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

CanadianNational said:
Some photos from around the proposed King St. Kitchener terminal site.
1) Looking south, King St. W on the right.
2) Looking north, King St. W on the left, Google Headquarters.
3) From Google Headquarters' west side, looking across railway overpass south down King St. W
4) Looking roughly south from west side of site, with King St. W on the right.
5) Looking east across the site from King St. W
6) Also looking east across the site from King St. W
7) aerial view of the proposed transit terminal lot.

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Great shots, thanks for sharing. Now, let’s get the station funded and built! It will really help create a “centre” for Kitchener.
 
E•MO•TION said:
It's not really needed.

Almost every single bus route, including the remaining intercity services travel through downtown Kitchener rather than terminating there.
Click to expand...

Exactly. The GRT routes changed from hub-and-spoke to spine-and-ribs with the opening of the ION LRT, essentially a rolling bus terminal.
 
Speaking of intercity services... GO buses moved into the new UW bus station two weeks ago yesterday, using platform 6 for departures and platform 7 for arrivals and layovers. Up to now I was surprised at how barebones platform 7 was (not even a bench!), but it makes more sense now.
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Route 25C has apparently been spotted at the station, despite not appearing on schedules yet.

Edit: This has also ended the brief period where GRT route 30 and GO route 30 shared the same streets!
 

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I'm starting to wonder what's the point of the new building. The work they're (hopefully) doing next year will provide the platform and bus loops. A couple ramps down to the LRT and what more is really needed for the station to actually work?

I'm kinda wondering if it (or a least $95M of it) is basically just a vanity project.
 
jmb said:
I'm starting to wonder what's the point of the new building. The work they're (hopefully) doing next year will provide the platform and bus loops. A couple ramps down to the LRT and what more is really needed for the station to actually work?

I'm kinda wondering if it (or a least $95M of it) is basically just a vanity project.
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What's the point of any train station building? A sheltered place to wait for your train, buy tickets, get directions, use the bathroom, park your bike, etc... plus there will be a community event space.
 
It is a transit station. Railway station plus bus station plus LRT connections. Train station on the top level and bus station on the bottom level. It is a nice building and plaza but if you combine the square footage of the Charles Street terminal that existed before, and the VIA station that will be closing then add some space for accessibility requirements... is it really that much different other than it looks far better than Charles St and the VIA station? If having architects involved in the design makes it a vanity project, then so be it, but to have the waiting area, staff rooms, washrooms, ticketing, and circulation area required... it was going to be this size.
 
E•MO•TION said:
The existing station fulfills this need just fine.
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It's almost a 10-minute walk from the current GO Station to the Ion stop on King Street. It was bad enough years ago trying to do this with luggage from the VIA station to the stop for the 7 bus. But now you can't even walk off the end of the platform at Weber Street, and have to walk down to Victoria, half-way between Ahrens and Weber.

Also, there's the issue of the second GO platform. I don't see any point building tunnels at the existing station to access that.
 
EnviroTO said:
but to have the waiting area, staff rooms, washrooms, ticketing, and circulation area required
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But are they? And $104m worth?

Once they move the Go station next year, they'll have everything already "connected". Adding some shelter and improving circulation around the site makes sense, but I don't really see that needing $104m (less whatever will be spent to improve stuff next year).

It's starting to make a lot more sense to me to do something very modest and wait until the market changes and they can return to the original plan, so they can get some density improvements.
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Making HtO park costed $10M. A grade separation under the corridor might cost $15M since it is small. You spend a third of the price on the outside of the building easily.

Yes, they should build density into the development but I would hope that is the plan for the east of the site where only a parking lot is planned. You could easily put as much density into the east of the site as they had planned to spread lightly across the site. Once the area is fully developed people will be happy there is a meaningful public square there.
 
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