Comment 88043

By Noted (anonymous) | Posted April 20, 2013 at 03:44:59 in reply to Comment 88034

Provincial cash to add GO train stop at LIUNA Station
BY JOHN BURMAN Wed Mar 26 2008 20:32:38

One line in the Ontario budget should put GO and VIA Rail passenger trains back on the tracks at Hamilton’s LIUNA Station.

The province is putting up $3 million to put in a platform, ticket kiosk and lighting for a GO Train stop just east of the old CN station on James Street North, now a highly successful banquet centre owned by the Laborers’ International Union of North America.

The move clears the way for Hamilton to have extra GO Train service without track and tunnel bottlenecks that limit the number of trains that can use the Hunter Street terminal.

VIA Rail, which pulled out of the James Street station in 1992, shifting passengers to the Aldershot GO station, has indicated it is interested in using the new platform, returning VIA service to the city, if the GO Transit Authority is on board.

Downtown Ward 2 Councillor Bob Bratina, a member of GO’s board of directors, says the authority — which shifted Hamilton stops from James Street to Hunter Street in 1993 — approves the idea. “They’re onside with this.”

Bratina and Mayor Fred Eisenberger, who pitched the new platform plan to Metrolinx, formerly the Greater Toronto Transit Authority, some time ago, say the new platform could mean more GO trains coming to Hamilton.

MacIsaac said last night that GO trains using the LIUNA stop will supplement, not replace, existing service at the renovated TH&B Hunter Street GO station and bus terminal.
MacIsaac said the provincial government is focused on transit and putting money into it because “we just don’t have enough roads to handle all the people that are coming here. Public transit is going to be the only viable solution for mobility.”

Eisenberger said yesterday the additional service at James Street “won’t be a full blown station, but it’s a beginning to all day service and allows more things to happen.”

“VIA has indicated that if GO will consider it, they will consider putting it on as a stop (for Toronto to Niagara trains).”

“It is a major trigger for having folks consider living in Hamilton or investing here,” he said. “I think it was the smallest line in the budget for things concerning Hamilton but it will have the most impact in the long run,” Eisenberger said, adding he thinks it could be a year or more before any GO trains roll into the station.

Perhaps, the mayor said, this could also open the door to expanded GO Train service into Niagara region.

GO Transit CEO Gary McNeil, who was not available for comment, has said in the past service is expanded to meet passenger demand, not on speculation.

http://www.thespec.com/news/article/167061--provincial-cash-to-add-go-train-stop-at-liuna-station

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