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

[muller877]

The laundry list includes:

• Suspiciously high end-to-end travel time estimates
• Suspiciously low speed limits for on-street travel sections
  
• Signal priority only for schedule adherence (no signal pre-emption for faster travel)
  
• Evening service only every 30 minutes
  
• Overly aggressive corridor fencing
• Station placement meant to please stakeholders (not to integrate with local transit)
• Split routings in downtowns to "minimize impact" to on-street parking
• Little-to-no consideration for cycling around stations and along the corridor (R&T Park station will require cyclists to bike down the length of the platform to get from one side of the corridor to the other)

And that's just what comes to mind at the moment!

On-street travel we've seen has issues from the Queens Quay rebuild. So better under-promise and over-deliver than vice versa.

Of course signal priority for schedule adherence. With offpeak 10-15 minute headways it's pretty standard. So I know when I have to leave the office to get to the LRT.

The faq's say 10-15 minutes. The current bus (iXpress 200) runs every 15 minutes offpeak. Plus the 7 bus also runs every 10-20 minutes offpeak.
http://www.grt.ca/en/routesSchedules/resources/PTT_RT_200-fall-winter-20170106-web.pdf
http://www.rideion.ca/common-questions.html

Corridor fencing. You are complaining about speed ... fencing reduces the amount of potential delays due to human intervention. Contradictory.

Station placement - the other transit routes will all be changing to act as feeders to ion and iXpress routes. So makes sense to locate them where there will also be walking traffic.

Cycling - they have a plan for a lot of cycling routes. see map.
http://www.explorewaterlooregion.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/RegionalCyclingNetwork_11x17_0.pdf

I am a bit confused how many people would want to cross the tracks here. what's on Philip St between Bearinger and Columbia that you need to get to from the R&T park? I also assume they do not want a direct cross-over to make sure bikes are not speeding across without looking first.

 

[smably]

Corridor fencing. You are complaining about speed ... fencing reduces the amount of potential delays due to human intervention. Contradictory.

Station placement - the other transit routes will all be changing to act as feeders to ion and iXpress routes. So makes sense to locate them where there will also be walking traffic.

I am a bit confused how many people would want to cross the tracks here. what's on Philip St between Bearinger and Columbia that you need to get to from the R&T park?

The issues you're so skeptical about have been written up pretty thoroughly on the TriTAG Blog, including some by @Markster himself. There's some great info in there about issues like the bad station locations and excessive fencing. And as someone who used to drag his bike across the tracks near the future R&T Park Station, I can assure you that it's an important connection to some (don't forget that Laurel Trail runs along the west side of the rail corridor here).

 

[mpd618]

So better under-promise and over-deliver than vice versa.

There's been no indications that plans are afoot to push any envelopes.

Of course signal priority for schedule adherence.

Back when LRT was being proposed as the preferred technology, the concept was that LRT would pretty much not need to stop for red lights - not just when it's running behind a conservative schedule. And that turns out to have been a promise they were not interested in keeping.

 

[Markster]

The faq's say 10-15 minutes. The current bus (iXpress 200) runs every 15 minutes offpeak. Plus the 7 bus also runs every 10-20 minutes offpeak.

After 10pm on weekdays, and after 8pm on weekends. As per the Baseline Service Plan.
Anyone out for an evening at the movies will find themselves potentially waiting half an hour for the train.

Corridor fencing. You are complaining about speed ... fencing reduces the amount of potential delays due to human intervention. Contradictory.

The contradiction is that they have aggressive corridor fencing, but very conservative speed limits despite that fencing. The entire Spur Line from Uptown Waterloo (Erb/Caroline) to Columbia St is fenced with signal barriers at every crossing, but the maximum speed limit is only 50km/h for a 200m stretch in Waterloo Park. Most is 40 or lower.

I want low speed limits and low barriers, or high speed limits and high barriers. But we're getting the worst of both.

Cycling - they have a plan for a lot of cycling routes. see map.
http://www.explorewaterlooregion.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/RegionalCyclingNetwork_11x17_0.pdf

The region has plans, but none of it filtered into the ION project.
The street-running King St section is plagued by gutters that are occasionally bike-lane sized, and occasionally disappear.
That very document has an "Approved Core Off-Road Route" that follows the ION tracks along the Waterloo Spur to Northfield. The reality on the ground is that the location of the ION tracks and fencing have virtually precluded an extension of the Laurel Trail along that route. What could have been a relatively cheap addition to the project, will instead require a lot of earthworks and workarounds, to deal with the ION tracks in their current location.


Now, all of this isn't to say that "ION is a terrible project". It is to say that it can still be better. Some of these issues are still fixable.

 

[ShonTron]

After 10pm on weekdays, and after 8pm on weekends. As per the Baseline Service Plan.
Anyone out for an evening at the movies will find themselves potentially waiting half an hour for the train.


The contradiction is that they have aggressive corridor fencing, but very conservative speed limits despite that fencing. The entire Spur Line from Uptown Waterloo (Erb/Caroline) to Columbia St is fenced with signal barriers at every crossing, but the maximum speed limit is only 50km/h for a 200m stretch in Waterloo Park. Most is 40 or lower.

I want low speed limits and low barriers, or high speed limits and high barriers. But we're getting the worst of both.

Agreed. Full fencing (rather than at strategic points) is really necessary when trains come at higher speeds. The Huron Park and Waterloo Spur sections should be signed up to 70 km/h; even for on-street sections through Downtown Kitchener and Uptown Waterloo, trains should be going at urban traffic speeds; 30-40 km/h should be the norm except at special points.

I would like all the money spent to go towards a LRT that will be faster, more frequent, and more attractive than the iXpress bus it's replacing.

 

[Amazon]

In the long run it is so dumb that GRT is going with their own system (easygo) instead of presto. Failure on both ends seeing as presto didn't respond to requests for a proposal.

 

[EastYorkTTCFan]

In the long run it is so dumb that GRT is going with their own system (easygo) instead of presto. Failure on both ends seeing as presto didn't respond to requests for a proposal.

That and they wanted to go completely backwards from what every other system is going to with machines printing tickets for everyone.

 

[drum118]

They have every right to bitch and those fences will be keep being cut until a crossing is put in.

South Kitchener residents say LRT work has cut off neighbourhood

 

[cplchanb]

They have every right to bitch and those fences will be keep being cut until a crossing is put in.

South Kitchener residents say LRT work has cut off neighbourhood

isnt this an old issue since they had already agreed to look into building a bridge over there?

 

[W. K. Lis]

Or do as they do elsewhere:

 

[Tuck]

Or do as they do elsewhere:

Seems reasonable. Not sure its worthwhile to build a bridge over such a small width. This could probably be implemented much faster too.

 

[Amazon]

Btw, are they still planning to close king street again in uptown to redesign some street elements?

 

[timio]

Btw, are they still planning to close king street again in uptown to redesign some street elements?

Construction on the Spur line (where ION veers left and off the road) -> Elgin starts this year (http://www.waterloo.ca/en/living/uptownstreetscapeimprovement.asp)

 

[Markster]

They have every right to bitch and those fences will be keep being cut until a crossing is put in.

South Kitchener residents say LRT work has cut off neighbourhood

From facebook, this is the currently proposed location

While I 'm glad they're working on putting in a crossing, it's probably the least useful location that isn't actively stupid (like if they had put it behind the middle of the strip mall).

The higher density housing is all to the west of the proposed crossing, and the more useful destinations (the grocery, the fast food) are also to the west of the crossing. That apartment tower you see to the right of the photo doesn't even have access to the hydro corridor (it's a massive retaining wall), anyone who lives there has to walk around to Wilson Ave anyway.
For a lot of people, this is not going to improve their trip to the grocery store.

I can see the city's reason for this location though.
1) It's encroaching on a large strip mall that will likely be more amenable to the taking of a small sliver of its property (on a % basis).
2) It's closer to the only "official" entrypoint to the Hydro corridor trail, from Balfour Cres. Any further west, and the city would be compelled to create a public access right of way directly from Traynor, negotiating with one of the apartment complexes.
3) It connects with one of the signalized intersections on Fairway.

 

[Markster]

In the long run it is so dumb that GRT is going with their own system (easygo) instead of presto. Failure on both ends seeing as presto didn't respond to requests for a proposal.

This, on the same forum where I regularly read complaints about the TTC using Presto instead of going it alone.

That and they wanted to go completely backwards from what every other system is going to with machines printing tickets for everyone.

By "everyone", you mean "people who pay with cash". The same as it is for Presto systems.