Grand River Transit

[Pheidippides]

Wait. So the 20+ buses per hour of the 10, 12, 18, 110, and Ion bus are going be on the north side of the Ion tracks and have to cross over to get in/out when the Ion crossing arms will be down 15 times an hour? I assume there will be additional crossing arms at that GRT driveway next to the west end of the Ion platform?

Are there crossing arms at the west end of the Ion platforms between the platforms and Wilson now? I don't recall seeing them in recent photos. If not, I guess they will install crossing arms there after GrandLinq finishes the system rather than as a change order?

This is much different from the original layout: 

[Pheidippides]

Until driving/parking gets exponentially more difficult and expensive throughout the region I can't see anyone choosing to park and ride from Fairway or Sportsworld to get to somewhere along the Ion line. I hope I am proven wrong. I would have much preferred the money allocated to building and the future maintenance of a parking lot to have been invested in more frequent service.

[KevinL]

In more positive news, Next-bus displays are getting activated here and there. Adjacent to Frederick station, for one: 

[DHLawrence]

Until driving/parking gets exponentially more difficult and expensive throughout the region I can't see anyone choosing to park and ride from Fairway or Sportsworld to get to somewhere along the Ion line. I hope I am proven wrong. I would have much preferred the money allocated to building and the future maintenance of a parking lot to have been invested in more frequent service.

Just curious, how much is all-day parking in a downtown garage? I might be doing this before too long, and I want to know how much not having to clean my car off in a surface park and ride lot will be worth to me.

[trainspotter139]

The new transfer printers are still not fully reliable - the driver on this bus is having to provide tear-off ones despite the bus having a new farebox.

I feel like it's more of an issue with how they are doing  the processing for cash fares than anything else. You get a transfer much faster if you pay by ticket than if you pay by cash as for some reason they seem to be waiting for some server response or something before allowing a transfer to print even though the fare box already validated the coins. Really they should be doing the server requests for cash fares asynchronously using a queue of requests rather than doing it synchronously and blocking when it has to wait for the server.

[trainspotter139]

Wait. So the 20+ buses per hour of the 10, 12, 18, 110, and Ion bus are going be on the north side of the Ion tracks and have to cross over to get in/out when the Ion crossing arms will be down 15 times an hour? I assume there will be additional crossing arms at that GRT driveway next to the west end of the Ion platform?

Are there crossing arms at the west end of the Ion platforms between the platforms and Wilson now? I don't recall seeing them in recent photos. If not, I guess they will install crossing arms there after GrandLinq finishes the system rather than as a change order?

This is much different from the original layout: 

Crossing arms aren't required there because the speed of the LRVs crossing there is significantly slower than at Wilson. It almost looks like they'll be expected to turn left into that platform area which means they would already have stopped for the turn the signals are quite visible from that angle if I remember correctly. At any rate having the entrance to platform 3 be immediately to the west of the station platforms is much much safer than having a right turn entrance immediately after the Wilson grade crossing.

[JoeKW]

Until driving/parking gets exponentially more difficult and expensive throughout the region I can't see anyone choosing to park and ride from Fairway or Sportsworld to get to somewhere along the Ion line. I hope I am proven wrong. I would have much preferred the money allocated to building and the future maintenance of a parking lot to have been invested in more frequent service.

Just curious, how much is all-day parking in a downtown garage? I might be doing this before too long, and I want to know how much not having to clean my car off in a surface park and ride lot will be worth to me.

City Hall parking garage is about $155/mo+TAX, there's currently no waiting list so you can sign up any time.

http://app.kitchener.ca/parking/parking_...?tid=12247

[KevinT]

Yeah, this layout kind of sucks.

It's a shame that all the bus bays couldn't just sandwich the Ion platforms instead of having that awkward T arrangement.  I suppose that still wouldn't eliminate track crossings though, you'd still get some routes on the opposite side from the arriving/departing trains.

[darts]

the 52 and the 200 should be closer together, I can see people opting for one or the other if they are just going to sportsworld and just want to get on whatever bus is there.

[Pheidippides]

I've seen reminders on Twitter today about the GRT 2018 transit network consultation that closes this Friday.

My question is, isn't that feedback going to come too late for the 2018 regional budget given that the budget process already started on October 24 and continues November 22? Does that mean that any changes to the 2018 network are going to be budget neutral? Or does the recently approved 2017-2021 business plan allow some freedom of decision making within that framework that doesn't need explicit budget approval? How is the feedback from the PCCs and survey (currently a whopping 103 responses - a quarter of which use the GRT a few times a year or never) even used in shaping the GRT's plans?

[KevinL]

 Does that mean that any changes to the 2018 network are going to be budget neutral? 

That's the plan, yes. They'll tweak operating times and frequencies to have the same overall cost while making the operational changes indicated via feedback.

[Pheidippides]

GRT Northfield Facility Project Update
"The design is approximately 60% complete and is anticipated to be complete in March of 2018. Construction is planned to begin in late 2018." 

...


"In October 2017, an updated estimate was received, identifying a construction cost estimate of $104 million. Total project costs, which include construction, consulting, permit fees, site demolition, furniture & equipment costs, internal fees and contingencies have been estimated at $120 million including all applicable taxes. Based on this estimate, the cost per square foot will be $340. In comparison, the 2012 GRT Chandler Facility cost per square foot (adjusted for inflation) was $325. While the pricing is slightly higher for the Northfield facility, it is in line with industry standards."

[Pheidippides]

What route were the large bus shelters that were built on Charles at Water for? It looks like as of 2018 only the 34 comes by there, but the capacity of the shelters seems to be much greater than the current demand of the 34 would warrant.

[KevinL]

What route were the large bus shelters that were built on Charles at Water for? It looks like as of 2018 only the 34 comes by there, but the capacity of the shelters seems to be much greater than the current demand of the 34 would warrant.

It's for reworked routes post-Ion launch. Same as the ones near Ion stations that have no routes servicing them yet.

Speaking of stops built for future service, This is in the Ottawa South project in the Planning and Works agenda (2018-19):

Improvements/enhancements to existing Grand River Transit (GRT) bus stops, as well as proposed new stops west of David Bergey Drive for a future iXpress route

The 205 as planned only goes as far as Sunrise; are they pondering an extension to Mannheim?

[yige_t]

Improvements/enhancements to existing Grand River Transit (GRT) bus stops, as well as proposed new stops west of David Bergey Drive for a future iXpress route

The 205 as planned only goes as far as Sunrise; are they pondering an extension to Mannheim?

Yes http://www.grt.ca/en/about-grt/resources...ap-web.pdf