The MacNab Transit Terminal/Frank A. Cooke Transit Terminal

In the 1960s the City of Hamilton decided to undertake a large scale redevelopment project in the downtown core. Whole blocks of buildings and even the streets themselves in an area bounded by Main, Bay, James and Merrick (later York) were demolished and replaced by structures such as Jackson Square, the Hamilton Central Library, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and the Hamilton Convention Centre to name but a few.

The full story of the downtown redevelopment with its original plans and delays and restarts has been told elsewhere. But one feature that was added in the second redevelopment plan by Yale Properties in 1970 after the first developer First Wentworth withdrew was a new bus terminal to be built on the site of what was MacNab St, between King and Main. This terminal would be the new western terminus of the HSR's trolleybus routes, which since October 31, 1960 had looped along Charles St in front of the then new Hamilton City Hall. Charles street was to be removed completely under Yale's plan, and so the trolley buses would need a new terminus.

The cost of the terminal was $700,000 ($4.9 Million in 2024 dollars), split 50/25/25 by the Federal/provincial/municipal governments. Construction of the MacNab Terminal began in the spring of 1973, as work could not proceed until the completion of a new sewer line and the Jackson Square parking garage exit running to Main St. By early June the shelters were being erected, and overhead wire for the Trolley buses was installed at the end of July. The MacNab Bus Terminal opened on August 16, 1973, although a formal opening ceremony was cancelled due to a strike by civic workers.

In the late 2000's, the City of Hamilton planned a revitalization of Gore Park, which included the relocation of the Gore Park bus terminal. The decision was made to upgrade the MacNab terminal and move all of the bus routes that ended at Gore Park. The New MacNab Terminal would include green roofs, a terminal building with washrooms and an info centre for riders. An early proposal that was later abandoned would have involved an even larger facility, expanding the MacNab terminal to connect to James St via the parking lot on the north side of the Pigott building.

Environment assessment of the plan began in the Fall of 2007, with a public information centre meeting on May 29, 2008. The MacNab Terminal closed on June 28, 2009, and demolition began on October 19. The original schedule was for the new terminal to open at the end of August 2010, but delays in the installation of the snow melting system pushed the opening back to January 2, 2011. The decision was made to open the bus terminal before the terminal building was complete, which finally opened on February 14.

In 2020 as a result of the Covid pandemic, the terminal building was permanently closed to passengers and became for HSR personnel only. On August 21, 2022 the MacNab Transit Terminal was renamed to the Frank A. Cooke Transit Terminal, in honor of the former HSR General Manager who died in 2015, with a formal dedication on September 12, 2022.

(All photos © Tom Luton, except where noted)

Historic photos