Grand River Transit

[MidTowner]

Well, I sure wasn't expecting them to put the wrong map on the cover, so thanks for clearing that up! I consult the schedules, since I don't care for the trip planner.

Park Street it is, then.

[yige_t]

I was just reminded this morning that the 11 and 22 are still not back on their Charles routing this fall, and may never return before the reorganization at Ion launch. -sad face-

Route 200 will not return on Charles St as well, and will continue to stop at Weber/Ottawa until ION opening (it seems). Not sure what their reasonings are, since GO buses have returned to using Charles St for a while now. 

Route 6, however, will return to regular routing via Wellington and King. 

The online schedule on the Route Planner tool shows the 200 stopping at Grand River Hospital - Mount Hope Street. 

On Twitter someone pointed out to GRT that the map on the cover of the schedule still showed the 200 on Weber and their response was "We're waiting for the final confirmation of stop locations on Park". But GRT forgetting to update the cover of their schedule is not unexpected, that was a constant source of confusion when they started adjusting the 200 schedule and adding/removing stops on Weber but not changing the map on the front of the schedule to match.

The map cover was revised just now: http://www.grt.ca/en/schedules-maps/reso...14-web.pdf

[goggolor]

The new cover has the Uptown Waterloo stop as Regina/Erb but the inside says Regina/Willis Way.

The online interactive schedule says Regina/Dupont NB and Regina/Erb SB.

So i have no idea where the bus will actually be stopping in Uptown.

[dunkalunk]

I'm also kind of confused about the route coming from the South. As far as I can tell, the route goes from Weber/Ottawa, doesn't stop at Frederick, stops at Charles/Water for some reason, stops at Charles Terminal, passes Charles/Water again without stopping, skips the stop at Victoria, and then continues on Park to Willis.

[MidTowner]

There has to be a mistake. Charles/Water on the map diagram is on the wrong side of Charles Terminal. And why would it make stops at both?

Does anyone know where I can look up stop numbers? I'm wondering where, exactly, stops 3242 and 3720 are. Are they at Park and Green, as indicated by the presser last month, or Mount Hope, as goggolor says the route planner indicates?

[goggolor]

According to the GRT Map (http://www.grt.ca/en/schedules-maps/desk...e-map.aspx) 3242 and 3720 are the GRH/Mount Hope Street stops.

GRT had indicated on Twitter last week that they were still finalizing the location of the iXpress stops so I assume the presser was early info and the online schedule is the final.

[yige_t]

The new cover has the Uptown Waterloo stop as Regina/Erb but the inside says Regina/Willis Way.

The online interactive schedule says Regina/Dupont NB and Regina/Erb SB.

So i have no idea where the bus will actually be stopping in Uptown.

I'm also kind of confused about the route coming from the South. As far as I can tell, the route goes from Weber/Ottawa, doesn't stop at Frederick, stops at Charles/Water for some reason, stops at Charles Terminal, passes Charles/Water again without stopping, skips the stop at Victoria, and then continues on Park to Willis.

Both issues are fixed now:
http://www.grt.ca/en/schedules-maps/reso...16-web.pdf

Uptown stop location is 5059 Regina/Dupont NB and 5064 Regina/Erb SB.
Charles/Water has been moved to its correct location between GRH-Mount Hope and Charles Terminal.

[dunkalunk]

Got in touch with GRT. The Charles/Water stop apparently is the King/Victoria stop because buses can't turn left from King to Victoria. Seems awfully close to Charles St Terminal, and Victoria/Joseph would have gotten better coverage, but I'm OK living with this for a year.

[danbrotherston]

http://calendar.regionofwaterloo.ca/Coun...0Print.pdf

Looks like farecard roll out has been delayed till January 2018 .

[KevinL]

"Discussions are underway with the University of Waterloo on the potential for the 202 iXpress to serve the new UW transit plaza."

Well I sure do ope they allow it. UW wanted the sttation midblock, they can accommodate connecting services!

[KevinL]

Also interesting:

During the transition period before the multi-modal hub is operational, GRT will be looking to establish a “storefront” customer service function near the Frederick LRT station. Once the multi-modal hub is operational the need for the Frederick “storefront” operation will be evaluated. The advantage of maintaining both locations for customer service is some routes traveling through downtown Kitchener only connect with the Central Station and other downtown routes only connect with the Frederick Station.

Since the two local Universities are issuing student identification which is compatible with the Electronic Fare Management System (EFMS), theses cards will interface with the new fareboxes and will be active in September 2017 for the U-Pass program, which represents approximately 30% of GRT ridership.

Additonally, revisions have been made to the southwest Kitchener route plans and those now run differently than what was previously proposed.

The planned-for extension of iXpress 201 from Block Line Ion to Conestoga college is being brought forward to Fall 2018.

[dunkalunk]

Aforementioned Changes. They'll be public consultations in September.

Of all of the changes, Route 16 probably makes the least sense. Yes, the route is direct, but Grand River Hospital is not a good place for a route to terminate and is the only connection point to ION. Not intersecting with Mill ION is a mistake.

[KevinT]

Still nothing for the residents of Doon South. I'm 10 blocks away from the nearest peak-only route 76 stop, and in 3 months there will be occupied houses off the Blair Creek Dr extension that are 6 blocks farther out than me. When I moved here I didn't expect the transit shown on the neighbourhood plan to take this long to get to me. :-(

[KevinL]

Great, but this does nothing for us Beechwood West residents, namely those close to Keats Way who would be most inclined to use route 29 to access ION. Personally, I won't be walking 10+ minutes to the 202 on Erb, or taking an extended trip on the 13.

On that one, I'd like to see the 29 go down Seagram to access Laurier/WP station. Bonus: one less route on the busiest part of University.

And check out all those routes to the Sunrise Centre. Is staff planning to build a terminal at the Sunrise Centre, or will the terminus for the four routes that serve it be at the side of the driveway through the plaza, obstructing traffic?

There are plans for a terminal-style area to be built at Sunrise, yes. Though there now appears to be more routes than I had anticipated...

[timio]

28 Franklin? via... Fourth Ave? Nope. Please don't. Franklin ain't even that far away.

Fourth is the current route of the western branches of 7 at that end of town, so likely trying to retain ridership / existing stop infrastructure.  There's also a sizeable ridership base at the corner of Fourth / Wilson and Kingsway Community Centre is just north of Fourth on Wilson.  Franklin may only be a few blocks away, but sometimes a few blocks extra walking distance can make a huge difference.