Grand River Transit

[zanate]

I don't know what the current state of plans are, but I do believe it still involves something like a transitway between UW Davis Centre and Phillip. This will be a huge boon for cross-town routes on University and Columbia.

(Not as good for transferring passengers as simply having LRT stations at University and at Columbia, but understandable given the planned easterly shift of UW's centre of gravity.)

The lack of a concrete plan is a little worrying, though. This change literally can't happen soon enough.

[MidTowner]

Great to find this out! Living behind Mount Hope cemetery, I'd given up on the 200 (Weber/Union just too far) but Weber/Guelph is viable. In fact, it's just a few steps further away from my place than the old GRH stop was/future ION stop will be.

It's also a few hundred metres closer to the hospital than Weber/Union. Good. Still over a km, though.

I did e-mail GRT about this, and received the response:

"The challenge with providing express service is balancing accessibility for residents with the intended express limited-stop nature of the route to connect major destinations—the detour has already added unavoidable run time to the iXpress service. As such, we will not continue to service these detour stops when the detour changes. We have, however, noted your concerns and will consider options to better service residents as planning for the area moves forward."

However, updates to the 'Detours' page now seem to me to be saying that these stops will be serviced so long as King below William is closed- up to nine months, or longer. I think that's what I'm reading, anyway. If so, good news, and maybe they'll find that the stops are well-used during that time.

[MidTowner]

I've been playing around on MyMaps with how to interface bus routes with the northern part of ION...

Full Image: http://i.imgur.com/7yi9QcJ.png

This is very good. Rerouting the 4 from Weber to Margaret makes a lot of sense, and then you serve Weber with a very logical route from downtown to Northfield. And the 9 makes sense to me, connecting downtown and uptown and beyond through Belmont.

[curious_look]

I had an excellent experience with GRT this morning! A car accident in a nearby intersection put my stop out of service, but it wasn't obvious as buses were still running on the other side and cars were moving through the intersection.  Just as we were realizing the bus must have been diverted around and wasn't going to come, a supervisor drove up and brought us (only 2 of us waiting) to catch up to the SAME bus.  Awesome!

I have generally been noticing their customer service to be improving, but today was above and beyond. 

[isUsername]

I had an excellent experience with GRT this morning! A car accident in a nearby intersection put my stop out of service, but it wasn't obvious as buses were still running on the other side and cars were moving through the intersection.  Just as we were realizing the bus must have been diverted around and wasn't going to come, a supervisor drove up and brought us (only 2 of us waiting) to catch up to the SAME bus.  Awesome!

I have generally been noticing their customer service to be improving, but today was above and beyond. 

You should let them know that this was a notably good experience for you: http://www.grt.ca/en/travelwithus/feed_back.asp

God knows a lot of us let them know when it's a notably bad experience.

[KevinL]

Uptown detours for 5 and 7: http://www.grt.ca/en/resources/Rt5-7-bus...e-Feb8.pdf

[MidTowner]

Route 20's routing is being revised

Apparently, this is "in response to customer feedback requesting closer access to Charles Street Terminal." I'm ambivalent about this as Victoria should be getting more and better transit through downtown, but it has to happen anyway since Victoria will be closed for some period soon. This isn't temporary, though.

The notice also mentions that "Once ION construction is complete, Route 20 will be revised downtown to directly connect with ION and other GRT routes at ION stations." Which means putting it back on Victoria, presumably, but not necessarily.

[ijmorlan]

Route 20's routing is being revised

Apparently, this is "in response to customer feedback requesting closer access to Charles Street Terminal." I'm ambivalent about this as Victoria should be getting more and better transit through downtown, but it has to happen anyway since Victoria will be closed for some period soon. This isn't temporary, though.

The notice also mentions that "Once ION construction is complete, Route 20 will be revised downtown to directly connect with ION and other GRT routes at ION stations." Which means putting it back on Victoria, presumably, but not necessarily.

Do you understand why it does not currently run through the Charles St. Terminal? It’s not obvious to me why it, unlike most other routes that go through Downtown, would avoid the terminal.

[MidTowner]

Maybe because Frederick is set to close for a period of time soon. That could be wrong, though, as it's not planned to run to the terminal after that closure, either.

[jwilliamson]

Getting in and out of Charles Street adds a few minutes and then buses often sit for a few more. Cutting out those stops could do a fair bit to speed up bus services through downtown.

[Markster]

Huh. It really looks like that's basically just a construction detour.  They have to get it off of Victoria, and, well, they can conveniently claim they're responding to "customer feedback" at the same time.

Full text:

Construction on Water Street is now expected to be completed by the end of February 2016.

At that time, Route 20 will be modified to travel along Water Street and Joseph Street in Downtown Kitchener. Service will be removed from Victoria Street between Joseph Street and Weber Street.

This change is being made in response to customer feedback requesting closer access to Charles Street Terminal, and because Victoria Street will be closed at King Street for ION construction in March 2016. This will be the regular routing until 2017. Once ION construction is complete, Route 20 will be revised downtown to directly connect with ION and other GRT routes at ION stations.

Please consult the map below which shows the revised route and stop locations downtown. A stop will be provided within 1 block of Charles Street Terminal.

As for why it doesn't go through the terminal:
GRT was using it to test the waters of decentralizing bus routes in the downtown core. Focusing less on Charles St Terminal, with an eye to eventually mothballing it once the new terminal at King/Vic is complete. More routes will likely be decentralized in a post-ION environment. They were also acutely aware of the construction detours that were going to make the terminal hard to get to, so by keeping the 20 out, they've reduced construction impacts to it. Route 20 is the only route downtown that hasn't had a detour yet.

[rangersfan]

Conestoga College students have voted against the $245.00 GRT pass.

http://m.therecord.com/news-story/630913...5-bus-pass

[MidTowner]

That’s pretty unfortunate. That would have been a nice consistent revenue stream for Grand River Transit. God knows they need it with ridership likely to continue to decline this year and next.

[chutten]

That’s pretty unfortunate. That would have been a nice consistent revenue stream for Grand River Transit. God knows they need it with ridership likely to continue to decline this year and next.

Are ridership numbers available publicly? What are the reasons posited for their decline, and why are you assuming the decline will continue? Is it due to ION construction causing a shake-up in a previously-quite-stable route map?

[MidTowner]

Some ridership numbers and a few other metrics are available publically on GRT’s web site under the ‘About Us’ tab. Ridership was down marginally in 2015, according to that page as “a result of a variety of factors including the school board's decision to use yellow school buses rather than GRT, construction detours on major bus routes, and a slight decrease in University student enrollment.”

I only assume the (not very significant) decline will continue between now and Ion’s launch because it seems that at least some of it was because of construction detours.