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

[muller877]

Does GO Transit have an express bus link between Union Stn and K-W? If not, there should be something that runs via Hwy 401 only stopping at Aberfoyle, then on to Fairview Park Mall, Charles St Terminal, U Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier.

Ihttp://www.gotransit.com/timetables/en/schedules/schedules_window.aspx?tableid=25&dir=E&date=2016-02-08&parentid=1

Basically does...but skips Charles St. There is a large bus terminal now at Sportsworld. Charles St will basically disappear when the LRT is running. Bus routes will feed the various LRT stops and become a grid vs feeding into Charles St. Charles St terminal can be sold off and developed.

The great part about the future is the GO Bus will stop at Fairview Mall (I hope) and then students can hop on the LRT (and Phase 2 will mean they can get on the LRT at Sportsworld terminal). This means they won't care if its a bus or the train. Each will get them to the LRT and then they just have to get off in either 4 stops or 14 stops.

It also means that the UW students at the other campuses are connected to the main campus and get a better university experience by being connected to the campus life.

 

[innsertnamehere]

There is no Waterloo- Union Station GO bus as Greyhound has the rights to that trip right now. GO only goes to Square One.

 

[Megaton327]

They are used at Spadina and Adelaide for the 510 to make a right hand turn. I also believe they are used in one section on Queen's Quay where the streetcar goes from centre running to running on the south side.

No, in those cases it is above the red light, not separate. I've never seen a separate one in Toronto, either.

 

[mpd618]

There is no Waterloo- Union Station GO bus as Greyhound has the rights to that trip right now. GO only goes to Square One.

This is true until GO no longer wants it to be true, as GO Transit does not have to get a license to operate any route. However, if it were to run direct from Toronto to KW, it needs to be willing to pick up the whole corridor service if Greyhound pulls out.

As for why GO buses do not currently stop at Charles Street terminal, it's due to ION construction - they stop a few blocks away on Weber Street.

 

[TOareaFan]

^there are a few buses (route 30, I think) that go to Kitchener from Bramalea GO....so I guess those connect from Union-Bramalea services (bus or train) and continue on.

 

[Catenary]

No, in those cases it is above the red light, not separate. I've never seen a separate one in Toronto, either.

There have been a number of cases in Ottawa in recent weeks of people posting dashcam footage of OC Transpo buses appearing to drive through red lights. Of course there is actually a transit priority signal present in all of these cases, but since it's only on the rightmost signalhead, it is often not seen in the footage. OC Transpo has been running a couple of campaigns on social media to educate people about the lights as a result of this, it will be interesting to see if K-W has the same issues.

 

[Allandale25]

No, in those cases it is above the red light, not separate. I've never seen a separate one in Toronto, either.

Ah you're right. Sorry I should've read your post more carefully.

 

[Duke-of-East-York]

There have been a number of cases in Ottawa in recent weeks of people posting dashcam footage of OC Transpo buses appearing to drive through red lights. Of course there is actually a transit priority signal present in all of these cases, but since it's only on the rightmost signalhead, it is often not seen in the footage. OC Transpo has been running a couple of campaigns on social media to educate people about the lights as a result of this, it will be interesting to see if K-W has the same issues.

The same issue has actually recently happened in Waterloo Region with the new aBRT on Hespeler Road in Cambridge. The Region responded by adding additional signage to the signals indicating that the vertical white bar above the signal indicates transit priority.

http://www.therecord.com/news-story...ing-stoplights-on-hespeler-road-in-cambridge/

 

[P0per]

Pictures from today. I'll avoid redundancies with @Duck's from yesterday.

Looks like traffic will soon shift to Northfield's north side. Space for LRT in the median all the way to the Highway 85 overpass.
Untitled by ION Construction, on Flickr

Space for LRT ROW on Highway 85 overpass.
Untitled by ION Construction, on Flickr

New track and signal bungalow.
Untitled by ION Construction, on Flickr

King St. looking much better, two-way traffic by Grand River Hospital.
Untitled by ION Construction, on Flickr

Sense of scale of the dome soon-to-be covering the Guelph Sub grade separation.
Untitled by ION Construction, on Flickr

Charles St. ready for track.
Untitled by ION Construction, on Flickr

Street-side ROW on Borden.
Untitled by ION Construction, on Flickr

Getting ready for the LRT ROW south of Highway 7.
Untitled by ION Construction, on Flickr

Shoring in place for LRT bridge at Schneider Creek.
Untitled by ION Construction, on Flickr

Rest of day's photos on Flickr.

 

[gweed123]

I wonder how much the milder-than-usual winter has accelerated the project timeline. I'm sure they had a few "snow days" in there, where they reasonably expected that no substantial work could be done. Should be interesting to compare in late April where they actually are vs where the project schedule said they'd be.

 

[Markster]

Considering the various pieces of construction that were falling behind last year... (King St in midtown, Charles St around Gaukel, Caroline St, and the rail underpass have all seen delays)
I'm currently optimistic that thanks to the warm winter, they will be On Schedule.

 

[ottbike]

^ is this a P3?

 

[innsertnamehere]

yup. Build - Maintain P3.

 

[Duck]

P3/DBFOM. I don't understand what it means really, but I believe the gist is that the Region of Waterloo says to a company "Here is money" and the company goes "Ok, here is train." and said company (consortium) is responsible to make sure it opens on time, operates correctly, etc. Is that kind of right?

 

[ottbike]

^Basically. The consortium is financially responsible for any cost overruns or delays (penalties), so you can bet they will be taking advantage of this warm weather.