Study finds downtown best location for train station
December 19, 2005

A comprehensive review of four possible sites for a new VIA rail station serving Hamilton has identified a location on James North across from the former CN station as the clear favourite. The Centre for Community Studies compared this site with the downtown GO station, the former SWARU site in east Hamilton and a proposed location in Copetown.

The study used a dozen criteria to compare the four sites, including parking, access to other transportation, policies of all three levels of government, and proximity of the sites to major businesses, hospitals and universities.

The James North location was rated excellent in nine of the twelve categories, and good in the other three. "The site has excellent proximity to many of Hamilton 's major population, business and tourist nodes", the study concluded. "This is mainly due to the fact that it is centrally located, near the central business district, major venues (Copps Coliseum, Convention Centre) and hotel accommodations."

The GO station also had nine excellents but was ranked poor for parking and the possibilities of future expansion. "There is no ability to provide parking on site and the potential for service expansion is limited due to the fact that there is currently no VIA line running through the location."

The SWARU site got excellent ratings for those two categories but was ranked only fair on three others and poor on six of the twelve. The poor rankings included distance from GO transit, from business nodes, from tourist attractions, and from other public transportation. The study also noted "the SWARU site would contradict several policies from various levels of government including Vision 2020, downtown renewal and the Province's growth planning strategy."

The Copetown site was ranked last of the four with nine categories rated poor. "Not only would it work against many policies and goals of various levels of government, it would be far removed from the centre of population in Hamilton , including the destinations of current passenger rail customers."

The full study can be viewed at
http://www.communitystudy.ca/VIA%20Site%20Evaluation.pdf.