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

K-W to Hamilton GO

Since K-W is getting everything it wants these days.....

New LRT, GO service to Toronto....

I vote they ask for a GO Rail line from K-W to Hamilton! If they ask in the next week or two, money is sure to fall from the sky! :p
 
The main downside I see with the old terminal is the the fact that it is downtown, and that all bus routes in Kitchener pretty much are forced to terminate downtown. Also, on most days, it is faster to walk from the train station with baggage than it is to wait for a bus to get to the terminal (if you walk like me, that is.

King and Victoria is a 10 minute walk from the existing terminal, but from a connectivity standpoint it is a much better location. It would be on the corner of 2 major thoroughfares (3 if you count Weber), directly connected with a new train station, be directly connected to the LRT, and would not force crosstown routes to detour through Downtown.

I can see the region making a pretty penny off the sale of the exiting terminal site, located directly between City Hall and Victoria Park and beside an LRT stop.
 
Northern Light said:
Since K-W is getting everything it wants these days.....

New LRT, GO service to Toronto....

I vote they ask for a GO Rail line from K-W to Hamilton! If they ask in the next week or two, money is sure to fall from the sky! :p
Click to expand...
You sound like you're joking but that's probably the most obvious missing rail connection in the province.
 
dunkalunk said:
The main downside I see with the old terminal is the the fact that it is downtown, and that all bus routes in Kitchener pretty much are forced to terminate downtown. Also, on most days, it is faster to walk from the train station with baggage than it is to wait for a bus to get to the terminal (if you walk like me, that is.
Click to expand...

This is definitely a big issue if you aren't planning to go downtown for anything, or at least not to that part of downtown. It's the same in Cambridge; if you want to go to old Hespeler by bus from Preston, you can either take three buses or take one bus to the main terminal in Galt and change to another. Either way, you're going to be on a bus for a lot longer than you should be.
 
MisterF said:
You sound like you're joking but that's probably the most obvious missing rail connection in the province.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately the rail link between Cambridge and Hamilton that would have made the most sense (via Harrisburg) was abandoned. It is so unfortunate that so much rail was abandoned.
 
EnviroTO said:
Unfortunately the rail link between Cambridge and Hamilton that would have made the most sense (via Harrisburg) was abandoned. It is so unfortunate that so much rail was abandoned.
Click to expand...

Hmm. On Google Maps, that right of way looks intact. And it's not been made into a rail trail.
 
doady said:
What would the point of such a rail link be? Is there even a bus service now?
Click to expand...

Coach Canada runs eight buses on weekdays from Kitchener to Hamilton through Cambridge. (Seven on Saturdays, six on Sundays.)

The point is to make connections that are vital for serious regional transit in southwestern Ontario. From Kitchener, such a link would make trips possible to Hamilton obviously, Niagara Falls, Buffalo (and on to New York), etc.
 
Exactly. It shows there's a demand, because that bus route is breathtakingly slow.

If they're going to restore passenger service on these kinds of routes, the track speeds have got to rise to at least 100 km/h. GO Transit speeds just won't be competitive.

Another option for Kitchener-Hamilton would be to route trains through either Guelph or Cambridge and then down the CP line to Hamilton. Is slightly longer, but the track's already in place.
 
Oh Google Maps... (shakes head)

There would be nowhere to connect this line in the south of Cambridge. What was once a rail corridor is now Ainsle and Wellington Streets.

If we are going to be resurrecting a rail connection between Waterloo Region and Hamilton, it should be built to handle trains going at least 200km/h and be grade separated. The line as it stands now has way too many bends in it to be competitive with the car. This line is also used quite frequently by freight and as such, would make scheduling regular passenger service a nightmare.

The province currently buys up large amounts of land to build 400 series highways, there is no reason why they cannot start doing the same for rail.

In any case, the discussion of rail connections is probably best left to another thread.
 
I'm not sure if you're referring to the Harrisburg line or the line I suggested. The line I suggested is completely intact and would require only a turnout at Guelph Junction. The downside of running through Cambridge is that it's going to be hard to ever upgrade the Kitchener-Cambridge line to decent speeds. If you went through Guelph, you'd have to connect CP to GEXR but other than that you'd have a much faster line.
 
Maps & Jokes & Wistful Thoughts

To answer a suggestion above, I was not joking in earlier post in so far as I think a rail connection from K-W to Hamilton makes sense; but I was in as much as I don't think even K-W would have the temerity to ask for more funds right now, besides which I'm not clear that this connection is at all on the mind's of the regions planners yet.

****

Rocket your maps project is great, I wish it in a another file format mind you....I hate Google Earth! :( * don't suppose I could talk you into a .pdf?

I was looking at the sample one.....

That break-off of the Stouffville line you have running up to Sutton did that used to exist?

You show a bunch of connections in the Guelph/K-W to Barrie area....I am intrigued by that given the proposal for a new highway there which I firmly oppose.
 
Northern Light said:
Rocket your maps project is great, I wish it in a another file format mind you....I hate Google Earth! :( * don't suppose I could talk you into a .pdf?

I was looking at the sample one.....

That break-off of the Stouffville line you have running up to Sutton did that used to exist?

You show a bunch of connections in the Guelph/K-W to Barrie area....I am intrigued by that given the proposal for a new highway there which I firmly oppose.
Click to expand...

Everything you see on the map existed at one time or currently exists. The modifications I made were mostly in urban areas where I turned some lines into street running rather than cut through built up areas. I also deleted a lot of yard trackage, particularly in Lindsay. I'll see what I can do on another format, but past attempts at a PDF have failed miserably due to the sheer scale of the data.

Edit: I'm making a Rail Ontario thread to keep this on topic.
 
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