ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Smore]

Driving down Strange this evening it looked like traffic was moving across the tracks at Park again.

Yes Park is now open.

[timio]

Drove by Erb/Bridgeport/Caroline this afternoon. Caroline is paved through Fr. David Bauer and the two left lanes of Erb and Bridgeport are closed at the corner for a few weeks.

[Drake]

I was in the R&T park the other day and I see the construction for the ION stop at this location. Is anyone aware of the thinking behind the location? It seems to be in the middle of no where. Is the plan to make this area a parking lot for commuters? There is nothing within easy walking distance and it doesn't appear to give good access to the R&T area.

[chutten]

I'm guessing the stop location was determined by where the spur goes coupled with the existing 200 iXpress stop that's on the road in front of AGFA.

Looking at the route, where else _could_ you place a stop between UW and Northfield that would make sense? Columbia'd be too close to UW, and anything north of Bearinger is either empty or already becoming the rail yard. I suppose they might've been able to do something around the Albert McCormick Community Centre (which is currently serviced by the 200, but will be bypassed by ION)? But that'd be awful close to the R&T Park which definitely needs to be serviced to bolster ION's public face that it can be used as a commuting corridor.

I'm thinking that stop placement is more a 'what is least worst' decision than a 'what is best' decision.

[rangersfan]

I think it is also placed so that it can easily serve Phillip St. Presumably the R&T Park will be built out and hopefully have some buildings in the immediate vicinity of the Ion stop.

[Markster]

The UW and Laurier stops were borne out of political wrangling. Laurier/Seagram in particular was payback for an LRT route on the Spur instead of King St. (meaning favouring UW over Laurier)

Once you have those two stops locked in (despite their terrible placement for larger transportation planning goals) R&T Park falls into place as a vague midpoint.

[MidTowner]

Looking at the route, where else _could_ you place a stop between UW and Northfield that would make sense? Columbia'd be too close to UW, and anything north of Bearinger is either empty or already becoming the rail yard. I suppose they might've been able to do something around the Albert McCormick Community Centre (which is currently serviced by the 200, but will be bypassed by ION)? But that'd be awful close to the R&T Park which definitely needs to be serviced to bolster ION's public face that it can be used as a commuting corridor.

I think that McCormick should and could have been the location of the station. The current station location doesn't seem terribly accessible to R&T Park anyway, and having a station at the Waterloop Trail and the recreation centre/library at Albert McCormick would have served a different demographic and potentially seen decent ridership. I would have said two stops- one at Columbia and one at McCormick- would have been better than the one at R&T Park. But if one station it is, there really is no very good place.

[Drake]

Hopefully as the system gains experience with ridership some of these stops can be massaged.

[BuildingScout]

I think that McCormick should and could have been the location of the station.

I'm not sure about this. When all is said and done there will be thousands upon thousands of people working in the R&T and former RIM buildings. This seems like a much more important destination than Albert McCormick.

[KevinL]

We definitely need to plan for future growth, and both the R&T Park and Philip have room for more. It's kind of a good thing that the east end of R&T has yet to be developed; whatever they build there next can now be oriented to transit rather than the car-centric model we see so far.

[Drake]

I would rather the region recognize that Ion is a success and then move the rails. The train would be better served to travel into the R & T park and access the entire area rather than hope the North East corner redevelops.

Further, one has to ask in what scenario are the people who are working at R&T riding the Ion. I am seeing some residential access in Kitchener and specifically the new density in the condos going up in the core. Otherwise, is the thought really that high tech workers are going to drive to a park and go type set up and ride the train to work, or are they expected to grab a bus and transfer onto the Ion?

[MidTowner]

Hopefully as the system gains experience with ridership some of these stops can be massaged.

Do you mean altering the locations of the stations? That doesn't seem very likely at all.

If you mean development around the stations, that does seem likely, and there would seem like there'd be room for it around the R&T Park station.

[Drake]

Yes I meant altering the locations. Pouring a new cement pad and relocating shelters shouldn't be a big deal.

[Canard]

Quite a big deal. Installation of gauntlet tracks, reconfiguration of OCS, underground utilities, etc - non trivial

[BuildingScout]

Quite a big deal. Installation of gauntlet tracks, reconfiguration of OCS, underground utilities, etc - non trivial

Non-trivial, but easily doable if there is a good reason. London and Paris are plastered with closed down metro stations which were replaced by others. The reason I don't think it would happen is that the current placement at the R&T is in the best possible location, given the LRT track.