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

[salsa]

There’s a recurring view amongst planners (like Keesmat for one) that a transit route can only be successful if it follows a road (either in the middle of it, or under it).

When did Keesmat ever say that?

 

[44 North]

She's made a lot points over the last few years about pedestrian-friendly 'Avenues', in-median ROW's, etc. These aren't hard to find. But for a quick example from an article I re-read last night re: elevated transit, and a point she made about Eglinton East (in reference to Honolulu's elevated line):

“The Honolulu transit corridor project is really about connecting the city with the county…. It’s about connecting two urban areas. That’s very different from the context we imagine along Eglinton where we would like to see a significant amount of intensification along the corridor,” said Keesmaat.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/tra...ter_elevated_transit_isnt_always_smarter.html

 

[Duck]

Ah, that seems exactly right. I was somehow thinking the photo was looking north from Kitchener.

I took the photo at the crossing at the South end of the parking lot for Waterloo Park off Seagram.

There’s really nowhere else in Canada of a similar size that’s building actual attractive railed transit.

...or North America. When it opens, Waterloo Region will be the smallest city/municipality/region/whatever in North America with a rail-based transit system.

But we're still way behind Europe. I always like to point out Rennes, France, with a population less than half of ours... and they have a beautiful fully automated light metro, and a second is under construction. I'm planning a trip for 2018 when Ligne B opens, as it's the launch customer for CityVAL.

 

[ShonTron]

I took the photo at the crossing at the South end of the parking lot for Waterloo Park off Seagram.



...or North America. When it opens, Waterloo Region will be the smallest city/municipality/region/whatever in North America with a rail-based transit system.

If one wants to get technical, it would be excluding tourist-oriented or minor circulator streetcar lines (Kenosha, WI), incline railways operated by a local transit agency (Johnstown, PA; Chattanooga, TN) or university-based transit systems (Morgantown, WV). But your point still stands. Kitchener-Waterloo will be the smallest city-region with a rail transit line as an essential part of its public transit system. It should be very successful.

 

[nfitz]

Toronto – 2.5M – has railed transit
Ottawa – 900,000 – has railed transit
‘Sauga – 715,000 – no railed transit
Brampton – 525,000 – no railed transit
Hamilton – 520,000 – no railed transit
London – 366,000 – no railed transit
Markham – 300,000 – no railed transit
Vaughan – 290,000 – other than a short stub for Concord, no railed transit
Kitchener – 220,000 – building railed transit

For the Waterloo Ion, shouldn't you use at a minimum the combined Kitchener-Waterloo population of 320,000? And as the census count doesn't include much of the significant Waterloo student population, wouldn't the Region of Waterloo count for KW of 365,000 be more appropriate? Kitchener and Waterloo aren't like many cities, where the suburbs join ... but the actualy downtown core of the 2 cities join. For all intents and purposes it's a single city in terms of how people move.

 

[44 North]

Good point. I guess I could’ve done that. But for that list I simply used actual cities/municipalities. Had I continued on with that list, Waterloo would’ve been somewhere around the 20th spot with a note that railed transit is being built. But Cambridge at #15 I’d list as having no railed transit.

And “Kitchener-Waterloo†doesn't seem like a technically accurate way of counting them, because both are still their own cities with their own civic governments. Calling them one and counting their population together seems more of a local thing.

However, Waterloo Region is also regional municipality. But it’s a big area which includes Kitchener, Cambridge, as well as very rural areas (Wilmot, Woolwich, Wilmot, North Dumfries twps). And if I counted the Region, then I’d have to count York and Peel Regions the same way. Which I don’t think is a fair way of making a list of city’s railed transit system, considering some of these Regional Municipalities have large rural areas, or very separate/disparate towns/cities within their boundaries. It doesn’t seem accurate to say all of York Region has a railed transit system under construction, when really it’s a small stub in one city.

 

[salsa]

Waterloo is doing a lot of things right. It's interesting to see the contrast between them and Hamilton.

Hamilton is a sad example of bad leadership that is doing everything they can to support cars above all else, promote anti-smart growth, and sabotage it's urban revival. Judging by what I've been reading at raisethehammer.org, this city is almost as regressive as a Texas backwater village. Which is too bad because Hamilton has some great potential, but is destined for continued economic stagnation under the current regime.

Edit: and now I read that council has rammed another nail in the coffin for LRT in Hamilton. Bravo.

https://raisethehammer.org/article/2537/councillors_approve_$300m_change_to_provincial_transit_request

 

[Duck]

...or university-based transit systems (Morgantown, WV).

I'm handing in my AGT fanboy card - I've been to Morgantown a dozen times (toured the maintenance shops half as many), and it completely slipped my mind. You're right, of course. Damn I love that system.

 

[44 North]

Morgantown seems very interesting, and I'd love to see it. But I can't accept PRT as a serious form of transit. It's just too strange. People would be banging in there all the time, or bums would use it to sleep. I can't picture it ever working well outside of a zoo or amusement park.

 

[TheTigerMaster]

Morgantown seems very interesting, and I'd love to see it. But I can't accept PRT as a serious form of transit. It's just too strange. People would be banging in there all the time, or bums would use it to sleep. I can't picture it ever working well outside of a zoo or amusement park.

Hey! Some of us view that as a good thing. Not me, but I'm sure some people do

 

[LNahid2000]

The Morgantown PRT actually has really limited hours so bums can't really use it to sleep and people can't bang in there unless they want to in broad daylight. I was there recently on a Sunday but it was closed.

 

[44 North]

I'm wondering if there are cameras to prevent any kind of indecency. Regardless, I just don't get the 'personal' part of PRT. It seems more like a dated idea from a different generation than anything visionary or futuristic. Why not just make the vehicles 10x bigger, but run it 1/10th as frequently...like most forms of transit.

 

[Markster]

Um... so that's getting a bit off topic.

Here, have a panorama showing the length of some of the rails that have been delivered. They're up to about 500m long, from what I've read.

(click for full size)

There are some "breaks", where my phone's panorama function didn't line things up quite perfectly.

 

[ShonTron]

When is the train up to the Uniroyal plant in Elmira scheduled? As I understand, the GEXR still serves the Uniroyal chemical plant in Elmira; there are spurs to serve Home Hardware in St. Jacob's (though not sure if they are used).

I imagine that the chemical trains would have to use the Waterloo Spur when construction is not active; once service begins, it'd have to be after whenever LRT service ends for the night.

 

[Markster]

Up until now, the chemical train has traditionally gone through town at around 11pm.

I presume it won't be hard during construction to make sure to have an operational track every evening, or at least every other evening, but I don't know any specifics.

Once LRT is running, the chemical train will be restricted to after the LRT stops running for the night, which (unfortunately,) is expected to be about midnight.