Transport inHamilton, Ontario consists of a variety of modes.
John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport, located on the tip ofHamilton Mountain atMount Hope in the formerGlanbrook Township, is the busiest air cargo hub in Canada.WestJet, for several years up until 2010 used theairport as their primary point of access to Southern Ontario over the more expensiveToronto Pearson International Airport. The airport is a major lower-cost alternative toPearson forcargo air service. It is also home to theCanadian Warplane Heritage Museum.[1] Currently the Airport needs 10 km2 of new employment land to handle its growth for the next 25 years; farmland around the airport is the best option available. A report byHemson Consulting[2] says the city will need greenfields the size of theRoyal Botanical Gardens on which to locate businesses that will generate an estimated 59,000 jobs by 2031.Aerotropolis, a proposed 10.5 km2 industrial park at Highway 6 and 403, has been a hotly debated issue atHamilton City Hall for years. Opponents feel the city needs to do more investigation about the cost to taxpayers before embarking on the project.[3]
Canadian National Railways (CN) serves Hamilton for lifting and setting offtraffic for the Rail America (Southern Ontario Railway Shortline), but as heavy industry declined and the preferred mode oftransportation changed to road, the number of branch lines and feeder tracks has declined dramatically. Until the early 1970s, theToronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway offered passenger service. Since the late 1980s,GO Transit has offered sporadic passenger train service from itsJames Street North station. In the late 1990s, GO Transit operations were consolidated at the refurbishedArt Deco building onHunter Street which formerly served the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo service. GO trains andbuses serve apopulation of six million in an 8,000 km2 area (3,000 sq.mi.) radiating fromDowntownToronto toHamilton andGuelph in the west;Orangeville,Barrie, andBeaverton to the north; andPort Perry,Oshawa, andNewcastle in the east. The buses extend GO's service as far as over 100 km (about 60 miles) from Downtown Toronto. GO connects with every municipal transit system in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton areas, including theToronto Transit Commission (TTC). The TH&B station retains its name today, at the GO Transit network located in the heart of Hamilton's downtown core. The nearestVia Rail Canada station is atAldershot GO Station in westBurlington.
Hamilton has good bus connections with cities in southern Ontario.GO Transit offers frequent and reliable express bus service to Toronto, now fromHamilton GO Centre and formerly fromRebecca Street.
Within the city, theHamilton Street Railway offers good service in the lower city (especially on east-west routes), reduced service on the Mountain and skeletal service outside the old city of Hamilton (except forDundas, which is served about as well as the Mountain). The name is a legacy of the days when the majority of public transit vehicles werestreetcars; the present-day Hamilton Street Railway is in fact built around bus services.Burlington Transit also serves Burlington viaYork Boulevard and the formerHighway 2, and HSR connects downtown Burlington under theBurlington Skyway Bridge.
The following controlled accesshighways andexpressways serveHamilton, Ontario:
Queen Elizabeth Way, north Hamilton andStoney Creek
Highway 403,Ancaster and west Hamilton
Highway 2, various streets, includingYork Boulevard andDundurn Street.
Highway 5, decommissioned in 1997 by theOntario Government. Currently runs from Highway 6 at Clappison's Corners, north.
Highway 6,Flamborough, Hamilton andGlanbrook, including access toJohn C. Munro Hamilton International Airport
Highway 8,Dundas (Cootes Drive), Hamilton and Stoney Creek
Highway 20, East HamiltonAll of the old city of Hamilton is on a broken great grid pattern, with major north-south streets spaced approximately one half-mile apart and major east-west streets generally spaced six tenths of a mile apart - thus enclosing 160 acre concessions. Great grid streets on the Mountain bear the name of their lower city counterparts with the prefix "Upper" except for Garth Street, which would be UpperDundurn Street if the pattern held.
East-west streets on the central and east Mountain are pretty regular, while those in the lower city (especially major ones) and west Mountain are very irregular.King andMain Streets run approximately parallel to one another though they intersect atThe Delta. They are usually one-way streets in opposite directions, so they are best conceptualized as a single very wide boulevard and are envied by other Ontario cities for their usually efficient flow of traffic.
However, some contend that the very efficiency that makes driving easy discourages pedestrian street life and hurts downtown businesses. Streets that have recently converted from one-way to two-way, likeJames Street North, have enjoyed a resurgence in local business, reinvestment in buildings, and improving economic activity.
Mountain Accesses in the city of Hamilton include the following:[4]
There are 389 Bridges and culverts in Hamilton including 25 bridges being built for theRed Hill Valley Parkway. Total Replacement value is more than $350-million. Hamilton has the second largest number of municipal bridges in Ontario. Up to $6-million is spent annually on bridge projects.
22-point inspections (including the deck, hand railings, expansion joints, approaches and substructure) are conducted every two years by engineering firms. TheMary Street bridge is closed to vehicle traffic and will become a pedestrian bridge once aFerguson Avenue bridge is completed. TheRay Street pedestrian bridge north ofHunter Street was closed after an inspection.
As of 8 January 2007,Dundurn Street South is closed betweenMain Street West andHill Street until the end of June 2007 whileCanadian Pacific Railway replaces the bridge nearestMain Street. The city of Hamilton and CPR are splitting the $2.2-million cost.[6] On June 27, 2007, One half of theAberdeen Avenue bridge overHighway 403 was closed for emergency repairs because a hole appeared in the deck.[7]
On July 25, 2008, a newly constructed bridge opened up on Ferguson Avenue North, just north of Barton Street East, toSimcoe Street East. This part of Ferguson was separated byCN railway tracks and better connects the downtown to Hamilton's waterfront. The $4.6 million construction project began in November 2006 and includes one lane of traffic in each direction, bicycle lanes andsidewalks. This project is also in line with Hamilton’s recently adoptedTransportation Master Plan which emphasizes enhanced cycling and walking facilities and an efficient road network to supporteconomic development. This construction project received federal funding through theFederal Gas Tax Fund.[8][9][10]
