<https://cptdb.ca/topic/8841-hamilton-street-railway/page/200/#comment-919630>
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"I know a lot of people have concerns regarding the LRT but as someone that lived in Hamilton for several years, before the pandemic, I saw many buses on the route 1 or 10 that would be overcrowded. Especially on a Sunday. It would always be a struggle seeing all the strollers get on as well as the walkers and even wheelchairs. Also during the week there were times I would stand at my stop (Sherman) and be waiting for a bus into downtown and 3 or 4 buses would all pull in at basically the same time, but my problem would be that the route 1 would pull up sometimes 2 of them and the 10 would just drive by, not realizing that people wanted that bus. Having the LRT will go a long way to improving transit off the mountain. I would actually hope that when the LRT is built that some of the buses on the mountain can be rerouted away from downtown and run to one of the stations closer to Eastgate. Also the good thing with building the LRT is that there is potential for a lot of redevelopment in the city. Especially around the Queenston traffic circle and Eastgate area. I have heard that there are plans to redevelop the Eastgate property, as well as at Nash where the Canadian tire property sits. There is a lot of land available around the traffic circle also. Would be perfect for redeveloping those areas as it would be at transit stations so people can take the trains. Also modifying bus service all around those areas would be a huge benefit. They could eliminate the route 10. Run the route 1 less often (say every 10 minutes) from Eastgate to McMaster. On the McMaster side all the 5C buses and the 52 buses could start at McMaster station and eliminate the routing into downtown. The 51 would not need to run either. The 5 routes that operate into Stoney Creek and to Rosedale could be modified and merged with the route 58. The 55 could also be modified through Stoney Creek, to serve more areas. I would also think that the route 2 would operate to Eastgate instead of Bell Manor loop. Service to Bell Manor loop could be part of the modified routes in Stoney Creek. One route could operate from Eastgate, along Centennial to Barton then along Barton to fifty road where the Costco is. Then the route that operates along Queenston and HWY 8 could also loop over to fifty road and then they could interline. \n \n\n\n\tI think the LRT has its pros over its cons and building this and improving service to areas that would service the LRT would allow the trains to run closer to capacity so that some of the operating costs are covered in the fares that are collected by the newer riders on the service. Although one thing I would do if I were the city, is I would implement fare gates at the stations and using only the Presto card to allow riders on the trains. It can be similar to what is done by translink in Vancouver with the skytrain. You can pay cash on a bus but you only get a paper transfer that does not allow you on the skytrain. But at the stations you can buy a compass ticket that allows you on and off the skytrain or seabus, or the buses. Or you can use your normal compass card on the trains and buses and seabus. I think that would make it easier for getting on the trains but I am not sure how that can be built into the stations as someone could just walk along the road to get onto the platform unless there is something on the platform to stop people from doing that.  \n \n"
<https://cptdb.ca/topic/8841-hamilton-street-railway/page/200/?tab=comments#comment-921600>