Grand River Transit

[KevinL]

Yes, I was in Toronto on the weekend and was pleased to see TTC buses have card readers at the rear doors. Much more efficient.

[SF22]

I was recently in Hamburg (Germany) to visit a friend, and they switched to allowing for boarding at the back door during COVID to help space people out, and they kept it because riders liked it so much. And it goes so quick, the bus can stop and pick up 8 people in a fraction of the time. If we end up getting articulated buses at some point, I think second-door-boardings are going to be an absolute necessity.

[KevinT]

If you look closely at the map on the explainer page, all the stops and route sections affected have a serious grade difference or tight turning radius that make it hard to negotiate in heavy snow. I'm sure the list has been compiled from incidents in previous winters. I have no problems with them being proactive on known areas of concern.

I haven't looked, but thank you for doing so, and that makes perfect sense to me. It's nice to see them being pro-active about it.

[danbrotherston]

Visited the UW transit terminal today. It is terrible. The location, the amenities even the transit platforms are just so poorly thought out. It’s clear that the people making the big decisions do not ride transit and have never seen good transit.

[coriander]

Visited the UW transit terminal today. It is terrible. The location, the amenities even the transit platforms are just so poorly thought out. It’s clear that the people making the big decisions do not ride transit and have never seen good transit.

The land to the north and south of the terminal seems rather underutilised. The University's master plan involved much more coverage on the engineering campus to the south of the station than what exists right now. The former Blackberry site to the north is just incredibly barren.

[ijmorlan]

Visited the UW transit terminal today. It is terrible. The location, the amenities even the transit platforms are just so poorly thought out. It’s clear that the people making the big decisions do not ride transit and have never seen good transit.

The land to the north and south of the terminal seems rather underutilised. The University's master plan involved much more coverage on the engineering campus to the south of the station than what exists right now. The former Blackberry site to the north is just incredibly barren.

Even when built out it won’t be great. I think there should have been an overall plan where the shelters become porticos as the surrounding buildings are built. So at first it wouldn’t necessarily be much different from what has been built, but the design would provide for UW buildings to be built up to (touching) the shelters, eventually providing continuous shelter.

[nms]

Just be glad that the University made space for the terminal within the campus envelope and did not insist on something along Phillip St instead (see the Laurier example).

There is nothing about the space that couldn't prevent a future building from being integrated into the terminal in some form. I suspect in this case that the University didn't have anything immediately on their books for a new building in that area in the timeline that the Region was looking for.

[timc]

Speaking of Laurier, what is taking so long with the work there?

[coriander]

Just be glad that the University made space for the terminal within the campus envelope and did not insist on something along Phillip St instead (see the Laurier example).

There is nothing about the space that couldn't prevent a future building from being integrated into the terminal in some form.  I suspect in this case that the University didn't have anything immediately on their books for a new building in that area in the timeline that the Region was looking for.

The concepts in the University's master plan featured buildings going up to the edges of the engineering area on the east side of the tracks. The northern one would have that kind of building-platform integration. But the new buildings in that site (E6 and E7) don't at all resemble the concepts published, so who knows.

[danbrotherston]

It could be improved but given its brand new and there are many things wrong with it that aren’t “unfinished” it really is revealing how little the people building it know or care about transit.

[nms]

For the Laurier platform: It's likely some critical building component is on backorder, or the contractor got redirected somewhere.

[nms]

Grand River Transit has a new mascot: Ryder (GRT Blog)

He even has a cute YouTube reveal

Does anyone recall if Kitchener Transit or Cambridge Transit had mascots pre-merger? Have there been other mascots post-merger?

[bravado]

Grand River Transit has a new mascot: Ryder (GRT Blog)

He even has a cute YouTube reveal

Does anyone recall if Kitchener Transit or Cambridge Transit had mascots pre-merger? Have there been other mascots post-merger?

They should cover it with ad wraps

[KevinL]

KT had an anthropomorphic bus called Bumper; he stuck around at GRT a bit after the merger but has been long gone.

Ryder is quite the story, as the lost rabbit stuffie was found almost 2 years ago and became the staff's internal mascot; appearances on social media led them to go all the way and make a human-size version.

[ac3r]

In b4 a little girl remembers it was her bunny and we have to find a new mascot. :'P