41B

Now I recognize very well the futility of attempting to improve the HSR. It’s quite clear that our elected officials have no interest in maintaining anything other than a bare bones transit system. Even city staff, who by and large all drive (because why wouldn’t you if you could) could care less about building the HSR into a formidable alternative to their beloved cars. Still I’ll make this plea for an improvement to transit in the heartland of the car nonetheless.

It seems to me that people on the mountain are sick and tired of waiting for buses that rarely come and when they do take forever to get you anywhere fast because of all those stops. I grew up at the top of the Jolley Cut so I had literally dozens of buses to choose from but most mountain dwellers have only one option. Quite reasonably they choose to take their cars to get around. But a side effect of this decision is that Hamilton has to spend millions on highways to provide for all these vehicles; the Red Hill Creek Expressway is only the first of many, I promise. Comparatively a small investment in the HSR would yield a better return on investment than decades of building and maintaining expensive highways. Remember a full bus can take 40 cars off the road.

The main street on the mountain running east to west is Mohawk Road. Interestingly the current bus route 41 Mohawk can take you from Ancaster to the heart of the steel mills near Ottawa and Kenilworth, with all stops in between. Unfortunately, this service is anything but quick so isn’t a serious option for steelworkers or other downtown workers coming in from the mountain. If you’ve ever traveled it you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Therefore I propose that a mountain beeline service be added to increase the number of buses running along this route. It would only make major stops along the way like its downtown cousin and run at the same times and on the same days. The beeline service should extend the current Mohawk route by connecting via Ancaster to McMaster University; McMaster is a major destination and should have direct access from the mountain.

It seems to me there are several advantages of this mountain beeline route:

• It would make the Meadowlands more accessible to shoppers that don’t have cars
• Becomes an alternative to passing through downtown to McMaster University and reduces the rampant overcrowding on buses running from downtown to Mac
• It would complete a rapid transit ring road of sorts around Hamilton
• Connects transit users with Chedoke Hospital and Mohawk College reasonably close to the current 41 Mohawk route
• It would fit with the City of Hamilton’s proposed GRIDS solution of nodes and corridors with transit hubs at Limeridge Mall, Meadowlands and McMaster University
• Related to GRIDS, Mohawk Road could be opened up to increased high density development to complement the buildings already present (James to Wentworth) if potential tenants had access to a rapid bus service
• Ancaster would be connected to rest of Hamilton through reliable transit not the current abysmal system