Elections
Do you support improved public transit in Hamilton? If so, what changes do you propose? If not, why not?
Responses to the question: "Do you support improved public transit in Hamilton? If so, what changes do you propose? If not, why not? "
In This Page:
53 Candidate Responses (top)
| Mayor | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Davis, Jim | Yes | HSR has to be overhauled. Most of the routes of HSR have been the same for the last 50 yrs and they don't work anymore. The city has grown and we need to expand the service to all areas of the new boundaries. There are way to many overlapping routes and to many buses end up in the same spot. Seems all the buses come down the hill creating longer travel time and more fuel being used. Create East/West routes that do just that and why do all the upper buses have to go downtown? Have them travel to different parts of the lower city so there is more North/South routes in the city. |
| Eisenberger, Fred | Yes | Yes I support implementing the Council-approved 10-year transit master plan that will mean enhanced transit in all parts of our community including LRT as the “B” in the “BLAST” network.
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| Gomes, Carlos | Yes | My first order of business is to reject the LRT and see if Doug Ford is a man of his word, and allow our city to keep the 600 plus million dollars to improve our transit system. We keep our already established transit system and improve upon it instead of letting metro one take what we already made. |
| Graydon, Edward HC | N/A | No response provided |
| Pattison, Michael | Yes | I support improved public transit and busing is the easiest solution to our needs. I would still like to see an answer for traversing the mountain and connecting the upper and lower city through transportation hubs at the cusp and base of the mountain. If LRT is commencing within our city, we absolutely require both an east-west and north-south vision. |
| Schmid-Jones, Ute | Yes | I am very excited by the LRT and would love to see it running in Hamilton, but to really get the full benefit of improving the B line we also need city council to provide better funding and real support for the HSR as a whole. If our transit system overall becomes so effective that people start leaving their cars behind to take public transit instead of thinking of transit as something that only poor people take, that would feel like a real measure of success. |
| Sgro, Vito | N/A | Please use our website vitosgroformayor.ca as the the answer to the provided questions. |
| Tavares, Ricky | N/A | How much are you going to pay me ? $100 and I will communicate with you at your basic level. Otherwise you are useless to me and Hamilton. |
| Wozny, Mark | Yes | Improved Public Transit in Hamilton will come about when there is an enhanced, workable demand for it.
Just as Festivals (park/street) draw people together from the entire spectrum of the community, transit must learn to draw from all ages and income brackets. I propose that once monthly, public transit should be made free of charge-perhaps pay what you like or that each household be given several passes to cover single trips over the course of the year. Give people a an incentive to 'try it before they buy it' |
| Yan, Nathalie Xian Yi | Yes | I support an economic formula that will have the effect of allocation of resources for the expansions and progressive goals for transportation in Hamilton |
| Ward 01 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Allen, Jason | Yes | I support improving public transit in Hamilton by council honouring its commitments in the 10 year transit plan, especially around city funding for transit that was denied in year three of the plan. HSR also needs to take advantage of the Public Transit Envelope of the Federal Infrastructure Fund, in order to upgrade and replace much of its fleet while those dollars are available. inally, HSR needs to extend transit out to the exurbs and rural Hamilton, but not by running empty 40 foot buses along those routes, but by developing a mirco-transit solution such as they have in Airdrie, AB, or York Region. |
| Anderson, Sharon | Yes | Yes. Increased, shorter loops in high demand zones such as the area around McMaster University. Better timing of bus routes which act as connections to each other so that users do not have to wait because they just missed their connecting bus. Completing the BLAST network. I'd like to have a study completed on the feasibility of using aerial ropeway transit (ART) for the mountain accesses and for the connection to Dundas. |
| Cole, Sharon | Yes | My family has a long and rich history here in Hamilton, serving its industrial base and supporting unionized workers. I've been that worker. And I've been that supervisor, manager and business owner. I've worked in 'for profit' and 'not-for-profit' companies. I support publicly funded transit, though I also understand the commitments made to date and fiscal challenges at this stage of moving away from a public-private partnership solution toward solely public options. Therefore, I will strongly advocate for the compromises which have been reinforced to date between City Council and the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) with respect to operating LRT, with the cornerstone being that workers be represented by ATU. Further, ATU through its workstation safety initiative is aiming to improve the overall health, safety and security of riders, pedestrians, drivers and workers and I support their efforts. |
| Eroglu, Ela | Yes | I support the council-approved, 10-year transit strategy that expands our bus service throughout the city and builds LRT. Our transit services were long ignored, and it is time now to re-invest the necessary capital and act. Investing in LRT is important going forward to provide fast, accessible, affordable, practical, and comfortable transportation to our residents and for the future of our City.
Working on addressing the issues that HSR has will be one of my priorities so that it can continue its tradition of offering affordable and reliable public transit to our residents. Additional money for HSR is necessary to improve and upgrade the services and attract more riders. |
| Geffros, Sophie | Yes | Yes. As a daily transit user, I am very familiar with the flaws in our transit system ranging from unreliability to poor service, particularly outside the lower city. Council has consistently starved the HSR to the point that it is unable to perform many of its vital services, which has led to declining ridership, which council has then used to justify their lack of investment. This past year we lost thousands of hours of service and in just October, the HSR cancelled 589 buses on 28 routes. When people feel as if they cannot depend on transit they avoid using it. We know that properly investing in our transit system will increase ridership, improve working conditions for operators, and decrease missed service and delays. In addition to the investment laid out in the 10-year transit plan, I will also advocate for an increase in the operating budget of HSR and ongoing capital investment. Further, while it is true that sometimes routes must be delayed or cancelled, school extras must run as scheduled so children get to school on time. Children cannot be casualties of the transit crisis in our city. Additionally, for many residents in Ward One, especially those of us in Ainslie Wood, the 51 University Route provides necessary access to the downtown core and the associated social, medical, and legal resources. Cancelling the 51 between May and September puts undue strain and overcrowds the 5A / 5C routes. The 51 University Route must run year-round. Finally, the City of Hamilton must consult with residents about bus stop location and safety, with an eye to increasing the number of bus shelters available. |
| Massie, Richard | Yes | YES! Transit is a vital public utility. Transit is not government aid for poor people without cars - Hamilton's economy relies on our transportation network. HSR must strive to increase frequency, better convenience of connections and reliability of the network - encouraging more ridership per capita and less subsidizing with our tax dollars. |
| Miklos, Lyla | Yes | Implementation of the LRT. More buses with more frequency to some of the more outlying areas of our city. More connections to "sister" transit systems such as GO, Burlington Transit and more. Following through on the City of Hamilton's 10 year transit plan. |
| Narducci, Linda | Yes | Public transit is designed in theory to help reduce road traffic. With driving on our main streets clearly, this isnt working. We need an improved public transit, create a quality service and people will leave their cars at home. More buses are needed on routes. Public transit is a service; I can appreciate the long shifts, sitting for hours on end. The HSR has an obligation to review it’s workplace culture. These workers deserve a dignified washroom and washroom breaks, they deserve to be treated fairly by all patrons, they need schedules that are supportive and conducive to being able to be engaged in outside interests or family life. |
| White, Harrison | Yes | Public transit is extremely important to me. As someone who did not drive at all until recently, it has been my main method of transportation since I was 12 years old. I understand how vital it is to many people’s day-to-day lives. The current transit system in Hamilton is ineffective, inefficient and underfunded in my opinion. I believe that we should implement a multitude of reforms to the public transit system, such as staggered bus routes for example. I would also like to see the implementation of a transit hub in McMaster University, or at least in that end of town, to better facilitate transit to different areas of the city. I would also like to delay the retiring of any buses, barring safety or environmental concerns, until the LRT has been completed. I would also be interested in implementing different levels of frequency for bus certain bus routes during the major student months (September-april). I am ready to start to A.C.T. on the issue of public transit in Hamilton. |
| Wilson, Maureen | Yes | Yes. We need to accelerate our commitment to building out the BLAST network as we build ridership in preparation for LRT. Accordingly, we must realign our budget to support our city wide objectives. (see my answer to questions 1 and 2 for more on this alignment principle). |
| Ward 02 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Daljeet, Suresh Venodh | Yes | Yes, our transit is decades behind. The LRT and a transit plan to connect the entire city will bring development and business. After the LRT is built, we have to look at an North South line continuing all the way up the maintain and with easy access to the Airport. I would like to see a mountain transit hub and improved connections to Ancaster Business Park, Red Hill Business Park and the Airport.
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| Farr, Jason | Yes | I supported and continue to support the approx. 300 million-dollar Ten Year Transit Strategy. |
| Kroetsch, Cameron | Yes | Yes, I support improved public transit. As part of that improvement we need to:
● End transit area rating. ● Fund transit including getting back on track with the 10 Year Local Transit Strategy. ● Make improvements to the 10 Year Local Transit Strategy that include the implementation of an independent transit board, super express buses to and from key hubs, demand-responsive transit, new routes, and the exploration of means-based fares. ● Support our front line transit workers by helping them to get improved contract language to protect their health and safety. |
| Smith, Nicole | Yes | We need to end area rating and properly invest in public transit. |
| Tennant, Mark | Yes | I support improved public transit. Public ownership of city operations has proven to be best for working Hamiltonians. HSR should remain an important piece of our transit plan moving forward. Improved service to the outlying areas, safety measures in place to protect drivers, and the consideration to have HSR operate the LRT. I support the Ten Year transit strategy. |
| Ward 03 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Bureau, Alain | Yes | |
| Farr, Laura | Yes | As a transit taker, it can be very difficult to get to where you want to go using our network. When my son was still in daycare, if I didn’t drop him off before 8am, I was walking to City Hall for work. The buses on certain lines are over capacity. We need to look at our transit routes and adjust accordingly, such as Houston did in 2015.(https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2016/08/houston-bus-system-ridership/496313/) It is again a questions of where are people coming from and going to. It will only get worse as our populations ages and grows. |
| Kuruc, Ned | Yes | I support improved public transit in Hamilton. It is crucial that our transit plan focus on tying together all areas of Hamilton, rather than focusing on a singular line of transit. |
| Nann, Nrinder | Yes | Yes, I support improving public transportation in Hamilton.
* I will strongly advocate for the completion of the LRT plan. Enough is enough. We've come too far and taken too long * I will advocate that we immediately catch up to our funding commitments for the 10-year Transit Strategy * I will advocate that we phase out Area Rating and tier new money towards properly funding our transit system * I will fight for wage and benefit parity for transit workers, no matter who they are employed by * I will work with council, HSR and ATU to end the epidemic of canceled buses * I will work with residents and staff to ensure that our cycling network is consistent, thorough, safe, separated where possible, well signed and well designed |
| Smith, Dan | Yes | I do support improved public transit. I think a better Hamilton app to help find the schedule would help as well, we need more buses on the streets, especially for North/South travel. |
| Sprague, Kristeen | Yes | I do support improved public transit in Hamilton. I support more frequent routes in working class areas and in areas where people need to take transit to work. I think we need to make sure we have enough Darts drivers to improve transit for residents with mobility challenges. I think we need to consult groups such as the Hamilton Bus Rider's Union and ATU Local 107 to find out from riders and drivers what we can do to improve transit in our city, because they know best. |
| Ward 04 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Merulla, Sam | Yes | Yes, and I have sponsored the most progressive initiatives accordingly from free fares for all, to senior and youth discounts and fought against fare increases. |
| Ward 05 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Yes | ||
| Maldonado, Juanita | Yes | Full funding and complete support from Council is required to move our transit system from a social service to a world-class system complete with commercial and retail partners. This support will result in more investment and further economic development so young people do not have to move away to get a job that pays the mortgage or allows them to pay back their Canada Student Loan. |
| Ward 06 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Jackson, Tom | Yes | I do support improved public transit in our City. Better “running times” and expanded routes, such as has occurred the last few years along Stone Church and Rymal were things I fought for. I also met with the McMaster Student Union (MSU) and the new Leadership of the HSR during this term of City Council a couple of times to understand the “student” needs of getting young people to school from the East Mountain to their post-secondary institutions. |
| Taylor, Timothy | Yes | Why wouldn't a candidate support improved public transit? I suppose that's the real question. I urge constituents to really consider carefully any candidate that doesn't believe in public transit as a key foundation of a strong city. I believe continuing the 10 year transit plan, and actually getting LRT off the ground are both ways of us improving our transit system city wide. |
| Ward 07 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Benson, Steve | Yes | Improving any type of service must the goal for City Council. HSR needs more money to operate to its full potential. HSR drivers are also asked to work under less than healthy conditions which needs to be addressed. Removing Area Rating will assist in creating more revenue which is needed to supply better service, purchase more busses, and help in providing more adequate working conditions for drivers, such as breaks required by law. We also need to look at the number of management vs drivers. Are we spending our current dollars for maximum results? |
| Kazubek, Joseph | Yes | Hamilton transit is struggling to keep up with the need Of the city, I don't feel that the LRT will alleviate or help with the issue, we need to invest into the transit system and work with the unions to improve service.
We also need to invest into transit for seniors, the more support were able to offer to them, the longer they are able to stay at home and live independently, which will only enhance their lives. |
| MacIntyre, Dan | Yes | Yes. Express service running along Fennell Avenue, Mohawk Road and Stone Church Road are promises in my platform. I will also fight to secure a GO bus terminal at Limeridge Mall. |
| McMullen, Geraldine | Yes | Citizens are appealing for better service, and Hamilton is expanding at a rapid pace. We need to move forward, and I will hold Council to their obligation to follow through on an enhanced transit plan.
If we are to improve our deficiencies we need to increase our resources. We are not keeping pace with the growth; we also need to immediately ensure that the funding designated for the third year be allocated and that the option of abandoning area rating be proposed and use the area rating money to expand transit service. |
| Pauls, Esther | Yes | Yes. I think it would be better to create hubs that are connected especially between the mountain downtown and other neighbourhood communities. |
| Ward 08 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Danko, John-Paul | Yes | Yes, I support improved public transit in Hamilton. In Ward 8, a big part of the problem is that bus routes are often convoluted and confusing and do not serve people well to get where they need to go when they need to get there. The first step is to re-align and simplify the existing bus routes to reflect the modern realities on the mountain. I believe that the HSR is currently in the process of doing this. The second step is a commitment to drastically increase bus headways on key routes. We have to make transit much more convenient before people with ride the bus because they want to not because they have to. |
| Wicken, Colleen | Yes | Yes I do support improved transit. Part of my platform is to bring GO transit to the transit hub at Mohawk College. While working as Chief of Staff in the Ward 8 office I received a number of calls about poor HSR scheduling, late buses, no buses, missed connection making residents late for their jobs and appointments. I have also taken calls from parents who live on the East Mountain and their children have part time jobs in the Meadowlands. On the weekend, these young people would spend more that 6 hours on the bus and waiting for connections to do a 4 hour shift. This definitely needs to change. |
| Ward 10 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Beattie, Jeff | Yes | I absolutely do. I don't use transit. Not because I don't like it, but because where I live doesn't have any kind of reliable/predictable/reasonable service (Eastern Stoney Creek is serviced by an outdated Trans-Cab system) I don't want my kids to grow up car-dependent. I want to invest in making transit reliable/predictable and reasonable.
I want to use outside the box thinking from other jurisdictions. An innovative partnership in Kingston between the City and School Board has led to Kingston's Transit System being one of the fastest growing in the country. They started showing high school students 'how' to use transit, and offered incentives to encourage young people to use transit. The result? When these young people become adults, they take these new habits of transit use with them and become more likely to transit users in the future. We need to more users, and a system that will build confidence in itself. |
| Ward 12 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Marley, Kevin | Yes | Yes, public transit is an important part of any large city and with the layout of the city of Hamilton it makes it even more vital to the success of this city. Citizens need ways to get around this city and we need to do a better job at meeting that requirement. LRT is one such aspect that will have a positive impact but also taking a critical look at bus routes as well as utilizing the train station are all ways to improve this sector without spending more money. |
| Scime, John | Yes | I support improved public transit and the whole system of BLAST. We need to begin with the Bline LRT in order to provide the intrinsic benefits that LRT offers while revenue generating. Specifically in Ward 12, we need to slow down urban sprawl. Only the LRT version of the BLAST system will introduce the necessary density to slow down the mass development projects until we can get a handle on the necessary infrastructure needs.
Transit in any city is the backbone, and having a totally interconnected system is vital to becoming the big city we need to be. Reliability and safety are my main concerns. Currently we cannot transport people to different areas of the city. In Ward 12 we have 2 massive retail complexes and a Business Park that employ Hamiltonians. These need to continue to employ Hamiltonians. We need to provide reliable transit through well planned scheduling. These areas of the city are not 9-5 and schedules need to be carefully implemented. We do not do a good enough job to maintain rider confidence. HSR is a business and customer confidence is the same as any other business, we need to adapt to our customer, Riders. |
| Ward 13 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Gelder, Rich | Yes | Yes I do. In this order:
1. Completion of the LRT line from McMaster University to Eastgate Square; 2. An end to the current practice of area rating for public transit and a move towards a straight urban-rural split. 3. Enhanced service for the outlying areas, in particular Dundas and Greensville (which doesn't have transit currently). 4. Implementation of the other four letters of the BLAST network as envisioned by the 2011 Rapid Ready Report. 5. A return to the schedule of the 10-year transit plan. |
| Mitchell, Pamela | N/A | Declined to answer |
| Vanderbeek, Arlene | Yes | Yes, I support a review of the status quo which should address connectivity throughout the City, with the goal of improving not only routing, but amenities and safety for riders and drivers. I strongly support the implementation of a more flexible and reliable system that provides frequent access to employment areas, the airport and the GO system. |
| Ward 14 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| Iszkula, Robert | Yes | Yes. Previous councils have been underfunding the HSR for the last 20 years. This needs to be reversed. I will ask the HSR to completely revisit the bus routes to tie into the new rapid transit along the B-Line. This reconfiguration will mean that even the neighbourhoods nowhere near the line will see vast improvements in transit using the resources we already have. I want to see a more efficient HSR network of bus routes on the mountain, with easier connections to downtown. LRT is a huge opportunity to leverage provincial funding to free up the buses we already own for better service throughout the city. |
| Whitehead, Terry | Yes | Yes, absolutely. I believe the mountain transit routes do not effectively meet the needs of the ridership. The routes need to be dramatically changed to create a more efficient, predictable transit service for the riders. I support the 10 year master plan for public transit and will continue working with staff to improve the type of vehicles to ensure that our passengers have the best experience possible on the HSR. |
| Wilson, Bryan | Yes | Yes I do. I support accepting the generous one billion dollar funding from the provincial government to build LRT and from there the BLAST network. I would like to see dedicated bus lanes added where possible as this encourages more people to use transit when the traffic doesn't affect it as it would a car. |
| Ward 15 | ||
| Candidate | Brief Response | Full Response |
| McKechnie, Susan | Yes | Public transit in all major cities needs constant review, adjustment and improvement. In Hamilton we need to start with Hamilton’s strategic plan, which aims to create a “prosperous and diverse economy supported by state of the art infrastructure, transportation options, buildings and public spaces that create a dynamic city.” When the strategic plan outlines the need for state-of-the-art infrastructure and transportation options, the city should seriously entertain state-of-the-art options. State of the art means that the city will investigate the newest ideas with the most up to date features. By definition this means that the city ought to be investigating things like projections toward the use of autonomous vehicle options as part of an overall strategy. Autonomous vehicles will have certain infrastructure requirements, some of which can be utilized with such things as BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) solutions.
There are wonderful “New Tech” options on this topic. The city should be investigating these to support the broad and diverse needs of all citizens across the entire geography. Emphasis should also be given to the constantly changing demographic makeup of the city. With an ever-increasing group of senior residents, consideration around reliable accessible transit must be part of the conversation. |
Response Summary (top)
| Brief Response | Count | % of Total |
|---|---|---|
| Yes | 49 | 92.5% |
| No | 0 | 0.0% |
| Maybe | 0 | 0.0% |
