KhalilHeron
Active Member
YES i was so scared they'd build the first phase and then money would dry up
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Waterloo Region Transit Developments (ION LRT, new terminal, GRT buses)
SaugeenJunction
Senior Member
Some new renders from today’s announcement, from photos of placards held by politicians (I can’t find the renderings online yet).
nfitz
Superstar
Now let's see what it looks like after they value engineer it. 
Thaboss
Active Member
Very lovely design indeed!
Waterloo region showing the gta how it should be done...
Is that building really only for two tracks tho?
Waterloo region showing the gta how it should be done...
Is that building really only for two tracks tho?
ZEBuilder
Active Member
Those are the same renders that the Region has since 2020, there hasn't been any value engineering of it so far even though its been delayed.
The station is only designed for two tracks, the architect is WZMH, AECOM is the engineer on the Metrolinx half and WSP is involved on the Regional side.
For those curious all the public documents can be found here: https://www.engagewr.ca/king-victoria-transit-hub
The station is only designed for two tracks, the architect is WZMH, AECOM is the engineer on the Metrolinx half and WSP is involved on the Regional side.
For those curious all the public documents can be found here: https://www.engagewr.ca/king-victoria-transit-hub
SaugeenJunction
Senior Member
Nope, these are new renderings. Take the time to look closely and you can see the design differences!
NoahB
Active Member
It does look slightly different. Look at the right side. The new one has the glass at the front going up to the upper floor, unlike the previous design. It is too grainy to see any other differences. I wonder what else has changed and whether the bike ramp survived.
Bojaxs
Senior Member
It's sad how there is a general ack of "future proofing" in Ontario's transit designs.
This stations should be built to accommodate a potential, future third track.
KhalilHeron
Active Member
The bridge over King was built as part of ION project and only has room for 2 tracks. Though im really not sure why we'd ever need more than 2 here. Even if London gets great GO service one day I dont see how 2 tracks wouldn't be enough. If high speed rail makes its way to kitchener one day then its looks like there will still be room on the north side of the corridor for new tracks and a new bridge, They'd just need to remove the layover yard west of the station
a2z
New Member
With Regional Council rejecting the "compromise" to limit these cuts to 20 min service, it re-highlighted to me how unfortunate it was to not include an Albert McCormick stop on the LRT (something @nfitz appears to have mentioned on this forum since 2007!)
But I guess there wasn't ever a strong voice to advocate for this + that neighbourhood hasn't really changed much in the last 10 years, especially in comparison to the current + future development along the nearby stops.
(At least the multi-use trail connecting Northfield & the Farmers' Market with the Universities & Uptown is now fully complete, I guess?
)MidtownKW
New Member
With Regional Council rejecting the "compromise" to limit these cuts to 20 min service, it re-highlighted to me how unfortunate it was to not include an Albert McCormick stop on the LRT (something @nfitz appears to have mentioned on this forum since 2007!)
But I guess there wasn't ever a strong voice to advocate for this + that neighbourhood hasn't really changed much in the last 10 years, especially in comparison to the current + future development along the nearby stops.
(At least the multi-use trail connecting Northfield & the Farmers' Market with the Universities & Uptown is now fully complete, I guess?
I'm not in favour of these cuts to routes 9 and 19, but I'm glad that McCormick didn't get a stop. Look at Line 6 and how much of the problem is attributable to insanely-close stop spacing. McCormick wouldn't be an excessive example of that, but the speed we enjoy on Ion is partly because these stops were appropriately space. As you note, there hasn't been development in the neighbourhood, and there is not much density.
I took two of my children to day camps at McCormick this past summer, and the walk from R&T Station to McCormick was reasonable, even in the height of summer, though admittedly only for a week.
The cuts to 9 and 19 are still shortsighted, in my opinion. I take 19 from time to time, and ridership seems healthy, and with planned expansions among employers north of Northfield, it could grow (or stop declining). But that's really a different issue than whether McCormick made sense as an Ion station, with the ongoing cost of minutes of travel time that that would have meant.
a2z
New Member
Fair points. In my head I was thinking that: i) there is some density (at least by Waterloo standards) with the stretch of apartments along Parkside; and ii) that there is a (much?) higher % of people dependent on transit there compared to most other (non-central) neighbourhoods within Waterloo.
Eventually I guess there will have to be a re-shuffling of routes in that area whenever the new hospital gets built, given it's only somewhat walkable from R&T. But that will be a while.