Last week I spent a couple days in the Toronto-Hamilton area for meetings and shopping for the few remaining good deals left in real estate. When all-day GO train service to Hamilton starts and is expanded to Niagara, plus the light rail line is built through Hamilton's City Centre, the affordable real estate will be gone.

 

So we start in Hamilton which is about 40 miles from downtown Toronto. Hamilton has 530,000 people and is shedding its industrial past. Yet it still has the reputation of a crime-ridden city by Canadian standards. Last year Hamilton had 15 murders (which includes drug overdoses). That's double their normal level, so special commissions were impaneled to deal with the crisis! Much-larger Toronto had its 41st murder in 2015 while I was there last week. Meanwhile Cleveland is at over 100 murders in 2015 with two months left to go. Anyway... I digress.

 

Let's orient ourselves on the Greater Toronto-Hamilton (GTH) Region from a transit perspective. This graphic represents the "Big Move" $50 billion capital improvement plan for GTH. It shows existing and planned higher-level transit routes (ie: not regular route buses on city streets). Red lines are subways. Green lines are GO train regional rail services (soon to operate all-day on most routes and be converted from diesel to electric power), and the yellow is either light-rail, bus rapid transit or some other fixed-guideway transit service. This map is actually a little out of date because Metrolinx, which owns and manages all transit in the GTH region, has decided that the yellow line through Hamilton to Stoney Creek will actually be a GO train service and is already funding it to the tune of $150 million in track and station upgrades with plans to extend to St. Catharines and Niagara Falls. It is a different world in the GTH (see the Canada rail discussion thread at http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,30043.0.html for more):

 

TheBigMoveMap_Jan2013 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Here's the funded rail transit capital improvements in Hamilton, including a $150 million extension of the new GO Transit line to the Habourfront station and thence to the Centennial Station where the QEW and Centenntial Boulevard converge. This line will enable a planned extension of year-round, all-day GO train service to St. Catharines and Niagara Falls, which has frequent GO bus service. But they want trains, not buses. Also, Hamilton will see construction of its $1 billion, 8-mile light rail line along King Street with a branch up James Street to the new Harbourfront GO station that opened last summer. Future plans have light-rail service going south on James Street and up the escarpment to the annex of St. Joseph Hospital and Mohawk College. There's also a decent amount of housing and shopping up the hill, too.

 

Hamilton_B-Line_LRT_EN-850x545 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

 

Some views of central Hamilton...

 

Hamilton-ON-110215-2 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Hamilton-ON-110215-1 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Hamilton-ON-110215-9 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

This sign suggests that people were trying to toboggan down the Niagara Escarpment into Hamilton, perhaps 300-400 feet below, and that behavior had to be stopped. Yeh couldn't pay me a billion loonies to go aboot it, eh!

No Tobogganing by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Hess Street nightlife district (mansions converted into restaurants and nightclubs):

Hamilton-ON-110215-3 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Just west of James Street:

Hamilton-ON-110315-10 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Hamilton-ON-110315-9 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

James Street at the GO Centre:

Hamilton-ON-110315-8 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Hamilton-ON-110315-7 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Hamilton-ON-110315-6 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

 

 

Along King Street east of downtown, where the light-rail line will run:

Hamilton-ON-110315-11 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Hamilton-ON-110315-5 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

 

Driving around downtown Hamilton:

Hamilton-ON-110215-6 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Hamilton-ON-110215-5 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Hamilton-ON-110215-7 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Hamilton-ON-110215-8 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Night view from the Staybridge Suites in downtown Hamilton:

Hamilton-ON-110215-4 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Waking up before sunrise:

Hamilton-ON-110315-4 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Walking the six blocks to GO Centre:

Hamilton-ON-110315-2 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

GO trains travel through the west side of downtown in a tunnel. This is a view looking east from the top of the tunnel toward GO Centre:

Hamilton-ON-110315-3 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Hamilton-ON-110315-1 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

GO Centre, formerly the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railway station, now the station for GO trains and buses, plus Greyhound:

Hamilton-GO Centre-110315-3 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Hamilton-GO Centre-110315-2 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Hamilton-GO Centre-110315-1 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Hamilton-GO train-110315-2 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Hamilton-GO train-110315 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Views from the GO train, heading from Hamilton to Toronto, starting at Bayview at the west end of Lake Ontario. There are only six trains a day from Hamilton to Toronto. Several miles away on the section with far fewer freight trains, the GO trains run every 30 minutes off-peak. Soon, this route and six others will be improved to every 15 minutes and trains converted from diesel to electric power from overhead wires, a $5 billion investment (part of a $50 billion investment by Ontario now underway for Toronto transit):

Bayview GO train-110315-2 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Bayview GO train-110315-1 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Bayview GO train-110315-3 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

GO train passengers2 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

GO train passengers1 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Passengers on platform-GO-110315 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

GO trains-maintenancefacility-110315 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Toronto-GardinerExpy-GOtrain-110315 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Toronto-skyline-fromGOtrain-110315 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

The new Union-Pearson Express which runs every 15 minutes between Toronto Union Station and Pearson International Airport, stopping at only two intermediate stations for cross-town transit lines. All of the stations are enclosed and climate-protected, and the train's doors line up with the station platform's doors so in the dead of winter you can go from your plane to walking throughout Toronto's underground city (connects most major buildings downtown) without ever having to go outside. The U-P Express-only portion cost nearly $500 million to build, but it operates over the Georgetown South corridor shared with GO commuter trains, VIA intercity passenger trains and CN freight trains (now have their own tracks) which was upgraded from a weed-choked rail line to a four-track mainline for $1.2 billion. It will soon be electrified too:

UP express-110315 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Toronto Union Station is undergoing a major facelift and expansion of tracks to accommodate more GO trains to be operated every 15 minutes or better like long-distance rapid transit services, including a new glassy trainshed replacing the rusty hulk below:

Toronto Union Station-LARGE1 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Toronto Union Station-110315-5 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Toronto Union Station-110315-4 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Toronto Union Station-110315-3 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Toronto Union-GO Train-110315 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Toronto Union Station-110315-2 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

 

Toronto Union Station-CN Tower-2015 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Streetcar on King Street. Briefly saw one of the new, larger streetcars that can accommodate over 100 passengers but I couldn't get a picture of it. Most of Toronto's streetcar are still the smaller "Red Rockets":

Toronto streetcar-KingSt-110315 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Toronto Union Station-110315-6 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Toronto Union Station-110315 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

On our way back to Hamilton, there is no direct train all the way into Hamilton during off-peak hours so we transfer from train to bus at Aldershot for the 15-minute bus ride into downtown Hamilton. Track improvements are already underway for expansion of train service into Hamilton. When that happens, Hamilton's real estate market will grow faster:

GO train-Aldershot-110315 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

New pedestrian underpass below the tracks at Aldershot GO station:

Aldershot-station-pedunderpass-110315 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

Real estate advertising in the GO station at Aldershot, currently the western terminus of the all-day GO train service, but soon to be extended to Hamilton and then to the Niagara Frontier:

Aldershot-stationad-townhouses-110315 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

All trains are met by at least two GO buses, 1 to Hamilton GO Centre and 2 to McMaster University between Hamilton and Dundas. There is an 8-minute connection between train and bus:

GO Transit bus-Aldershot-110315 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

 

 

Heading back to Cleveland on I-90, On Highways & Interstates Only (OHIO)....

Interstate90-GirardPA-110315 by Ken Prendergast, on Flickr

Nice set.  Glad to see our neighbors to the north diving headlong into HSR and electrified regional rail... The Art Deco interior of the Hamilton rail/bus station looks almost identical to Cleveland's soon-to-be-abandoned Greyhound station.

at bg we used to take the train from windsor to toronto for the weekend. they had $99 train/hotel special deals - it was a lot of fun.

at bg we used to take the train from windsor to toronto for the weekend. they had $99 train/hotel special deals - it was a lot of fun.

Maybe one day we can take the train from Toledo to Detroit...or gasp...from BG!

Or even a train from Detroit to Windsor...