robmausser
Senior Member
excellent news
|
|
|
Ion Light Rail (Kitchener-Waterloo) & King/Victoria Transit Terminal
Streety McCarface
Senior Member
An update: I couldn't really check things numerous times this morning, but I've ridden the Waterloo spur section a few more times this afternoon (after the climate strike). Of the 6 trips I took, only one operated above 60 km/h. While trains may have permission to travel faster, I'm assuming trains are not running at the faster speeds to avoid scheduling conflicts. If this is the case, we won't see any real changes to the line's operation until the holidays or later. It's a shame because riding the train when it's going 70 is a lot more fun.
W. K. Lis
Superstar
Should be remembered that the ride on rail is generally smoother than on a bus or car.
Bureaucromancer
Active Member
My best guess is that we'll see full, or near it, two car operations as soon as the extension opens, and that this is already successful enough that it's essentially inevitable that the extension will be included in the next round of project funding... Whenever that is. Three years from now, or seven, seem the big possibilities.
Streety McCarface
Senior Member
I'm honestly not sure that's the best use of funds. Something like 1/6th the people use the Cambridge corridor. An extension to Sportsworld makes some sense, and light rail down University Avenue/Columbia makes a bit more sense than Cambridge from a ridership standpoint. There arent many places to develop along the cambridge corridor.
robmausser
Senior Member
Unfortunate. But they will hopefully solve it soon.
Should be 70mh/s through all the rail/separated sections, and they should raise all on-street operations by 10km/h in my opinion. Some of the one way street areas are painfully slow.
Allandale25
Senior Member
Reecemartin
Senior Member
Fantastic to see, I really hope the growth in automobile free-living further sparks usage of GO and VIA as well.
W. K. Lis
Superstar
Wonder how many have "suspended", "over 80 years old", or "no" driver's license? Wonder how many "drove" cars without a valid license?
Allandale25
Senior Member
tmlittle
Active Member
It looks like there's already some very interesting and possibly unique aspects to the proposed route, such as an LRT-bisected roundabout, which I'm sure will confuse drivers to my own amusement.
hw621
Senior Member
It seems ION is running way more smoothly that Ottawa
W. K. Lis
Superstar
ION opened earlier in the year.
tmlittle
Active Member
This is a really important aspect and I hope operators of future systems take note. The ION launch and bus network reconfiguration took place in late June, when most students were gone, and the people using transit were from demographics like commuters, seniors, ODSP, etc. These people who are usually older and more likely to rely on memorized routes, paper maps, and help point information got the benefit of staff being able to help them efficiently, while students (who probably more or less universally use Google Maps to plan routes) were able to adapt without problems to the now-existing system. In contrast, the Ottawa system launched only a few weeks into the new school term, and seems to have been much more chaotic overall.
robmausser
Senior Member
It also has way less ridership. Crush loads can cause a lot of problems, like door issues,