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

Streety McCarface said:
2 things to note:

1. School traffic has definitely increased the usage of the line. While my previous morning train saw 5-6 people on it when it departed Conestoga mall, the earlier train today saw close to 30 people on the train as it departed. Student usage is also up quite a bit, with trains being Standing Room only in the University area during most of the day.

2. For those that do not know (I did not and only found this out as I was sitting in the park playing truth-or-dare with some U of T friends 2 weeks ago in the middle of the night), the freight service and iON actually run at the same time, with a freight train usually heading up the spur at 11:30, and southbound iON trains running down the Northbound track at the same time. This means we cannot rule out overnight service along the entire corridor as a possibility in the near future since freight train interactions are not inhibiting 15-minute frequencies on the line.
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I was in Kitchener Waterloo yesterday and my ION LRT standing-room only during a Wednesday offpeak (roughly 11:30am) through the University section.

(I'm part of a business group that invited a free tour of LRT, in preparation for Hamilton LRT, I got to witness the KW ION LRT)

205840
 
mdrejhon said:
I was in Kitchener Waterloo yesterday and my ION LRT standing-room only during a Wednesday offpeak (roughly 11:30am) through the University section.

(I'm part of a business group that invited a free tour of LRT, in preparation for Hamilton LRT, I got to witness the KW ION LRT)

View attachment 205840
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I can't tell, but I might be in that photo.
 
Some exciting news:
This morning, the train was travelling above 50 km/h. My speedometer read a maximum speed of 68km/h, meaning that the line likely now has ATP in full or at least working operation (assuming the speedometer wasn't giving me some completely wrong readings, but it was evident enough that the train was travelling significantly faster than normal).
 
I noticed it was going close to 70kph now in some of the railroad-ties sections.

Despite the more pokey on-road sections, Transit was quite decently brisk. It was better than King Streetcar pilot in the on-road sections, thanks to cars being banned completely from the tracks except at intersections which are automatic green-light transit priority for LRT.

Would easily beat cars during rush hour. Speeds were the same off peak and on peak, thanks to the transit priority and crossing gates. Even summer ridership (after free trail and before school) of 14000/day beat the Calgary C-Train ridership of 11000/day in 1981. Now Calgary LRT is busiest in Canada.

If KW/Cambridge densities sufficiently, they may need funding for full-fleet two-LRV consist operation sooner than expected.
 
Streety McCarface said:
Some exciting news:
This morning, the train was travelling above 50 km/h. My speedometer read a maximum speed of 68km/h, meaning that the line likely now has ATP in full or at least working operation (assuming the speedometer wasn't giving me some completely wrong readings, but it was evident enough that the train was travelling significantly faster than normal).
Click to expand...

excellent news
 
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.
 
mdrejhon said:
If KW/Cambridge densities sufficiently, they may need funding for full-fleet two-LRV consist operation sooner than expected.
Click to expand...

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.
 
Bureaucromancer said:
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.
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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.
 
Streety McCarface said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
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