King-Victoria Transit Hub

[the_conestoga_guy]

Small update on this project. It appears that Metrolinx is expecting to begin their RFP process "Upcoming Q4 2024".

https://assets.metrolinx.com/image/uploa...y_2024.pdf

The work as described in the document: 
King Victoria Transit Hub: Construction of a GO station that is part of multi-modal transportation hub in the Waterloo Region Construction of track realignment, station platforms, tunnels and associated civil works to support a Region-led initiative for a new multi-modal transit hub in Waterloo Region.

There are also separate listings for track, bridge and platform work to be done in Guelph, and track/signals work in Acton.

Related: I would really love to see street/track grade separation done at the Bingeman Centre Dr and Lancaster St crossings (much like what was done at Weber St back in 2014-ish) so that the trains can carry a faster speed into the city and trim a couple extra minutes off the travel time, but also because I think it would allow for GRT to run buses down Lancaster and connect through to Victoria, to improve north-south connectivity. I imagine that they won't do it right now because that crossing closes for extended periods of time when they're moving cars around the rail yard, and the buses would never run at reliable times.

I definitely agree with the grade crossings, especially at Lancaster. I'd love to have an idea of what the Region's plan is for Victoria in the long-term once the new Highway 7 is constructed. It seems that the interchange on Wellington/Shirley will be treated as the "main" interchange for the centre of the city, and Victoria could receive a road diet with BRT lanes. So adding the grade separation at Lancaster will help to solve a bottleneck for moving traffic from downtown to the highways.

As for the Bingemans grade separation, I think it would be worth doing. But if costs force us to choose between the two, I'd take Lancaster 100% of the time.