(01-22-2016, 10:35 AM)clasher Wrote: [quote pid='16088' dateline='1453468302']
Or we could just the same trains and stuff we already have... might be able to use the existing car barns and the same people for maintenance. The eastern half of Victoria has lots of room to run LRT tracks and the western part of Victoria where it's two lanes doesn't seem to have room for LRT or a monorail track without some serious modification of the entire street taking place. I think it will be a long while before this corridor has enough transit use to justify any kind of trains.
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It was reported in the Record last month that, after only a couple of months of service, there were about 2,140 riders a day on the new 204 Victoria service. A tenth of expected ridership on Ion. You're right then that it will likely be a while, and I can't really envision development that will promote transit growth in the near term.
Connecting the airport to downtown might be desirable one day. That would add 50% more distance over a Victoria line running between the Boardwalk and the river (near where there is no logical, though).
Part of me thinks that Victoria is the logical next line, and that ridership from the suburbs would be attracted to higher-order transit. But ridership is much more proven elsewhere, and it's hard to see how the other municipalities could be convinced to support a Kitchener-only line when it's so easy to point to the utilization of the 201 and 202.
Edit: on the other hand, the investment in the station might make a Victoria line more logical. Where would a line on University meet the King line?