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

[Sunnyside]

London, Hamilton, Oshawa, Brampton, etc all feel like such a joke compared to KW.

While its clear that WR has been able to build a strong consensus relatively quickly, and is now developing a local culture for good planning/'urbanism', there is much to be said for the fact that being a very fast-growing city/region makes much of this alot easier. It also really is not clear whether Waterloo will be able to pull the iON off again, either.

These peers have varying excuses- some legitimate, others not. Being a suburb of the GTA does not preclude prioritizing transit, but it does subject them to haphazard regional planning promises that hardly get delivered (thanks to the Province). Oshawa is just one urban place on the far side of many newer suburbs in Durham oriented toward Toronto.

Hamilton and London are complex places- we shouldn't oversimplify their (in)ability to prioritize transit by comparing to a city growing in the right time and place.

In short, Waterloo is the exception that proves a rule for Ontario's cities; the burden is generally far too high and mismanaged to create results without higher orders of Government today. We should be striving to allow more cities to do what Waterloo has, but that starts with completely rethinking the municipal and provincial roles in the process. The incentives are all completely misaligned.

 

[doady]

Grand River Transit established during the Mike Harris era. Bad timing. After Liberals elected and provincial gas tax funding, transit ridership in Waterloo Region started to catch up to the more established systems in Hamilton, London, and Oshawa. Right now all four places roughtly the same in transit ridership, 40-45 riders per capita (obviously Oshawa Transit no longer exists but I assume ridership has not decreased there). London got hurt really badly by the pandemic; it is usually 60 rider per capita there, on same level as Winnipeg and Quebec City.

 

[Sunnyside]

Grand River Transit established during the Mike Harris era. Bad timing. After Liberals elected and provincial gas tax funding, transit ridership in Waterloo Region started to catch up to the more established systems in Hamilton, London, and Oshawa. Right now all four places roughtly the same in transit ridership, 40-45 riders per capita (obviously Oshawa Transit no longer exists but I assume ridership has not decreased there). London got hurt really badly by the pandemic; it is usually 60 rider per capita there, on same level as Winnipeg and Quebec City.

They have all gotten to where they are quite differently, and at different rates of growth over time. There are alot of similarities that can be explained by the fact that they are all about the same population sizes; it's the differences beyond that which I think we need to pay attention to, rather than the similarities, or the pros/cons of any one in particular.

For example, bad timing is quite relative here. Hamilton was amalgamated under Harris, as was Toronto and Ottawa. But KWC do not have to think about the rural townships. London, Hamilton and Toronto have built highways/manage regional travel in ways the province has provided for elsewhere. GRT massively benefitted from the temp student influx much as Brampton Transit did. The list goes on.

The agencies will recover, and if 'Line 10' and the Hamilton LRT are delivered, we may be having a very different conversation in 5 years about who's the best at what.

 

[taylortbb]

London, Hamilton and Toronto have built highways/manage regional travel in ways the province has provided for elsewhere.

KW built a highway too. While the Conestoga Parkway has since been assumed by the province, it was originally a municipal initiative.

Which I think is a good parallel for ION. KW has always been a place that takes initiative on its own without waiting for the province, and which thinks a little bigger than it is.

 

[nfitz]

KW built a highway too. While the Conestoga Parkway has since been assumed by the province, it was originally a municipal initiative.

The Conestoga may have originally been a municipal initiative perhaps, but like the Finch West line it was assumed by the province before construction began in the 1960s.

 

[ZEBuilder]

They have all gotten to where they are quite differently, and at different rates of growth over time. There are alot of similarities that can be explained by the fact that they are all about the same population sizes; it's the differences beyond that which I think we need to pay attention to, rather than the similarities, or the pros/cons of any one in particular.

For example, bad timing is quite relative here. Hamilton was amalgamated under Harris, as was Toronto and Ottawa. But KWC do not have to think about the rural townships. London, Hamilton and Toronto have built highways/manage regional travel in ways the province has provided for elsewhere. GRT massively benefitted from the temp student influx much as Brampton Transit did. The list goes on.

The agencies will recover, and if 'Line 10' and the Hamilton LRT are delivered, we may be having a very different conversation in 5 years about who's the best at what.

KWC very much has to think about the rural townships, there's GRT routes that go up to Elmira, Breslau, New Hamburg and Baden, GRT is a Regional service that does not only serve the cities. Obviously it's a different degree than say Hamilton but the townships are still under regional governance as such the region still provides service to them.

The largest differentiating factor between those various systems is Waterloo Region had the political will to make the rather bold decision to build an LRT even when you had a very vocal opposition crowd. Waterloo Region knew they didn't want, and couldn't have endless urban sprawl so by themselves they came up with the ION plan (without Metrolinx) and followed through with it regardless of how unpopular it was. Yes phase 2 is still TBD but the Region is upgrading in such a way that the ION tracks can just be placed without having to do any road widening.

The expressway was also a Regional idea at first before the province eventually took over. The idea was originally to have a couple of large arterial roads acting as a ring, the cities approved the idea and started to buy up land. Then Bill Thompson the planner for Kitchener came up with the highway idea, the cities ended up getting an agreement with the province to cover a large portion of the funding and then before construction could start the province took over the project.

KWC has always been, and continues to be, cities that have bold ideas and sees them through, KW wouldn't be what it is today without the expressway, it wouldn't have seen the positive change it has without the ION, so sure they're all similar but KW by far differentiates themselves with a certain level of boldness that isn't exactly found in other similar municipalities.

 

[doady]

When the LRT was approved in 2011, the 7 and 200 routes comprised 1/3 of all boardings on Grand River Transit. Oshawa, London, Hamilton, and Brampton don't have any corridors that dominate their transit networks to such a large degree. It had higher ridership than any corridor in the 905, so it presented a unique opportunity other places don't have.

7 Mainline 16,228
200 iXpress 13,240

19 Hurontario 20,554
103 Hurontario Express 7,248

501 Zum Queen 16,295
1 Queen 6,477

1 King 14,512
10 Beeline 5,595

 

[ShonTron]

The Conestoga may have originally been a municipal initiative perhaps, but like the Finch West line it was assumed by the province before construction began in the 1960s.

The Conestoga is also that rare highway that made the urban area better. Having most of the traffic sent there off King and Weber made it a lot easier to built the Ion LRT and focus the high density around it.