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

Recent article:

'Lessons have been learned': Region to re-evaluate last stop of LRT line in Cambridge​

Ainslie Street terminal has 'additional benefits' as opposed to Bruce Street stop​

credit logo

By Bill Doucet, Reporter
Mon., Aug. 15, 2022

The Bruce Street LRT stop in Cambridge is being re-evaluated by regional staff.

It looks like Region of Waterloo council will be rolling back the tracks on the Stage 2 ION route in Cambridge.

Regional council voted unanimously on Aug. 9 to re-evaluate the location of the south terminal on Bruce Street — the final stop on the Light Rail Transit (LRT) line — after learning of “new information which was not known in 2018,” according to a regional staff report.

The report noted now that the region has experience operating the LRT system, it has realized three deficiencies with the Bruce Street terminal.

The first is Bruce Street track geometry has operational drawbacks that have now been realized since Stage 1 ION was constructed. Second, the Bruce Street terminal station design has been developed further and will have higher property impacts in the area. And third, there is no room for additional storage for a disabled train at the south terminal, which wasn’t identified four years ago.

The report also noted additional benefits have been uncovered in having the possible stop at the Ainslie Street bus terminal.

There is no mention in the report that the Main Street terminal stop will be affected by a change in the Bruce Street location.

“I really like the idea that staff is taking into consideration the effects that the shorter route has with the business community as well as the public,” said Cambridge regional Coun. Karl Kiefer.

“I know that some lessons have been learned from Stage 1 of the LRT process and can be applied to Stage 2. Hopefully, this will not slow down the construction timeline.”

Cambridge regional Coun. Helen Jowett reiterated Kiefer’s praise of staff applying its experience from the initial ION stage to make sure all issues are conquered before going to the government for cash.

“This adaptation promotes effectiveness and efficiency, which will perpetuate a better and improved business case when we approach the other levels of government for financial support,” Jowett said.

Creating a strategy to get that government funding was also part of the report to council. Staff will now be tasked to get that strategy together in 2023 ahead of the business case.

The report stated, “The project team is currently preparing new project cost estimates for design, construction, vehicles, operations, maintenance, rehabilitation, financing and costs escalation.”

Staff will present the strategy and costs of the project to council in early 2023. The business case is expected to be submitted to the Ministry of Transportation in late 2023.

Through the region’s Rapid Transit Capital Program, a budget of $1.95 million has been earmarked for 2022. To date, the region has spent $338,600 of that budget.

The report stated the budget is sufficient to support the re-evaluation process at a cost of $100,000.

“I just want to underscore that I think this is the result of very thoughtful consultation and conversations with some of the business interests in the broader community in Cambridge and I commend staff for taking this slight wrinkle in Phase 2,” said Regional Chair Karen Redman during the planning committee meeting.

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: The region decided to go back and look into Stage 2 of the ION route, which was to end on Bruce Street in Cambridge. That location may not be as beneficial as first thought.
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Dave Rackner said:
Interesting development about Breslau Go Station. This project should have started by now but it seems the Commissioner and his planning team are trying to suppress it. Metrolinx identified a new partner Lion’s Mane Ministry to deliver the Go Station with the Market Driven Approach, but the Commissioner says it is not priority and yanked their designation. How can a private meat business become priority over our much needed Transit? See this link

observerxtra.com

Woolwich backs decreased land allocation as region moves on needs

Higher densities and less land designated for development are targets in the latest version of Waterloo Region’s growth forecast for the next 30 years. In Woolwich, where councillors this week e
observerxtra.com observerxtra.com

If this is not corruption or discrimination I don't know what else it is. Landowners across the GTA are made to be partners with Metrolinx to deliver the stations. Reading this article and watching the YouTube video makes me sick.
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Woolwich politics seem like a nightmare. It's been depressing to see a place with pretty tight urban town cores really sprawl out in the last decade or so. Not that Wilmot is any better either. All of that introduces more suburbia that will be an infrastructural nightmare, not least to serve with transit.
 
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MrGoose said:
Oops we just derailed a train of hazardous goods inside a city

View attachment 437315

Our bad wont happen again
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The first time CP did that, we ended up with an unstoppable mayor with really awful ethics yet became beloved for no other reason than her longevity, and still haunts us with her support of an awful provincial government.
 
I can't remember if this is the right thread for the transit hub in Kitchener. It's referenced in this article posted today.

In 2016, the Wynne Liberals also pledged $43 million to the Region of Waterloo to develop a transit hub at King and Victoria streets in Kitchener, creating a centre that would connect light rail transit, Grand River Transit buses, GO trains and Via Rail trains.

Regional spokesperson Lynsey Slupeiks said the region will provide an update on the hub when a report is released, possibly as early as February.

Work on the transit hub, including new platforms for GO trains, is proceeding in downtown Kitchener, but the construction of a new transit hub building has been on hold as the region worked to line up the rest of the funding needed for the $106-million project, beyond the $43 million the province has agreed to pay.
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Full article text in the GO Construction thread: https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threa...-projects-metrolinx-various.9023/post-1901626
 
Northern Light said:
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Ideally this will help:

The Record: House of Friendship’s innovative new 100-bed shelter set to open in Waterloo

Excerpt:

WATERLOO — The journey for House of Friendship’s unique new men’s shelter in Waterloo began eight years ago, on a fact-finding trip to Ottawa.

There, the non-profit’s executive director, John Neufeld, and financial director Jackie Keller, among others, visited the Shepherds of Good Hope shelter to learn more about an innovative ‘hospital without walls’ approach in the nation’s capital.

“They realized 20 years ago that health care needs to be embedded in where our most vulnerable citizens are,” Neufeld said.

The people experiencing homelessness that House of Friendship serves don’t often seek out medical care, he explained. Lack of trust, stigma, and feelings of unworthiness can all fuel that reluctance.

The simple concept — having health care on-site at shelters, around the clock — “completely blew us away.”

In the years following the Ottawa visit, Neufeld, Keller and their colleagues discussed the idea with community partners and formally pitched the concept at a dinner just months before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Piloted at previous temporary locations where House of Friendship provided shelter services — including the Radisson Hotel in Kitchener and the Inn of Waterloo — its ShelterCare program will be fully realized at the soon-to-open facility in the former Comfort Inn on Weber Street North.
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