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Well, regardless of the fate of the low-ridership routes and the region's ability (or willingness) to provide capacity along the central corridor, crush loads in the Waterloo central corridor are hopefully a temporary problem. For travellers transfering at Conestoga mall, in three years, many will just head for an ION platform. ION ought to be able to make the Northfield hook out through the tech park and university a lot quicker than the 200, and with more comfort and shorter load times too.

(The performance of 200 has really degraded in recent years. In the early morning, Conestoga to Fairview still takes about 45 minutes. Most of the rest of the day, a glance at the 200 schedule reveals that it takes as much as 55 minutes now under normal conditions.)

Those who need access to parts of King not served by ION will find a route 7 leaving Conestoga Mall every 7.5 minutes during peak, if the current route restructuring plans go through. They also won't have to share it with as many riders who reject the 200 because they noticed that currently, the 7 is about 8 minutes faster from Conestoga Mall to Uptown Waterloo and Charles Street Terminal.

I'm really looking forward to this.
(11-21-2014, 10:44 AM)BuildingScout Wrote: [ -> ]Yes. They had four maps in the public consultation services.

I saw 4 maps for possible routings of the 204, but not for proposed changes overall.

[attachment=45]
Maybe I'm misremembering but I'm pretty sure I saw a map with a realigned Route 8 going down Weber instead of the present Ottawa/Franklin detour.
^Thanks for providing the 4 maps, Markster. I wish GRT would've posted all of the maps/information on their website for the changes they were contemplating to give us a better sense of why the preferred routes are in fact preferred.
I wish they would have, too. Option 3 is closest to what I would have preferred, but until now I didn't know that it had even been considered. It would have been useful to know that it had been, and why it was not the preferred option.
(11-21-2014, 01:44 PM)MidTowner Wrote: [ -> ]I wish they would have, too. Option 3 is closest to what I would have preferred, but until now I didn't know that it had even been considered. It would have been useful to know that it had been, and why it was not the preferred option.

I'm OK with the Highland to Victoria routing. The rationale that I was given makes sense: Victoria south just doesn't have the destinations that Highland does.

It's a little like when the 202 went in. It was the "University express" but it didn't stay on University. Instead, it turned at Erb and followed that out. Again, that was the more useful corridor.

I could see the argument changing in a decade or two, if Victoria fills in, if ridership grows and there's demand for frequent bus service along both Highland and Victoria south. It would make for a more legible network to have a pure cross-town Victoria route, to be sure.
(11-21-2014, 02:11 PM)zanate Wrote: [ -> ]I could see the argument changing in a decade or two, if Victoria fills in, if ridership grows and there's demand for frequent bus service along both Highland and Victoria south. It would make for a more legible network to have a pure cross-town Victoria route, to be sure.

My thoughts exactly. As much as a Victoria route is cleaner and simpler, it shouldn't be in place unless the city rezones the whole thing (which it should, but that's an entirely different issue).
In a way, I felt the same about the 202, that it should have followed University Ave all the way across. University does jog pretty far to the south, but the 202 eventually turns south on Ira Needles in any case.

Maybe the realities for both the 202 and 204 will change eventually, and we will have a University Express; an Erb/Bridgeport Express through Uptown all the way east; and both Highland and Victoria Express services.
(11-21-2014, 02:25 PM)MidTowner Wrote: [ -> ]Maybe the realities for both the 202 and 204 will change eventually, and we will have a University Express; an Erb/Bridgeport Express through Uptown all the way east; and both Highland and Victoria Express services.

I'd love to see an Erb/Bridgeport express like you describe. Or, just take the 5 and double its frequency so it's a more useful component of a grid network.
(11-21-2014, 02:11 PM)zanate Wrote: [ -> ]I could see the argument changing in a decade or two, if Victoria fills in, if ridership grows and there's demand for frequent bus service along both Highland and Victoria south. It would make for a more legible network to have a pure cross-town Victoria route, to be sure.
Yeah, this is what I'm seeing, too.
Victoria South and Frederick are both fairly residential (at least in form, if not function) and make sense to have tighter stop spacing. Meanwhile Highland and Victoria North are both very big-box-mall-y, and the destinations are much farther apart, so a limited stop express makes sense. Understandably, GRT has linked like with like, even if that makes routing a little odd.

In a future where all 4 streets justify frequent service (<15 minute headways), you can straighten them out, and people can take perpendicular service to get to their final destination. Keep in mind that even in Toronto, bus routes all generally terminate at Yonge St. Changing buses to continue on the same street exists there too.
(11-21-2014, 11:00 AM)zanate Wrote: [ -> ]ION ought to be able to make the Northfield hook out through the tech park and university a lot quicker than the 200, and with more comfort and shorter load times too.
...
Those who need access to parts of King not served by ION will find a route 7 leaving Conestoga Mall every 7.5 minutes during peak, if the current route restructuring plans go through. They also won't have to share it with as many riders who reject the 200 because they noticed that currently, the 7 is about 8 minutes faster from Conestoga Mall to Uptown Waterloo and Charles Street Terminal.
Taking a look at the map, ION should certainly be able to do the Northfield hook faster.
From the Mall to the Uptown stop:
1) The 7 has 13 signalized intersections to cross and up to 12 stops to make. (4.3km) It's scheduled to do this in 15 minutes, which is an average speed of 17.2km/h.
2) ION will have 9 signalized intersections and only 4 intermediate stops. (6.2km) And the ability to travel at quite a good speed along some of that. ION just needs an average speed of 24.8km/h to get to Uptown in the same time.
I wrote something for TriTAG about the 2015 improvements!

http://www.tritag.ca/blog/2014/11/25/tho...ment-plan/
The official mobile app has launched.

Gave it a bit of a whirl today, seems to work pretty well. Will have to see how well it responds to real-time delays, etc.
I downloaded and tested the map against route 31 (right in front of my house)
There's about 5 minute delay though (i.e. buses come 5-7 minutes after the app's expected arrival time), so I'd guess the app uses the "schedule stop time" instead of "real-time"
I was hoping that the Blackberry version would be a native app, but nope. It's an Android port. Sad