The Hamilton Spectator

All-day GO trains finally arrive

Hourly train service has been promised to Hamilton since 2015. There will now be 14 daily departures during the week from West Harbour GO starting Aug. 7

MATTHEW VAN DONGEN THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR

All-day GO trains will finally arrive in Hamilton next week after years of delay — and as ridership struggles to rebound from record pandemic lows.

Ontario Tory Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney came to town Monday to announce hourly commuter train service — including 14 daily departures on weekdays — will begin at West Harbour GO station Aug. 7.

The former Liberal government once promised all-day GO would arrive at the $44-million James Street North station by 2015 — but as recently as 2019, only two trains departed the much-criticized “ghost station” daily. During the COVID-19 lockdown, the station closed entirely.

“For too long, commuters in Hamilton have had to rely on the Aldershot station to get to downtown Toronto by (GO) transit,” said Mulroney.

The massive ramp-up in train service comes as the GO commuter rail network struggles to rebound from historic ridership lows during pandemic lockdown. During the first six months of COVID, ridership dropped to an average of two riders a day at West Harbour.

The station was a tough sell for transit riders before the pandemic, too, with a daily average of 81 people boarding four Toronto-bound trains in February 2020. By comparison, daily average in Aldershot exceeded 2,600 boardings.

But plenty of those riders hopping the train in Aldershot actually “lived in Hamilton,” said Flamborough-Glanbrook MPP Donna Skelly. The city’s only Tory MPP said 62 per cent of PRESTO card users who parked at the Aldershot GO station pre-pandemic drove there from Hamilton.

The service ramp-up is possible in part because of work in 2019 to add a third track around the bend from Aldershot to West Harbour through a bottlenecked corridor owned by CN Rail.

Metrolinx head Phil Verster said a Hamilton GO expansion announcement might have come earlier — if not for pandemic transit restrictions.

Two morning trains will also depart from the Hamilton GO Centre downtown, in addition to GO bus express trips to Toronto that will gradually ramp back up as the pandemic recedes. A future expansion of train service to an east city station near Centennial Parkway is still in planning, Verster said.

The city plans to improve HSR bus connections to the James Street North station given the looming spike in train departures, but details were not yet available Monday afternoon.

Jan Cousens could only laugh when she heard Monday’s announcement.

The insurance industry worker moved to Hamilton three years ago “under the mistaken impression” the West Harbour GO station would provide regular service to her job in downtown Toronto. Instead, she encountered “locked doors and closed parking lots” as well as unworkable train timings.

The introduction of hourly service is “fantastic news,” said Cousens — but she is now working from home most of the time.

“Still, so many people are moving here from Toronto, I have to think that flexibility is going to be popular.”

It’s too soon to tell exactly how postpandemic transit ridership will rebound, or whether the COVID workfrom-home trend will take a significant bite out of those numbers, said transportation policy expert Matti Siemiatycki.

But the assistant professor at the University of Toronto said it’s heartening to see governments invest in transit to help meet social equity and climate change goals.

“It’s conceivable coming out of the pandemic that more people would end up driving, so I think it’s important to

ve transit services in place that are safe and competitive.”

Mulroney did not put a budget number on the cost of expanded GO service Monday. But the city has been on the receiving end of nearly $4 billion in transit announcements this year, so far.

Just 18 months ago, Mayor Fred Eisenberger condemned the Progressive Conservative government’s “betrayal of Hamilton” after the abrupt cancellation of a long-planned light rail transit line in the city.

But the mayor praised the Tory government Monday, noting it committed alongside the federal Liberals to resurrect LRT with $3.4-billion in joint funding and also teamed up on $370 million in new bus funding for the city.

“You have done more (for Hamilton) than any other minister of transportatt

on,” he said to Mulroney at the announcement.

Matthew Van Dongen is a Hamilton-based reporter covering transportation for

The Spectator. Reach him via email: mvandongen@thespec.com

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2021-07-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

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