Hamilton Street Railway

The Hamilton Street Railway commonly known as the HSR is a public transport agency in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The name is a legacy of the company's early period, when public transit in Hamilton was primarily served by streetcars. Although streetcars are no longer used in the city today, the HSR operates bus and paratransit services, with a ridership of 21 million passengers a year. The HSR uses the Presto card as its method of fare payment, allowing for connections with GO Transit and other transit systems in the Greater Toronto area.

History

From 1873 to 1889, the HSR was owned by Lyman Moore and operated as a private business. In 1889 HSR was sold to Hamilton Cataract Interests, later known as Dominion Power and Transmission Company. The HSR was later acquired by Ontario Hydro.

Provincial ownership ended in 1946 when HSR was bought by Canada Coach Lines. CCL was purchased by the city of Hamilton in 1960. Hamilton-Wentworth Region began ownership of CCL and HSR in 1977, and in 2001 regional amalgamation placed its ownership back to the city of Hamilton.

Other streetcar systems

* 1873–1923: Hamilton & Dundas Street Railway
* 1891–1931: Hamilton, Grimsby & Beamsville Electric Railway
* 1893–1925: Hamilton Radial Electric Railway
* 1896–1931: Brantford & Hamilton Electric Railway
* 1907–1930s: Hamilton Terminal Company

Services

Bus routes

Most bus routes in Hamilton operate all of the week, from early morning to late at a night, or past midnight. Headways mostly range from between 6 and 30 minutes, and most routes being 20 minutes or better on weekdays, usually between 12 and 20 minutes frequencies, depending on time of day.

On weekends, frequencies are reduced, and services are usually altered or unavailable on holidays.

There are some special bus routes that only operate during certains times of year, enter Burlington, or otherwise operate in different ways from the majority of routes.

Route histories

In the early 1990s the HSR eliminated many routes by expanding current routes. The following is a list of replaced and withdrawn routes:

Streetcar routes

The HSR operated horsecars from 1874 to 1892 and electric streetcars from 1892 to 1951. Trolley buses replaced streetcars in Hamilton in December 1950 and 1951.

Trolley bus routes

Trolley buses were used by the HSR from 1950 to 1992 on the routes listed in the table below. Hamilton's trolley bus system opened on 10 December 1950, and the last day of trolley bus service was 30 December 1992.

Trans-Cab

Introduced in 1998 as a two-year pilot project, Trans-Cab is a shared-ride taxi service between HSR and specific local taxi providers, currently offered in portions of Glanbrook and Stoney Creek.

Accessible transportation

Accessible Transportation Services (ATS) is the section that administers a variety of accessible services on behalf of the City
* Accessible low-floor (ALF) buses provide level entry and exit to accommodate wheelchairs and walkers. It is anticipated that the entire HSR fleet will be accessible by 2009.
* Disabled and Aged Regional Transportation System (DARTS) is a non profit charitable organization that is the paratransit service provider.
* Taxi Scrip program provides discounted taxi coupons for ATS registered persons who are unable to access regular transit buses.

Mountain Climber

In 2017, HSR launched a program called "Mountain Climber," that allows cyclists ride on the bus to get up and down Hamilton Mountain for free. This program was made permanent in 2018 and has since been expanded to include more stops.

Participating bus stops are located along major roads at the base and crest of the escarpment. People with bicycles load them onto the bus' front rack, and when boarding, tell the bus operator they are riding under Mountain Climber for free. The routes are very limited in length, and provide a safe way for cyclists to ascend or descend the mountain, in order to encourage active transportation.

Rapid transit

In 1981, during Bill Davis's Progressive Conservative administration, the Province of Ontario offered to finance the construction of a light rail line in Hamilton, from Lloyd D. Jackson Square to the Lime Ridge Mall.

The line would have used the same technology as the Scarborough RT in Toronto. The plans triggered a lot of grass-roots opposition, and Hamilton-Wentworth Council turned the proposal down.
The plan called for an elevated track—one of the elements that triggered opposition, with residents being concerned commuters would be invading their privacy, by looking down on their back-yards and in their second floor windows.

When the ''CBC News'' compared the rejected 1981 plan with the 21st Century rapid transit plan, they quoted the individual who had been the planning and development manager for Hamilton-Wentworth Regional Government, Doug Lychak, who pointed out that Vancouver's introduction of the same elevated light rail technology, just four years later, is widely acknowledged to have been very successful.

The 1980s light rail plans were to use the UTDC ICTS technology, but the project was scrapped and no lines were created for the HSR.

Hamilton and Metrolinx will build a provincially-funded LRT line (Hamilton LRT) in the early 2020s. Land acquisition and building demolition for a 14 kilometre line from McMaster University to Eastgate Square will proceed in 2019. No vehicles have been chosen, but the trains may be similar to the Flexity Freedom to be used in Waterloo Region's Ion rapid transit and Toronto's Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

:The planned BLAST network routes may eventually include:
:* B-Line – Main/King corridor from McMaster University to Eastgate Square
:* L-Line – Downtown to Waterdown
:* A-Line – James/Upper James corridor from Downtown to John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport
:* S-Line – Confederation GO Station to Ancaster Business Park
:* T-Line – Mohawk to Meadowlands

In December 2019, the Government of Ontario cancelled the B-line LRT project in favour of providing investment in existing transit services.

Facilities

Barns/garages

* 1875 first horsebarn opens
* 1887 second horsebarn opens
* 1889 Sanford Avenue carhouse opens
* 1927–1990 Wentworth Street North carbarn/garage opens (machine shops, etc.)
* 1984–1996, 1998–present Mountain Regional Transit Centre on Upper James Street
* 1990–1998 Wentworth Street Transit Centre

Loops

Terminals and connections

HSR routes from downtown to the Mountain (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 33, and 35) currently use MacNab Transit Terminal, while several lower city routes (4, 6, 7, 8 and 9) have an on-street terminal layover at the intersection of Main and James Streets. Route 34 has a layover location on Main at MacNab.

HSR connects with GO Transit at Hamilton GO Centre, which serves as the terminus for four HSR routes (1, 2, 3, and 51). The station, located at 36 Hunter Street East, a few blocks south of King and James, is the terminus of the Lakeshore West railway line and express Highway 407 and Queen Elizabeth Way GO Buses. It is also the former home of the main Greyhound Lines bus stop, prior to Greyhound Canada's Canada-wide closure in 2021. It is also the former Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway (TH&B) passenger station, and there is a small museum above the public concourse. HSR routes 2 and 4 also connect with GO at Barton Street & Nash Road in East Hamilton, where a GO bus travels between there and the Burlington GO Station.

At the Mountain Transit Centre transfer point (served by route 27) and a contract with Blue Line Taxi, the HSR also connects with other areas in the northwest portion of the former Glanbrook.

In addition, the HSR is connected with Burlington Transit, as one route (11 Parkdale) travels into Burlington via Burlington Beach, 18 Waterdown connects with BT at Aldershot GO Station, and BT Route 1 enters downtown Hamilton from Plains Road West. Also '9 Rock Gardens' travels into Burlington going into the Royal Botanical Gardens during the summer months.

Other terminals and loops

Frank A. Cooke Transit Terminal

On September 4th, 2022 the City of Hamilton renamed the MacNab Transit Terminal to Frank A. Cooke Transit Terminal to honour an employee of the HSR that retired as a General Manager and died at the age of 100.

For information about this development, see Fred Eisenburger's Twitter account, as well as the City of Hamilton's Twitter account.

Fares

Metrolinx and HSR have partnered to operate the Presto electronic fare card. The project aims to standardize fare collection systems across transit agencies in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. The system is currently operational.

Frequent HSR riders can take advantage of the frequent rider discount program. For any given week (from Monday to Sunday), bus rides after the first 11 trips (8 under the HSR Fare Incentives for Ridership Recovery initiative) will not be charged.

Students of McMaster University, Mohawk College and Redeemer University are eligible to receive a complimentary HSR U-Pass. The U-Pass is loaded onto a Presto card and allows unlimited travel across the entire HSR, with free 2-hour transfers from HSR to other transit agencies in the 905 area.

Paper tickets and monthly passes were discontinued on October 31, 2020. Paper fare medias were accepted until December 31, 2020. All new passes, including the Golden Age Pass, are only available through Presto card.

As a way to incentivize transit usage during the recovery of COVID-19 pandemic, HSR launched HSR Fare Incentives for Ridership Recovery initiative on November 1, 2021. For a limited time, children aged 6–12 with a valid Presto card can ride on HSR for free until April 30, 2023. Number of rides to be eligible for the Presto loyalty program has been reduced from 11 rides per week to 8.

Gallery

File:HCRY-Hamilton-trolleybus.jpg, Two of the Hamilton Street Railway's former Flyer E800 trolley buses are preserved at the Halton County Radial Railway museum.
File:Hamilton Street Railway Ontario Bus 8907.jpg, Hamilton Street Railway Orion V 8907 on the 34A route at the intersection of King and James Streets in downtown Hamilton.
File:HSR-D40LF-510408.jpg, New Flyer D40LFs like this one seen at McMaster University form much of the HSR's recent bus fleet.
File:HSR-DE60LFR-0613.jpg, alt=An articulated bus making a turn., In 2007, the HSR introduced articulated hybrid buses for the route 10 Beeline Express.
File:Hamilton Trolley Bus, Waterfront Shuttle.jpg, Route 99 – Waterfront Shuttle (2008).
File:A friendly GO pigeon.jpg, alt=a pigeon standing on a green bus boarding platform, with a bus parallel to it on the other side of the road., An RNG bus stopped at the Hamilton GO Centre.

Staff

Most staff at HSR are members (bus operators, mechanics and other transit workers) of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 107. The local was formed in 1899 and also represents transit workers at Mississauga Transit. The local does not represent those working on city's paratransit service, Disabled and Aged Regional Transportation System (DARTS).

References

15. Enbridge Gas RNG Bus Trial: http://enbridgegas.mediaroom.com/2021-03-04-Enbridge-Gas-Partners-with-City-of-Hamilton-to-Fuel-Ontarios-First-Carbon-Negative-Bus

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External links

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HSR history

Bus News Spring 2010

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton Street Railway
Transit agencies in Ontario
Transport in Hamilton, Ontario
Passenger rail transport in Hamilton, Ontario
Hydro-Electric Railways
Organizations established in 1874
Transit authorities with natural gas buses
Defunct Ontario railways
1874 establishments in Ontario