21st Century (2000–present)

Hamilton LRT Corridor Plan

2015– · Canada · North America – Canada · Transit-oriented urbanism and corridor planning · Planned by City of Hamilton
Hamilton rapid transit network plan: the LRT corridor along Main/King from McMaster to Eastgate (hatched) with the rapid bus lines feeding it.
Hamilton rapid transit network plan: the LRT corridor along Main/King from McMaster to Eastgate (hatched) with the rapid bus lines feeding it. · © City of Hamilton — used with credit · City of Hamilton, HSR (Re)envision — Rail Ready Rapid Transit Network map

Core idea

LRT-led intensification

Why it matters

Industrial city’s revival spine

Description

A corridor plan developed by the City of Hamilton, Ontario from the mid-2010s around a proposed light rail line running along the lower city's main east-west spine. The plan paired the provincially funded LRT with land-use intensification, station-area redevelopment and the renewal of an ageing commercial corridor, positioning transit investment as the backbone of the post-industrial city's revival.

Significance

Hamilton's LRT plan is a characteristic case of transit-oriented regeneration in mid-sized North American rust-belt cities, where light rail is asked to carry economic revival as much as mobility. Its repeated political cancellations and revivals have made it a study in the fragility of transit-led planning when provincial and municipal politics diverge, and in gentrification anxieties along revitalising corridors.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.