Hamilton, Ontario

Hamilton is a city with half a million inhabitants located in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is the 10th largest city in Canada.

Transportation

Air

John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport is located on the Mountain at Mount Hope in the former Glanbrook Township. Scheduled passenger service is provided by WestJet, who for several years used the airport as their primary point of access to Southern Ontario over the more expensive Toronto Pearson International Airport, CanJet (ends July 2005), and Air Canada Jazz (starting Fall 2005); other airlines also offer vacation charters. The airport is also a major lower-cost alternative to Pearson for cargo air service.

Related Topics:
John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport - Glanbrook Township - WestJet - Toronto Pearson International Airport - CanJet - Air Canada Jazz - Cargo air service

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Rail

CN serves Hamilton, but as heavy industry declined and the preferred mode of transportation changed to road, the number of branch lines and feeder tracks has declined dramatically. Until the early 1970s, the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway offered passenger service and since the late 1980s GO Transit has offered sporadic passenger train service from its James Street North station. In the late 1990s, GO Transit operations were consolidated at the refurbished Art Deco building on Hunter Street which formerly served as the TH&B station. The nearest VIA Rail Canada station is Aldershot in west Burlington.

Related Topics:
CN - 1970s - Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo Railway - 1980s - GO Transit - 1990s - Art Deco - VIA Rail - Burlington

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Bus

Hamilton has good bus connections with cities in southern Ontario and western New York. GO Transit offers frequent and reliable express bus service to Toronto, now from the TH&B station and formerly from King William Street. Various other companies, such as Greyhound, Trentway Wagar and McCoy offer less frequent service to St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Dunnville, Buffalo, Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, Brantford and London.

Related Topics:
Ontario - New York - GO Transit - Toronto - Greyhound - St. Catharines - Niagara Falls - Dunnville - Buffalo - Kitchener-Waterloo - Guelph - Brantford - London

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Within the city, the HSR or Hamilton Street Railway offers good service in the lower city (especially on east-west routes), reduced service on the Mountain and skeletal service outside the old city of Hamilton (except for Dundas, which is served about as well as the Mountain).

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Highways and expressways

The following controlled access highways and expressways serve Hamilton:

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• Queen Elizabeth Way, north Hamilton and Stoney Creek
• Highway 403, Ancaster and west Hamilton
• Highway 6, Flamborough, Hamilton and Glanbrook
• Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway, ‘The LINC,' Mountain
• Burlington Street (upper deck), north Hamilton

There are several other current or former Ontario highways in Hamilton, but they are not divided, controlled access highways. The controversial Red Hill Creek extension of the LINC is under construction, and will join the existing mountain portion of the LINC with the QEW in east Hamilton.

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City streets

All of the old city of Hamilton is on a broken great grid pattern, with major north-south streets spaced approximately one mile apart. Great grid streets on the Mountain bear the name of their lower city counterparts with the prefix "Upper" except for Garth Street, which would be Upper Dundurn Street if the pattern held.

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East-west streets on the Mountain are pretty regular, while those in the lower city (especially major ones) are very irregular. King and Main Streets run approximately parallel to one another though they intersect at the Delta. They are usually one way streets in opposite directions, so they are best conceptualized as a single very wide boulevard.

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