Hamilton councillors unanimously accept plan to revamp city’s transit system

Hamilton councillors have unanimously accepted a plan to revamp the city’s transit system over the next seven years.

The plan is called “HSR Next,” and is expected to start being rolled out next year.

Currently, the HSR network has routes across Hamilton from downtown, to Stoney Creek, Ancaster and the mountain.

The future HSR network is expected to include “My Ride,” programs in key growth areas like Waterdown, Stoney Creek, Ancaster and near the airport.

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There is also plans to add local and collector routes as well as and six rapid routes, which offers 10 minute service during peak travel times.

Eric tuck, the HSR Union President says this is the first revamp of the system in over 50 years, so he’s excited to see some of those changes, but he says he hopes to see more when it comes to roads and traffic.

The report outlines the need for 79 new buses and bus “hubs” across the city to make this possible.

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These will be distributed strategically across the city as they move away from the so called “hub and spoke” model that funnels everything downtown.

Other components include increasing transit service hours by nearly 568,000 hours or 55 per cent and adding 450 new full-time employees over the next seven years.

The goal is to be able to also connect riders to the LRT once that becomes operational.

The plan will cost an additional $59 million which is an estimated impact of about 4.6 per cent on the tax levy.

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