Grand River Transit

[KevinL]

Platform F at the Charles St. Terminal now has a real-time information display above the doors to the pod. Considering that this is the only new display at the terminal I would assume that the 204 will stop at the current 1/25 bays .

You would be correct! 

[Waterlooer]

Looks like Highland Hills Terminal will only service route 22. I'm assuming that the remaining routes in south-west Kitchener will be reorganized for Fall 2016? Possibly with the removal of Forest Glen Terminal. I'm assuming they'll get rid of Charles Street Terminal in the near future too... possibly as early as 2017 with ION? The 204, 1, 200, 7D,E,A,F, and possibly other routes (3,11,22,8) will not be servicing Charles Street in 2017, so it will be pretty empty.

[Waterlooer]

Looks like Highland Hills Terminal will only service route 22. I'm assuming that the remaining routes in south-west Kitchener will be reorganized for Fall 2016? Possibly with the removal of Forest Glen Terminal. I'm assuming they'll get rid of Charles Street Terminal in the near future too... possibly as early as 2017 with ION? The 204, 1, 200, 7D,E,A,F, and possibly other routes (3,11,22,8) will not be servicing Charles Street in 2017, so it will be pretty empty.

IIRC, Fall 2017. Without the 205 iXpress, as well as the 203 extension to Fairview Park, staff are quite limited in what they can do in terms of restructuring. As for the CST, "that in the short term will remain and it may remain in the long-term as well".

Thanks! All that makes sense. But darn, I really was hoping CST wouldn't be in use anymore once ION comes in... just seems like more of a time waster. I would rather all the routes be more grid-like and service the ION stops instead.

[mpd618]

As for the CST, "that in the short term will remain and it may remain in the long-term as well".

Keep pushing. Give them positive feedback on the route changes, point to the Houston example, and don't let them dither on ripping the band-aid off.

[Markster]

There's a new concrete pad at the route 7 temporary stop on Park St just north of the CN line. Interesting, considering this is unlikely to be a bus stop in the long run. Perhaps they received complaints.

Amusingly, due to the Park St closure, the stop is not in use.

[isUsername]

Platform F at the Charles St. Terminal now has a real-time information display above the doors to the pod. Considering that this is the only new display at the terminal I would assume that the 204 will stop at the current 1/25 bays .

You would be correct! 

Where does route 20 stop?

[Markster]

It no longer goes to Charles St Terminal!

It is the first guinea pig in the move to have routes no longer stop at Charles St.
It takes Victoria to Weber, and Weber down to Frederick, then continues east on Frederick.

From what I've heard, reactions at the public info sessions to this change were not as negative as GRT was suspecting they might be.

[Spokes]

Interesting. I've always thought that the Ainslie St terminal had a lot of potential that was nowhere near being met. Nice start.

[DHLawrence]

Once GO and LRT arrive, I can see it having more redevelopment potential than operational. Bus routes through here can easily be rerouted to the GO station as is done in Burlington and Oakville. In my opinion intercity buses should have a station closer to the 401 - get them all under one roof.

[tomh009]

Fairview would be a logical place for intercity, being the connecting point of LRT and aBRT, and also reasonably close to the 401.

[KevinL]

Fairview would be a logical place for intercity, being the connecting point of LRT and aBRT, and also reasonably close to the 401.

The GO and Greyound points are already far enough from central Galt, I doubt Cambridge would want to see them leave town.

[tomh009]

Fairview would be a logical place for intercity, being the connecting point of LRT and aBRT, and also reasonably close to the 401.

The GO and Greyound points are already far enough from central Galt, I doubt Cambridge would want to see them leave town.

Politics and logic don't always see eye to eye!  But with aBRT connecting Cambridge to Fairview, I really don't think it would be a huge loss for Cambridge.

[DHLawrence]

Why take a bus all the way up to Fairview just to take another bus back? Is pulling off the 401 into Cambridge really that much of an inconvenience? Even if we do amalgamate in the future there's still a precedent for multiple intercity bus stations in the city - Toronto has two downtown (soon to be one when Toronto Coach Terminal closes), Scarborough, and Yorkdale.

[tomh009]

I think Toronto is still a wee bit bigger than Waterloo Region.

A single well-connected intercity bus station would likely have higher frequency of service to Toronto (and other points outside the region), and be easily reachable from all three cities. I'm not sure what you mean by "take a bus all the way up to Fairview just to take another bus back" though.

[DHLawrence]

You said "But with aBRT connecting Cambridge to Fairview, I really don't think it would be a huge loss for Cambridge." Do you honestly expect someone to take BRT to Fairview just to take an intercity bus right past Cambridge? Why should we be inconvenienced so people in Kitchener can save ten minutes?