Hamilton City Council’s Light Rail Transit Sub-Committee is continuing onward, without Metrolinx involvement.
The Committee will meet on Thursday, October 16, at 1:30 p.m. to formally add six representatives of equity-deserving groups to its membership, and will be briefed by City of Hamilton staff regarding feedback the City has provided to Metrolinx in response to the latest LRT conceptual design updates.
The meeting will be livestreamed on YouTube. The full agenda package is here.
Metrolinx Moving Forward on Project, No Public Updates from the Provincial Agency
The Government of Ontario is responsible for building the budgetted $3.2-billion LRT project, with Metrolinx serving as the provincial agency in charge. Metrolinx has full legislated authority to construct the project, and the City of Hamilton is required to facilitate any actions requested of it by the agency. The federal Government of Canada is funding 50 per cent of the project cost.
Metrolinx and the Government of Ontario will make all final decisions on the project.
The project is presently in the request for proposals phase of main construction bidding. Early “enabling works” are underway, such as the installation of new watermain trunks on Main Street East that will replace the existing trunk on Queenston Road, and ongoing demolition of buildings as part of right-of-way widening.
City Provides Feedback Regarding Conceptual Design
The City of Hamilton’s draft feedback regarding the most recent conceptual designs for the LRT is being presented to the Sub-Committee.
The 24-page feedback presentation package visually displays hundreds of comments being submitted to Metrolinx on issues such as location and design of pedestrian crossing locations, opportunities for new street tree locations, changes to proposed bike lanes, and egress design for emergency services (fire and EMS) along the route.
As an example, in the stadium district, the City is suggesting more street trees, parkades, and improvements to the pedestrian realm surrounding the LRT storage track at Gage Avenue. The storage track is intended to enable surge service following events at the nearby Hamilton Stadium.
Adding More Equity-Deserving Seats to the Sub-Committee
Councillors will vote to increase the total membership of the Sub-Committee to 27 members. The six new members will represent Niwasa Kendaaswin Teg (Indigenous), Afro Canadian Caribbean Association (Black), Disability Justice Network of Ontario, Hamilton Bike Share (low-income), Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion (racial minority), and the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction (low-income).
There are seven Council members who are the only voting members on the LRT Sub-Committee: Mayor Andrea Horwath, Maureen Wilson, Cameron Kroetsch, Nrinder Nann, Tammy Hwang, Matt Francis, and Craig Cassar.
The other 14 member representatives are from the Downtown BIA, the International Village BIA, the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, the Flamborough Chamber of Commerce, the Stoney Creek Chamber of Commerce, the West End Home Builders’ Association, four representatives of the Hamilton is Home affordable housing coalition, the Social Planning and Research Council, and the Hamilton Community Benefits Network.
Production Details
v. 1.0.0
Published: October 14, 2025
Last updated: October 11, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
Update Record
v. 1.0.0 original version
The is an excercise in optics, and nothing more. A 27 member sub-committee is horredously bloated. The meetings are going to be hours long, just so everyone can have the illusion of being heard. Meanwhile, the province and the agency proceed as they want, with no real accountability.
But here on the homefront, the new meta to counter naysayers claiming there is no real public input will be to say that all of the relavant groups have given their input at the local level so claims of no accountability are unfounded.
This kind of theatre is exactly why I would never volunteer to serve on any of the boards or committees currently operated by the city. If you want to review the effectiveness of a committee, review the comments made by the Chair of Hamilton’s Accessability Committee at the 2025 HSR update meeting, and draw your own conclusions from there.
Well said John
I really think the LRT should be built up gradually and should start on James St.N. and that the former Hamilton City Centre should be demolished and a new LRT depot be constructed in its place.
I was expropriated in 2017 and was told the project would be done no later than 2025. I went to a similar meeting at Innovation Park in 2018. It is now October 2025, and we are still having the same discussions. It’s so sad. The loss of property tax revenues from the expropriations, the destruction of businesses, and the missed opportunities due to the incompetence within this city are unconscionable.
This is going to take Longer than the Eligton LRT in Toronto,this is a Joke Please scrap it before the hell starts. We still don’t know if Mark Carney will provide funding that Justin promised
This is a total waste of taxpayers money. As a former HSR driver I notice that during peak times there are very few passengers . How about updating the rider survey to current ridership. You cannot justify this cost with the current ridership and lack of foreign students that fueled ridership. No one is going downtown, at least anyone I speak to as it is crime ridden and a slum. Build it and they will come , is a pipe dream, leaving tax payers on the hook for the operation and maintenance, which is not budgeted for. Maybe the special interest groups that actually run this city will take pay cuts to fund this, but I doubt it.