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Last week, the Province of Ontario awarded the first major package for civil and utility work to advance the Hamilton LRT. Planned to stretch 14 kilometres across the City of Hamilton from McMaster University to Eastgate Square, the light rail line has been in the works since an initial proposal in the late 2000s.
The idea of an LRT along Hamilton’s primary downtown east-west arterials was first brought forward by a 2008 rapid transit feasibility study. This analysis followed then Toronto Mayor David Miller’s "Transit City" proposal, which envisioned the introduction of LRT lines built in dedicated, at-grade rights-of-way across Toronto’s suburban thoroughfares.
The City of Hamilton, never having constructed any form of rapid transit through its long-struggling downtown, sought to introduce a transit spine upon which reinvestment and public realm improvements could be built. After years of revisions and the cancellation of plans for a multi-line LRT/BRT network, the current configuration—running primarily on Main Street, King Street, and Queenston Road—was finalized.
The last alteration to the LRT’s alignment occurred in 2023, on the west side of the project corridor. Plans initially envisioned the construction of a new bridge over Highway 403 and its deep ravine to carry the LRT between King Street in Hamilton’s core and Main Street West in the Westdale neighbourhood. However, following Hamilton City Council’s decision to convert Main Street to two-way traffic, Metrolinx altered its plans so that the LRT would cross the 403 on an expanded Main Street bridge, necessitating two 90-degree, at-grade turns.
With the elimination of this flyover from the project plans, the LRT lost its only segment of major off-street operations. As such, light rail vehicles will spend their entire 14-kilometre route on city streets, having to contend with traffic signals, and remaining vulnerable to disruptions from vehicle crashes. Ontario’s closest existing comparable is the recently opened Finch West LRT in northwest Toronto, itself one of the LRT lines from Transit City that inspired the Hamilton LRT. Since the Finch West LRT’s opening last December, it has been subject to constant service disruptions and has failed to achieve its projected travel speeds, while more than halving vehicle frequency at peak times compared to the prior bus service.
It is worth noting that the Hamilton King-Main Rapid Transit Business Case Summary projected that the construction of the multibillion-dollar LRT would save riders a total of 180 seconds, with the since eliminated 403 flyover taken into account. As a result of this routing change and the dramatic underperformance of recently opened at-grade LRTs in Toronto, transit advocates have warned that the construction of the Hamilton LRT could drastically increase travel times for transit riders.
Despite concerns re: how rapid the new line will be, the Province of Ontario has awarded the contract to undertake civil and utilities infrastructure improvements. The contract, in the hands of Hamilton Transit Alliance, a firm composed of construction partner Aecon Infrastructure Inc with design partners Hatch, Egis, and Systra, will begin work on 14 kilometres of sewer replacement and separation, 16 kilometres of watermain replacement, 14 kilometres of road reconstruction, 28 kilometres of replaced and upgraded sidewalks, and 62 upgraded and replaced traffic signals. This contract will be funded as part of the federal and provincial governments' larger $3.4 billion of pledged funding for the project.
UrbanToronto will continue to follow progress on this development. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Hamilton LRT Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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