Hamilton LRT

 

So Hamilton is being offered 3.4 billion dollars to build an LRT? Is this not just a single line LRT from University Plaza to Eastgate? How does that cost so much?

If we're talking LRT lines snaking all over the city and up the Mountain to the Lime Ridge Transit Center, well, I'm listening.

Previously, businesses along King St objected to the LRT. While it is obviously good for business once running, it is challenging on business during construction.

I will admit that the streetcar lines added to Spadina Chinatown in Toronto are definitely a big improvement. And you can very conveniently take a streetcar from Union Station to Chinatown. And it looks nice too.

What I find ironically funny is that Hamilton had an LRT long before it had buses. Back then, the Mountain was mostly farmland, and there were no roads up the Mountain as there are now. A funicular operated at the south end of James St. There was even a small hotel at the top of the funicular.

Hamilton’s public transit system today, albeit all buses, is called HSR, which stands for Hamilton Street Railway.

Long ago, the rails were pulled up, but electric buses known as "trolley buses" continued to run with a busy network of overhead power lines in the downtown area into the early 1970's.

Later, those wires were removed. Most recently, a new downtown bus terminal was opened on MacNab St, and moved from Gore Park.

Now they want to spend $3.4 billion to build a Hamilton Street Railway? I may look stupid, but I'm not really stupid.

But $3.4 billion? Who is paying for it? With what money? Oh, they're just printing money to pay for it? Who pays for the printed money? Printed money steals from everybody's savings, forces everybody to pay more for basic commodities, and forces everybody into higher tax brackets as they have to earn more, cheaper money, to pay for basic living expenses.

That's if the general public continues to trust the federal government, and continues to accept their funny money. Once no one accepts it, it will become worthless, and will hyperinflate.

To come back on a positive note, I have used the LRT's in Calgary (C-Train) and Silicon Valley (VTA), and they both work very well. Calgary Transit reports that it costs $1.00 per passenger mile to move someone on a bus and only 10 cents per passenger mile to move someone on the C-Train. So there is a huge cost saving in operation: the notion being that an LRT tends to pay for its up-front investment in long-term operation.

And it has its share of accidents. Buses have accidents too. Calgary had a two year old boy fall off a downtown platform in front of an arriving C-Train. The operator tried, but could not physically stop his train in time.

That accident could easily be attributed to careless supervision, as the child's uncle had allowed the child to run aimlessly around the platform without training the child in basic rail safety.

(But if they allow a four-year-old kid to choose his gender identity, why not let him choose his own train platform safety. Let him choose what food he wants to eat. Let him choose if he wants to go to school. Let him choose when to come in at night.)

Composed by ABK, May 2021