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Waterloo Region Transit Developments (ION LRT, new terminal, GRT buses)

steveintoronto said:
I've just spent another half an hour studying the trail maps. They don't get you in or out of the city, and they don't connect together in a continuous length by and large.

Not only that, the various trail maps I can find don't even correspond to each other! I have cycled down the Iron Horse Trail south to Cambridge and then down to the Grand River Trail to Brantford and Hamilton, but it was convoluted and a lot on roads I'd never repeat.

If you can link a map that "gets me out of town" for K/W, please do so. Even getting north to Elmira and on to the Kissing Bridge Trail has proven very difficult, last time I took a bus from the Conestoga Plaza....there's no way to cycle the main road north and have any nerves left.

It's truly unfortunate, as with the new LRT one would think there would be an effort to make K/W more enticing to distance cyclists, like Brantford, Hamilton, Petrborough and many other cities do.
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I find that the best way to get to Guelph is to honestly bike on Crowsfoot road. The Kissing Bridge trail is nice for walking, but it's so difficult to bike on without a mountain bike (especially in poor conditions). It's nowhere near as busy as hwy 7 and the road is relatively well kept. However, getting across the grand river is a challenge regardless of where you are. The grand river trail is so discontinuous (I have written letters begging them to complete it), it's useless to try and use it to get to Cambridge. Iron Horse is your best bet, but you will have to bike on some local roads. Hopefully they improve the continuity, but for short distance hops, a lot of the trails (especially the spurline/laurel trail) work extremely well.
 
steveintoronto said:
But you know, I've stared at the new transit map, and still find it indeterminate as to where to transfer from the LRT to the 200iX down to Ainslee.
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There will be a transfer at Fairway station to ION bus, which will go from there to Ainslie (effectively a truncated route 200 with upgraded vehicles).
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Wow, no love for Preston!

What's the long-term LRT route? I'd think there'd be demand around Maple Grove/Fountain with the Toyota plant and all that industry.
 
AndreWW said:
There will be a transfer at Fairway station to ION bus, which will go from there to Ainslie (effectively a truncated route 200 with upgraded vehicles).
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Many thanks for that! I can now start planning to use that. Any other maps I called up were indeterminate of not only the connection, but also whether 200 continues north, with one source indicating it going as far as Elmira, something I'd wished I'd known in the past. I'd been directed to King Street from the bus terminal, then a local bus up to Conestoga Mall, and then another local up to Elmira. I won't be doing that again!

"upgraded vehicles" Any details on that? Hopefully better bike racks on the front. I take the GO 30 bus from Bramalea, it rockets to....hey...I wonder if it will connect to the 200iX at Fairway Station? My wish is to get to Ainslee and then I brave the (ex) Hwy 24 down to where the trail starts to Paris/Brantford/Hamilton et al (a magnificent stretch is down to Paris).

At the very least, you've given me "Fairway Station" to Google with, any further info most appreciated.
 
steveintoronto said:
Many thanks for that! I can now start planning to use that. Any other maps I called up were indeterminate of not only the connection, but also whether 200 continues north, with one source indicating it going as far as Elmira, something I'd wished I'd known in the past. I'd been directed to King Street from the bus terminal, then a local bus up to Conestoga Mall, and then another local up to Elmira. I won't be doing that again!

"upgraded vehicles" Any details on that? Hopefully better bike racks on the front. I take the GO 30 bus from Bramalea, it rockets to....hey...I wonder if it will connect to the 200iX at Fairway Station? My wish is to get to Ainslee and then I brave the (ex) Hwy 24 down to where the trail starts to Paris/Brantford/Hamilton et al (a magnificent stretch is down to Paris).

At the very least, you've given me "Fairway Station" to Google with, any further info most appreciated.
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This could be somewhat useful:
Fairway_OverviewPCC.png
 
^ Searched on-line for any info on how GO Transit buses (specifically route #30) will intersect with "Fairway Station". So far, nothing showing. That being said, trying to navigate the GO website is an unforgiving nightmare.

For GO not to intersect in the south of Kitchener is beyond unconscionable. They already have a couple of lame stops for the #30 before it reaches the main bus station, you'd think they'd move one to Fairway or somewhere on the route.
 
I had occasion to drive a bit around Waterloo last week, including west on Northfield and south on Parkside during morning rush hour. I saw a huge pile of people waiting for the express bus at Parkside and Cederbrae - but no one seemed to be near bus stops at either of the nearby LRT stations (Northfield and R&T). Looking now at Google Maps, it's a full 1-km walk from that quite busy spot, to either LRT station. I'm baffled why they didn't build an LRT stop 200 metres away in front of the library on old Albert Street. That's going to be a service cut when they replace that express bus right to campus with the number 9 bus. I'm guessing few will actually transfer to the LRT to go one more stop when it passes close (but not right at) R&T station.

Driving past the Northfield stop, I couldn't see how one walks from Northfield (where 19 and 73 buses will pass) to the stop. I'd have assumed down the centreline between the two tracks as the tracks remain as far apart crossing the sidewalk at Northfield, as they are on the platform. But the signage makes it clear that pedestrians are forbidden, which seems truly bizarre, as surely they are at no risk between the tracks, but are at risk on the sidewalk that crosses the tracks. Someone clearly has their head deep up their imagination on the pedestrian design here. I couldn't see how pedestrians are supposed to get to the stop - though I surely missed something, as I was driving.

Looking at the stops north of Seagram Drive, I'm a bit baffled where the passenger demand comes from. It serves the university and business/works places relatively well, but it completely misses any residential. Obviously there'll be some transfer from buses. I'm not aware of how parking lots will work.

The more I look at it closely, the lack of the stop at the community centre/library surrounded by some of the higher density in the area, completely baffles me. Did they have any contingency of adding stops - the 2-km gap seems to be one of the larger ones on the line.
 
There's a sidewalk to the road on the east side of the Northfield stop, which is visible (although not very obvious) on Google Street View. Unfortunately, this means you have to cross the tracks back again to cross the road. A crossing in the centre or on the west side would have been better, but it looks like the west side is blocked by a separate freight track. Ideally, they would have extended the platform all the way to the street as they did with some other stations, but I guess there was too much stuff in the way to make a proper sidewalk. I suspect they won't be able to stop intrepid pedestrians from leaving between the tracks anyway.

As for ridership north of Seagram: from my experience riding the 200, the university and workplaces are the passenger demand. When I was taking the 200 to work in the mornings, a large portion of the mostly full bus would get off at Northfield and then head either toward Kumpf or to the building right by the station; and the southbound iXpress stop at the university can get pretty crowded, especially around 5:00.

I didn't know about the existing crossing behind the library, that does seem like an ideal place to put a stop. Not only that, but it looks like that's the only route 200 stop without a replacement ION station. Hopefully they haven't ruled out infill stations - LRT stage 2.1, anyone?
 
nfitz said:
I had occasion to drive a bit around Waterloo last week, including west on Northfield and south on Parkside during morning rush hour. I saw a huge pile of people waiting for the express bus at Parkside and Cederbrae - but no one seemed to be near bus stops at either of the nearby LRT stations (Northfield and R&T). Looking now at Google Maps, it's a full 1-km walk from that quite busy spot, to either LRT station. I'm baffled why they didn't build an LRT stop 200 metres away in front of the library on old Albert Street.
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Northfield will have 3 seperate bus routes serving it (including a route on Albert St). Some of the routes would have been awkward to egress from here (needing multiple left hand turns). Plus moving this stop would bring it too close to the R&T stop

R&T will (hopefully) be a destination stop. In the AM there will be no one waiting at the stop....more when people leave work. But they have to convince people here to get out of their cars and back into transit. Doable but won't happen until the LRT is running. I am also hopeful that this will permit increased density in R&T when there is less demand for parking.

nfitz said:
Looking at the stops north of Seagram Drive, I'm a bit baffled where the passenger demand comes from. It serves the university and business/works places relatively well, but it completely misses any residential. Obviously there'll be some transfer from buses. I'm not aware of how parking lots will work.
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Bit confused here. Is this not the exact issue with Sheppard Subway? If your goal is to service residential than there is not enough demand for high-order transit. The goal is to have convenient stops for destinations (commercial/retail). Plus feeder routes from low-density residential that brings capacity to the station. Putting a stop in the middle of a subdivision with 1 or 2 apartments will not have demand throughout the day.
 
muller877 said:
Bit confused here. Is this not the exact issue with Sheppard Subway? If your goal is to service residential than there is not enough demand for high-order transit. The goal is to have convenient stops for destinations (commercial/retail). Plus feeder routes from low-density residential that brings capacity to the station. Putting a stop in the middle of a subdivision with 1 or 2 apartments will not have demand throughout the day.
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Not entirely, the McCormick stop serves a heavily student & low income populated area near a community centre. They should have a station there, especially since there is also a plaza 200 meters away. The majority of people using that stop are UW & Laurier students going to class or downtown.
 
steveintoronto said:
^ Searched on-line for any info on how GO Transit buses (specifically route #30) will intersect with "Fairway Station". So far, nothing showing. That being said, trying to navigate the GO website is an unforgiving nightmare.

For GO not to intersect in the south of Kitchener is beyond unconscionable. They already have a couple of lame stops for the #30 before it reaches the main bus station, you'd think they'd move one to Fairway or somewhere on the route.
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Fairway would be a long way off the route, but GO buses should stop at Borden and Charles (right now, they stop in front of the Rockway Centre, the old southern end of the Kitchener-Waterloo streetcar/trolleybus). Personally, I would love to see the Sportsworld stop removed for route 25. I also don't care for how much time it takes to get on and off the 401 for the Aberfoyle park and ride.
 
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