details of the story!? We just don’t know. That’s why local history fascinates me. It is about the place we live in, about people who walked the same streets we do, about the buildings we live in and work in and see every day. But their history has been buried under years of neglect. Like uncovering a Roman village covered in ash or finding a clue to a lost treasure, local history can open up so many doors and provide so much context that will help us understand the world we live in today. That’s why I love it. That, and I can’t break 150 in bowling, so I need to have some other hobby.

• It was a chaotic scene on Cathcart Street in Beasley on Tuesday, as a local tenant was illegally evicted from their townhome. The landlord locked Crys, a 67-year-old nurse, and her family out of their home without notice and began loading the family’s property into a U-Haul. The close-knit nature of the street meant that Crys’s neighbours showed up to put a stop to what amounted to theft of property in slow motion. The landlord, Ruth Lewis, did not serve Crys’s family with any eviction notice and simply called in a contractor who deceived the family, got them out of the house, and locked them out without notice. The CBC article notes that “breaching the Residential Tenancies Act can come with a $50,000 fine”, which is all well and good, but that isn’t much of a penalty for upending someone’s life without warning. I suggest a more effective method of dissuading unethical landlords from engaging in this kind of behaviour: expropriation.

• Up in Charahna (or “Toronto” to outoftowners), their mayoral by-election contest is underway. Nominations opened on Monday and will run until May 12th. As of Wednesday, the race is mainly populated by a cacophony of bizarre characters. Washed up former councillors and MPs, anti-vax weirdos, joke candidates, washed up current councillors and MPPs, and former Toronto Sun columnists. The most serious candidate is presently centrist former councillor Ana Bailão (or as centrist as one can be when they’re working with Nick Kouvalis), with right-wing former Chief of Police Mark Saunders running a close second. At this rate, the only progressive with any shot who seems to be interested in the job is Olivia Chow, but no word on her candidacy moving forward at this point, even though she still leads in recent mayoral polls. Keen observers will note that Chow also led in most mayoral polls prior to the close of nominations in 2014 and still managed to only earn 23% then.

Thanks for reading this week! I realized that the Substack app kinda messes up web links and shortens the sentences to which they are attached, so sorry if that has been impacting your reading experience. And the formatting on the e-mail posts can also be a little weird. Still trying to figure out this platform, but we’re getting there! Until next week.