The City of Hamilton is planning to introduce on-demand buses to Mount Hope and Stoney Creek beginning in the fall of 2027, subject to Council approval.
The on-demand service would be provided through the HSR’s myRide service, which is currently only active in Waterdown.
The city says that myRide’s “stop-to-stop service dynamically adjusts the route as customers request to be picked up.”
Trips can be booked in real-time and up to 48 hours in advance using the myRide On-Demand App or by phone.
The myRide On-Demand service would replace HSR’s Trans-Cab service in Mount Hope and Stoney Creek.
Through Trans-Cab, transit users can be taken beyond the city’s bus routes via a Blue Line Taxi at a 50-cent premium on top of regular bus fare.
Introduction of myRide would mean that transit users would no longer have to pay that premium to go beyond fixed-route areas.
The City of Hamilton is currently accepting feedback on myRide service area boundaries, myRide stop locations, important destinations in the new myRide zones and feedback on how residents would use the new on-demand service.
The full survey and map feedback interface can be accessed here on the City of Hamilton website.
City staff are currently proposing two new myRide On-Demand Service Areas in Mount Hope and one area in Stoney Creek for introduction in Fall 2027.
In Mount Hope, there would be a north area and a south area.
The north area goes east-west Springside Drive, Alderlea Avenue, and Greti Drive to Glancaster Road and north-south from Rymal Road to Twenty Road.
The south area goes east-west from Upper James Street to just past Hamilton Airport and north-south from approximately English Church Road to White Church Road East.
The Stoney Creek zone runs east-west from the City of Hamilton-Niagara Region border to Centennial Parkway North. The northern border is Lake Ontario and the southern border runs parallel to the CN mainline rail corridor. The zone extends towards the escarpment east of Winona Road.
The new on-demand transit zones are a part of the city’s HSR Next transit network transformation, which is dubbed “the biggest evolution of Hamilton’s transit network in decades.”
HSR Next would start in 2027 and roll out annually over several years, resulting in an eventual 55 per cent increase in service.
The plan includes the introduction of new transit hubs across the city to cut down on transfers, more express transit access, and new route types.
All routes would connect to GO Train service at Hamilton GO Centre, West Harbour GO, or Confederation GO Station with no more than one transfer.
Under HSR Next, HSR service hours will increase from 1.02 million to over 1.6 million, there will be 40 conventional routes (up from 34), six on-demand zones (up from one), a total of 48 30-foot buses (up from 11), 260 40-foot buses (unchanged), and 91 60-foot buses (up from 49).
There will also be an additional 13 on-and-off-street hubs and two terminals constructed for LRT access at Eastgate and McMaster University.
In addition to the two new on-demand zones, the first year of HSR Next will see route changes on Route 27 Upper James in the downtown area, updates in east-west service corridors on Hamilton Mountain, and increased evening service on Route 20 A-Line.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
