Hourly GO trains pitched for Hamilton
Metrolinx is recommending eventual hourly service to Confederation station
HAMILTON — Metrolinx is pitching hourly train service from the yet-to-be-built Confederation station in Hamilton’s east end as part of a planned GO expansion into Niagara. But it remains a mystery how soon all-day GO trains will arrive anywhere in Hamilton — let alone the delayed and scaled-back station at Centennial Parkway on the edge of Stoney Creek. The transit agency’s board will consider an updated business case Friday for GO train expansion that looks at train frequency options to Toronto from east Hamilton, Grimsby, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls. The recommended option includes two-way, hourly service from east Hamilton to Toronto, with the “strongest annual demand” expected at Confederation — up to 808,000 annual boardings by 2031. Under that option, 11 daily trains would also run to and from Union Station in Toronto and Niagara Falls. (Right now, only one daily GO train serves the Niagara region.) Hourly commuter trains would be welcome, said Coun. Chad Collins — but so would a “dependable timeline” for actual service to the east end. “Recently all we’ve heard about are cuts and delays. It’s leaving some of us wondering if (Confederation station) is less of a priority for this government.” The previous Liberal government announced about $150 million to expand GO train service to a new station in east Hamilton back in 2015, alongside its $1billion commitment to light rail transit. The original plan was to open the new GO station this year. But in August, Metrolinx announced a downsizing of the planned Confederation station to a smaller, “self-serve” building and platform. That project will be tendered in the coming months. At the same time, the agency announced a long-awaited increase in train frequency to four trains per morning from Hamilton’s West Harbour station to Toronto. But that’s still a long way off the “all-day” GO service once promised by former premier Dalton McGuinty. GO bus service to the site of the eventual Confederation station began earlier this month — but the new timeline for rail service remains unknown. The updated GO business case bases its latest cost estimates on a 2024 start date, but also stresses that timeline is “hypothetical.” It will cost an estimated $312 million in new infrastructure, including tracks and bridges, to expand the recommended service to east Hamilton and Niagara. Metrolinx has said ongoing negotiations with CN — which owns the busy, cramped rail corridor — are the biggest challenge to expanding all-day commuter service to Hamilton and beyond. It will also take more than station construction to bring trains to Stoney Creek. Earlier this year, Metrolinx president Phil Verster told the Spectator an entirely new rail track needs to be built from West Harbour to Confederation station to ensure GO trains have room to move through the city. Four bridges that cross the tracks between Birch Avenue and the Red Hill Valley Parkway also need work. Metrolinx is also working with the city to study Hamilton’s level crossings — where car traffic bumps over rail tracks — to determine if any should be changed or blocked.