Hamilton Street Railway

Hamilton Street Railway

New Flyer C40LF #510213 on the 5C route in Downtown Hamilton
Founded	1874
Headquarters	Macnab Transit Terminal
Locale	Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Service area	Hamilton and Burlington
Service type	Public transport
Routes	34 + 2 seasonal
Fleet	260 buses[1]
Fuel type	Diesel, CNG, Diesel-electric
Operator	City of Hamilton
Website	www.hamilton.ca/HSR/

The Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) is a public transport agency in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The name is a legacy of the company's early period, when public transit in Hamilton was primarily served by streetcars. Although streetcars are no longer used in the city today, the HSR operates bus and paratransit services, with a ridership of 21 million passengers a year. The HSR uses the Presto card as its method of fare payment, allowing for connections with GO Transit and other transit systems in the Greater Toronto area.^[1]

History

A Hamilton Radial Electric Railway vehicle crosses the Hamilton Harbour swing bridge in 1907.

From 1873 to 1889, the HSR was owned by Lyman Moore and operated as a private business. In 1889 HSR was sold to Hamilton Cataract Interests, later known as Dominion Power and Transmission Company. The HSR was later acquired by Ontario Hydro.

Provincial ownership ended in 1946 when HSR was bought by Canada Coach Lines. CCL was purchased by the city of Hamilton in 1960. Hamilton-Wentworth Region began ownership of CCL and HSR in 1977, and in 2001 regional amalgamation placed its ownership back to the city of Hamilton.

Services

Route histories

In the early 1990s the HSR eliminated many routes by expanding current routes. The following is a list of replaced and withdrawn routes:

HSR replaced and withdrawn routes
1 King	This route had two previous ends of line during this time: 1B King-Reid and 1 King (to Donn Avenue in Stoney Creek). The 1B was replaced by extended service to Eastgate Square and it was changed to 1A King and the 1 King to Donn Avenue was moved to a new terminal at the Fiesta Mall. The 1A operated Monday to Saturday between Eastgate Square and downtown Hamilton and the 1 King operated Sundays only from Fiesta Mall and downtown.
2 Barton	Trips alternated between Melvin & Osborne (2C Barton-Talbot) and the Bell Manor Loop near Grays Road (near the Hamilton/Stoney Creek border). All trips were extended to the Bell Manor Loop.
15 Sherman/Ottawa	Replaced (on Ottawa Street only) first by 4 Bayfront, then 53 Burlington, and eventually 41 Mohawk.
17 Ancaster Local	Withdrawn due to low ridership.
18 Waterdown	Eliminated to Aldershot GO Station due to low ridership and not replaced; reinstated September 2008.
31 Fennell	Replaced by 21 Upper Kenilworth (service moved from Concession Street to Fennell Avenue) and 41 Mohawk (now serving Kenilworth Avenue and Ottawa Street).
32 Garth	Replaced by 35 College (which was extended south of Mohawk College).
45 Limeridge	Eliminated without replacement because Limeridge Road was closed as a through street.
53 Burlington	Replaced by 41 Mohawk (now serving Ottawa Street) and 11 Parkdale (which was extended into Burlington).
57 Nash	Replaced by 4 Bayfront (now serving Nash Road and Quigley Road to Mount Albion Loop).
59 Frances Ave	Four month trial route from October 2, 1989 - February 4, 1990.

Streetcar routes

Streetcars of the Hamilton Street Railway rode a funicular across the Niagara Escarpment.

The HSR operated horsecars from 1874 to 1892 and electric streetcars from 1892 to 1951. Trolley buses replaced streetcars in Hamilton in 1951.

Streetcar routes in Hamilton prior to 1951
Belt Line 1913-1946 (Red Line) James St 1874 King St 1874 Bartonville shuttle 1907 Burlington-Westdale 1941-1946 (Green Line) James Street North 1874 - later as Westdale-James North Burlington Street 1896 - opened by Hamilton Radial Electric Railway; later as Burlington-James South (Yellow Line) King Street West & Westdale 1874 - later as Westdale-James North 1930 Aberdeen-King West 1874-1947 (Yellow Line) York Street 1874 Herkimer Street between James and Queen 1883 - renamed King West-York 1892 (Green Line) Aberdeen late 1870s by Hamilton & Dundas Street Railway; later acquired by HSR and mergered by West Hamilton 1923; renamed Aberdeen-Stuart York & Aberdeen 1930 - replaced Aberdeen-Stuart line; sections closed 1939 and ceased operations along entire route 1947 Crosstown (Sanford) Shuttle 1924-1948 Firestone shuttle 1927-1939 Wentworth 1874-1913 - renamed Wentworth-Stuart and used until 1942

Trolley bus routes

A trolley bus on King Street in 1968

Trolley buses were used by the HSR from 1951 to 1992 along the following routes:

Trolley bus routes of the HSR from 1951 to 1992
King-Barton later as 1 King - until 1987 later as 2 Barton - until 1992 Cannon 1951-1989 later 3 Cannon

Rapid transit

In 1981, during Bill Davis's Progressive Conservative administration, the Province of Ontario offered to finance the construction of a light rail line in Hamilton, from Lloyd D. Jackson Square to the Lime Ridge Mall.^[6] The line would have used the same technology as the Scarborough RT in Toronto. The plans triggered a lot grass-roots opposition, and Hamilton-Wentworth Council turned the proposal down. The plan called for an elevated track—one of the element that triggered opposition. Residents being concerned commuters would be invading their privacy, by looking down on their back-yards and in their second floor windows.

When the CBC News compared the rejected 1981 plan with the 21st Century rapid transit plan they quoted the individual who had been the planning and development manager for Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Government, Doug Lychak, who pointed out that Vancouver's introduction of the same elevated light rail technology, just four years later is widely acknowledged to have been very successful.^[6]

The 1980s light rail plans were to use the UTDC ICTS technology, but the project was scrapped and no lines were created for the HSR.

Hamilton is considering the use of LRT in the city,^[7] and is working with Metrolinx on a plan to get an LRT with 15 years after plans are approved.

The planned BLAST network routes may include:^[8]

• B-Line – Main/King corridor from McMaster University to Eastgate Square
• L-Line – Downtown to Waterdown
• A-Line – James/Upper James corridor from Downtown to John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport
• S-Line – Centennial to Ancaster Business Park
• T-Line – Mohawk to Meadowlands

No vehicles have been chosen, but it may be similar to the Flexity Freedom to be used in Ion rapid transit and Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

Facilities

Terminals and connections

HSR routes from downtown to the Mountain (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 33, and 35) currently use MacNab Transit Terminal, while several lower city routes (4, 6, 7, 8 and 9) have an on-street terminal layover at the intersection of Main and James Streets. 34 has a layover location on King at James.

HSR connects with GO Transit at Hamilton GO Centre, which serves as the terminus for four HSR routes (1, 2, 3, and 51). The station, located at 36 Hunter Street East, a few blocks south of King and James, is the terminus of the GO's Lakeshore West railway line and Express Highway 407 and Queen Elizabeth Way GO Buses. It is also the main Greyhound Lines bus stop (mainly serving London, Ontario and those connections) in Hamilton. Canada Coach Lines, once owned by HSR, is now served by Coach Canada, formerly Trentway-Wagar, and operates routes between Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, and Niagara. It is also the former Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway (TH&B) passenger station, and there is a small museum above the public concourse. HSR routes 2 and 4 also connect with GO at Barton Street & Nash Road in East Hamilton, where a GO bus travels between there and the Burlington GO Station.

At the Mountain Transit Centre transfer point (served by route 27) and a contract with Blue Line Taxi, the HSR also connects with other areas in the northwest portion of the former Glanbrook.

In addition, the HSR is connected with Burlington Transit, as one route (11 Parkdale) travels into Burlington via Burlington Beach, 18 Waterdown connects with BT at Aldershot GO Station, and BT Route 1 enters downtown Hamilton from Plains Road West. Also '9 Rock Gardens' travels into Burlington going into the Royal Botanical Gardens during the summer months.

Fares

Metrolinx and HSR have partnered to operate the Presto electronic fare card. The project aims to standardize fare collection systems across transit agencies in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. The system is currently operational.^[11]

Gallery

• 
  Two of the Hamilton Street Railway’s former Flyer E800 trolley buses are preserved at the Halton County Radial Railway museum.
• 
  Hamilton Street Railway Orion V 8907 on the 34A route at the intersection of King and James Streets in downtown Hamilton.
• 
  New Flyer D40LFs like this one seen at McMaster University form much of the HSR’s recent bus fleet.
• 
  In 2007, the HSR introduced articulated hybrid buses for the route 10 Beeline Express.
• 
  Route 99 - Waterfront Shuttle (2008).

Staff

Most staff at HSR are members (bus operators, mechanics and other transit workers) of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 107. The local was formed in 1899 and also represents transit workers at Mississauga Transit. The local does not represent those working on city's paratransit service, Disabled and Aged Regional Transportation System (DARTS).

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hamilton Street Railway.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Streetcars of the Hamilton Street Railway.

• Mills, John M. (1971). Cataract Traction:The Railways of Hamilton. Canadian Traction Series. Volume 2. Toronto: Upper Canada Railway Society & Ontario Electric Railway Historical Association. p. 116.

External links

• Official website
• HSR history
• Bus News Spring 2010