Hamilton Hamilton Line B LRT | ?m | ?s | Metrolinx

Some good news for rapid transit in Hamilton; Starting next month (Sep 2023) both A-Line & B-Line Express bus routes will run seven days a week (finally getting Sunday service!).

One big change is the streamlining of the A-Line route, which will no longer travel north along John, but will instead stick to James Street. It’s stop at Frank Cooke DowntownTerminal has been eliminated, replaced with a stop at King & James.

The old A-Line route was very slow downtown, and around Mohawk College, so this is a welcome change!

OLD ROUTE

IMG_3391.jpeg



NEW ROUTE

IMG_3392.jpeg


More info on other HSR changes, specifically lower Stoney Creek, can be found here:

 
A question for those who know more about the construction industry; given that the price of (now-stretched) labour seems to be a primary driver of cost increases, how much of our construction costs boil down to simply having x number of people on a site? That is to say, are the costs becoming less attached to what is being built, and more about getting enough skilled people to do it?
It really depends on what you a building. Field labour is a big cost for sure, but it is not all the cost.

The construction unions all negotiated wage increases in this past year, ranging from 6-10% over multiple years (generally three). That seems high, but that is below the average level of inflation, and certainly below the level of material cost inflation we have experienced due to fuel, steel, concrete, etc.
 
More info on other HSR changes, specifically lower Stoney Creek, can be found here:


Route 1 – Sunday’s Fiesta Mall tail is being retired.

As someone who grew up in the far west of Hamilton, I recall always wondering what was this mysterious Fiesta Mall that the bus went to.

I assumed it was some large mall complex like Limeridge or Jackson Square, but then one day we finally drove by it, for whatever reason we would be all the way out there I don't remember, and I discovered it was just a grocery store and a Shoppers Drug Mart, and maybe a bank branch or something, but there was nothing mall about it. I felt betrayed!
 
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Some good news for rapid transit in Hamilton; Starting next month (Sep 2023) both A-Line & B-Line Express bus routes will run seven days a week (finally getting Sunday service!).

One big change is the streamlining of the A-Line route, which will no longer travel north along John, but will instead stick to James Street. It’s stop at Frank Cooke DowntownTerminal has been eliminated, replaced with a stop at King & James.

The old A-Line route was very slow downtown, and around Mohawk College, so this is a welcome change!

OLD ROUTE

View attachment 501153


NEW ROUTE

View attachment 501154

More info on other HSR changes, specifically lower Stoney Creek, can be found here:

Good QOL change. The A Line should be able to generate a lot more ridership than it does currently with this. Likewise, ending the 41A should make the western end far more useful, especially given that the frequencies on the entire 41 aren’t too high to begin with. The sentiment at HSR has been that things are finally changing, no more of essentially the same old services for years now. And I love that the mapping has been updated (I think it’s a member of this forum doing them?!). Looks quite clean to match the new energy bubbling forward.
 
It really depends on what you a building. Field labour is a big cost for sure, but it is not all the cost.

The construction unions all negotiated wage increases in this past year, ranging from 6-10% over multiple years (generally three). That seems high, but that is below the average level of inflation, and certainly below the level of material cost inflation we have experienced due to fuel, steel, concrete, etc.
Thank you for this. Seems to be a myriad of things raising costs then.
 
As someone who grew up in the far west of Hamilton, I recall always wondering what was this mysterious Fiesta Mall that the bus went to.

I assumed it was some large mall complex like Limeridge or Jackson Square, but then one day we finally drove by it, for whatever reason we would be all the way out there I don't remember, and I discovered it was just a grocery store and a Shoppers Drug Mart, and maybe a bank branch or something, but there was nothing mall about it. I felt betrayed!

It originally had an indoor section with shops, a restaurant, and a bar that connected between two larger anchors, but that's been gone for a while now.

From Facebook:

Screenshot_20230820_071210_Facebook.jpg
 
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Good QOL change. The A Line should be able to generate a lot more ridership than it does currently with this. Likewise, ending the 41A should make the western end far more useful, especially given that the frequencies on the entire 41 aren’t too high to begin with. The sentiment at HSR has been that things are finally changing, no more of essentially the same old services for years now. And I love that the mapping has been updated (I think it’s a member of this forum doing them?!). Looks quite clean to match the new energy bubbling forward.

Retiring the 41-A is also huge. That means a Mohawk bus in/out of the Meadowlands every 15 mins vs every 30 mins.

Mohawk also needs an express bus in anticipation of the Re-Envision plans. Maybe next fare increase lol

I’m curious why they haven’t named the ‘select stops’ the 20 A Line will serve downtown, according to the city’s website “Route 20 will operate express in the lower city, serving select stops.”
It originally had an indoor section with shops, a restaurant, and a bar that connected between two larger anchors, but that's been gone for a while now.

From Facebook:

View attachment 501268


Fiesta Mall was small, equivalent to Queenston Mall which stood at the S-E corner of Queenston & Nash before it was big-boxed.

That centre glass entrance was actually a ‘marquee’ for the movie theatre inside. It was very popular up until the early 2000s right before they tore up this mall.

That movie theatre replaced the drive-in theatre that stood on this spot before Fiesta Mall was built.

This land has been totally under-utilized pretty much it’s entire existence, so it will be nice to see a development like 200 Centennial Parkway around the corner:



The B-Line LRT will eventually extend here, and there’s already lots of intensification happening right across the street, so it’s only a matter of time before this big box blunder is gone!
 
September 25 LRT subcommittee meeting has been posted

Link
September 25 LRT subcommittee meeting

Hmm, does it explain why the City built Enhanced Transit Shelters in front of its rural Mount Hope Offices rather than along the B Line route as intended?

The folks standing in the rain at the Queen Street B-Line stops are asking
 
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Received a response from City Staff:

The 2017 design is the latest available design drawing for Hamilton LRT. The 2017 design is currently being reviewed and updated to incorporate Complete Streets Guidelines, Vision Zero and the Main Street conversion, along with any other new City policies or guidelines adopted after the project was paused in 2019. We anticipate an updated design will be available to the public in early 2024.
 
So...~2035 completion then?
My optimistic timeline is:

Start: Q1 2025
Testing: 2029
Open: 2030

My pessimistic timeline (assuming it's not cancelled or changed significantly):

Start: Q4 2025 - Q1 2026
Testing: 2030/2031
Open: 2031/2032.

So I'd expect sooner than 2035, considering this is a moderately simple project compared to the Ontario Line or Crosstown. I generally take the completion deadline and add 12-24 months for a realistic completion date compared to other transit lines. Eglinton Crosstown is ridiculous because it's like 6 years late.
 
If we look at Waterloo's LRT as a comparable, here's how it went.

Utility relocation: late 2013
Financial close: May 2014
Groundbreaking: August 2014
"90% completion": End of 2016
Open to the public: June 2019

The first announced completion date was late 2017 but by December 2017, only 3 of the vehicles had been delivered by Bombardier. The last vehicle was not delivered until December 2018. It seems likely that the line would've opened in 2018 if not for the vehicle delivery issue. I think the Hamilton LRT is a slightly more complex project due to the bridge over the 403 so I think your 5-year "optimistic" timeline is realistic.

Eglinton Crosstown is ridiculous because it's like 6 years late
I know you're exaggerating but surprisingly, the crosstown is "only" 3 years late (and counting) from its original date of 2020. And for what it's worth, by 2015 the estimate had already been revised to fall 2021 (2 years ago). I think it feels like longer because completion has seemed imminent for ages now!
 
5 years construction is realistic I think - but I fear we are underestimating the procurement timeline. This is going through the typical IO P3 process.

The Hurontario LRT issued it's RFQ in October of 2016, and had it's winning bidder selected October 2019. So 3 years in procurement.

Finch west had its RFQ issued September 2015, winning bidder was selected May 2018. So 2.5 years.

Hamilton hasn't even had it's RFQ issued yet. The last IO market update didn't even list the project as having a tentative time for RFQ issue.

Assuming optimistically the RFQ gets issued Q2 2024, and a 2.5 year procurement, we are looking at:

RFQ: Q2 2024
RFP: Q1 2025
Project Close: Q4 2026
Construction start: Q1 2027
Construction completion: Q1 2032

And that is if the RFQ is issued Q2 2024, and if the procurement process takes only 2.5 years. And if construction takes 5 years.
 

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