Via Rail Terminal in Hamilton *CANCELLED*

[Sean]

Issue Description

Accessing the Via Rail service from the Hamilton core is a pain for anyone who doesn't own a car. The closest station is Aldershot, and the transit options to get there are less than ideal (GO bus, Burlington Transit or Taxicab). Additionally, there is no incentive for anyone to travel to hamilton by rail. We are one of Canada's largest cities without a Via Rail station. Here is a list of the top twenty cities in terms of population as of 2001:

Code: Select all

City                Population Via Service
Toronto              4,683,000     Yes   
Montreal             3,426,000     Yes   
Vancouver            1,987,000     Yes   
Ottawa - Hull        1,064,000     Yes   
Calgary               951,000      No
Edmonton              938,000      Yes   
Quebec                683,000      Yes   
Winnipeg              671,000      Yes   
Hamilton              662,000      No
London                432,000      Yes   
Kitchener             414,000      Yes   
St. Catharines        377,000      Yes   
Halifax               359,000      Yes   
Victoria              312,000      Yes   
Windsor               308,000      Yes   
Oshawa                296,000      Yes   
Saskatoon             226,000      Yes   
Regina                193,000      No     
St. John's            173,000      No
Greater Sudbury       156,000      Yes   

It is interesting to note that Calgary, Regina and St. John's are nowhere near a via rail line. Nor is Victoria, but there is a tourist train there. Meanwhile, two major lines touch the City of Hamilton border, and the Niagara line barrels right through town. Hamilton needs (and deserves) a Via rail station of its own.

Timeline

Budget Proposed: 2003
Project Cancelled: 2004
Completion date: CANCELLED

Updates

September 26, 2006
Your wish to see improved rail services in Hamilton is understandable. Although Federal funding was set aside for such a project in 2003, a change in government at the end of 2003 resulted in a revision of the funding by the Federal government, and several projects have not been renewed.

[Sean]

Good news from Raise The Hammer: the station plans are still on the table at City Hall. Perhaps this is not on the radar over at Via Rail since "the original premise was that no decision be made until the City of Hamilton puts its case forward" -- sounds like they are waiting for us to make a move. Both responses from via rail indicate that the project was on the table but is no longer:


Date Wed, 27 Sep 2006 10:13 AM
From Customer_Relations.VIA@viarail.ca
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for your additional comments. Unfortunately, there are currently no plans to open a station in Hamilton.
Sincerely,
Danielle Lavoie
Customer Relations


Hopefully this changes. And hopefully they put the station downtown. A Via station in Stoney Creek is not going to be any better than the one we already have in Aldershot.

[sugarton]

Out of curiosity, which is the next station East of Hamilton on the route VIA takes? St. Catherines?

I honestly think abandoning the CN station on James (current LIUNA) was a very bad idea. If it were still in use we could be enjoying frequent GO service as well as VIA service. As it is currently, the GO trains must take a route that just can't handle the capacity that this city will need in the near future. Very bad planning.

well thats just my 2 cents.

[Sean]

The GO Transit situation will be improving. THey are working on bottleneck relief through Aldershot, and most trains that currently turn around in Burlington will go all the way to aldershot starting (I believe) sometime 2008. It's not perfect but it's a step closer!

It would be great if the current GO station could be used for VIA trains as well, but the VIA line to niagara follows the waterfront and does not come through the city centre (LIUNA Station is on the NIafgara line, and I agree it shoul dhave remained a station).

At any rate, it would be ridiculous to put a VIA station outside of the core. All this talk about downtown revitalization would appear to me to be BS if they can't even see the advantages of linking our downtown to the national passenger train network.

[Chips]

As a citizen in Hamilton who is concerned with the revitalization of the downtown core I truly feel a GO terminal with regular (regular being the key word) would do wonders for the downtown revitalization of Hamilton. How many people commute regularly to Toronto, but are forced to buy expensive houses in the Burlington/Oakville/Port Credit area? With beautiful Victorian-era houses available within a short walking distance to the GO station AND available around the $200k price range (i.e. affordable), regular GO service could really get the Toronto Commuters moving into and around the downtown core.

More people with disposable income = more business for the downtown core. Hopefully this project stays on track!

[Chips]

I should also mention that because the QEW seems to be a parking lot now between the hours of 6am and 7pm (regardless of the day of the week), that should also help people make the switch to the GO train!

[Sean]

The QEW through Burlington has got to be the worst rush-hour drive in the country. I'd say worse than Gardiner or DVP even. It's just a stretch of gridlock from the Oakville 403 ramp all the way to the Hamilton Main W cutoff. Boy am I glad I don't drive that anymore.

[Jon Dalton]

My old hometown of St. Marys with a popluation of 7000 still has a Via station, and Ontario's 3rd largest city doesn't.

Reading up on this somewhere I found out the reason was to consolidate the Hamilton / Burlington area stops to one station, and Aldershot is central to the two. But one key point to train travel is it's downtown to downtown, without delay, it goes straight to the centre of the city. Train stations belong downtown, not in rural or suburban areas where we have to drive or take the bus. The go bus service to Aldershot is frequent and reliable, but still has to contend with traffic sometimes and it's timed to meet the Go trains leaving burlington and Aldershot, not the Via trains.

Yes, this was definitely a piss poor decision similar to the one Go recently made to locate the new Barrie station in the city's extreme south end so you spend another hour taking the bus somewhere. It might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but does not work for the future.

At this time, the Via Rail system is hurting because it lacks ridership. I ride the rails everyday on Go trains and see Via trains passing with only 2 cars. It's suffering from the viscious cycle of low ridership and high fares perpetuating eachother. And if you're going anywhere except Niagara or into the US on Amtrak, you have to go to Toronto first and catch another train that might be several hours later. In most cases it would be cheaper and faster, and result in less waiting time, to take Go Transit to Toronto instead, for that short trip.

We need to preserve the rails in Hamilton and keep the old train station becuase in the future as highways get worse and gas gets more expensive, trains will take over more and more. They may be more expensive now but later on energy will be the biggest factor and rail is far superior in that regard. So the most important thing is not to tear up tracks and not to demolish train stations or sell them off for other uses.

Oh yeah, Sean - I agree on the QEW situation. I drove that route every day for 2 years and spent up to 50 minutes between Hamilton and Burlington. I've been taking the Go trains from Hamilton for just over a year and man what a relief it is. We might get the short end of the stick for Go service here, but every time I have to drive that route again I'm thankful for the 7 direct trains we do have.

[Jon Dalton]

There is a very sound logistical reason they consolidated operations in Aldershot - it is located just before the wye junction that seperates trains bound for Brantford and Windsor from trains bound for Hamilton and Niagara Falls. Having the station at Aldershot means trains from both of those branches will pass through the same station. This is nothing new - it's the reason Hamilton got screwed by the Grand Trunk Railway (eventually CN) a century ago, and a big part of why the Toronto Hamilton and Buffalo Railway (eventually taken over by CP) was built into the south end in what is now our GO station. VIA favoured CN lines when it took over both CN and CP's passenger service, and that's also why Calgary gets no train today - CP went through Calgary but CN went through Edmonton. So no surprises, a hundred years later we get screwed again.

[Sean]

There is no reason the Niagara bound trains can't stop in Hamilton. The Aldershot station is in a horrible spot for everyone. Visitors to Burlington or Hamilton arrive there, shrug their shoulders and ask themselves "Now how the hell do I get into town?" Both Hamilton and Burlington should be fighting for two separate proper stops. Aldershot is destined to become exclusively GO. Someone screwed up big time in planning that station.

[Jon Dalton]

I agree 100%. Aldershot is a low density suburb, Hamilton is an urban centre with a population of 500,000, and that alone warrants having a train station. Aldershot was chosen for its location alone, with its close proximity to Hamilton as an excuse to bypass Ontario's 3rd largest city on VIA's main corridor.

If Hamilton is put back on the map for VIA trains, it only makes sense that Aldershot is taken off, and this means reconfiguring routes so that trains going to London stopped in Hamilton on the way. This would add time to the schedule, but as all forward thinking Hamiltonians would agree, we're worth it.

In the early days, when all trains stopped in Hamilton, they would have to backtrack to Hamilton Junction, then switch to the westbound track. This would add at least 1/2 hour to to schedule, and I wouldn't propose reverting to this method. The track situation needs to be improved so that trains can come into Hamilton, then continue either to Niagara Falls or to Brantford along a direct route.

There used to be a thing called building new train tracks, that was used to solve exactly this type of problem, but nowadays I guess it's just not in the budget.

We've got a problem of having 2 stations, and 3 branches of track - Toronto, Brantford and Niagara, where each station serves 2 of 3 destinations but not the other. Again this was done a hundred years ago for the same reason, but looking to the future do we want to keep both stations, or reconfigure the tracks to use just one? From a heritage perspective I'd hate to see either one of them abandoned.

(edited to remove factually incorrect statement)

[sil]

I have read so much on this topic and am angered at the fact that we do not have a via rail yet. In order to get service back into Hamilton and to bring the city back to life we need to look at whos calling the shots.... yes folks the major of hamilton Fred Eisenberger, Hamilton needs to stand up and let City Hall know this isnt working.... i was walking the other day up King Street and was so discusted with the streets and how many vacant houses there were, this isn't Detroit and nor do we want it to be....... we need to stand tall and make our voices heard...... call your ward member and let them know they cant silence us all.

[fae]

It blows my mind that there still isn't a proper train station in Hamilton. Could we get High school Students writing essays about city planning and the many reasons why this is a matter of importance and give out prizes to the winning essays? Maybe we could even get youth to design a plan for a station teachers could work it into the cirriculum and who knows there could be a great public event with all the ideas showcased and some presentations by the winners. Press and politicians like kids it's a new way to help people pay attention.