Grand River Transit

[timc]

Railway crossings by buses are about to get a lot more common, and it is yet another thing that makes buses act differently than cars in traffic.

Are you saying that buses need to stop where light rail crosses an intersection? And is that true? Otherwise, I can't think of a lot more railway crossings.

[MidTowner]

Are you saying that buses need to stop where light rail crosses an intersection? And is that true? Otherwise, I can't think of a lot more railway crossings.

Everywhere the spur line crosses- Weber, Moore (no longer applicable for GRT), Union, University. It's only a handful of seconds, but if you think of how many times various GRT buses take those streets, it adds up. And, in this case, this rail line is used all of twice a day.

[timc]

Are you saying that buses need to stop where light rail crosses an intersection? And is that true? Otherwise, I can't think of a lot more railway crossings.

Everywhere the spur line crosses- Weber, Moore (no longer applicable for GRT), Union, University. It's only a handful of seconds, but if you think of how many times various GRT buses take those streets, it adds up. And, in this case, this rail line is used all of twice a day.

But those aren't new crossings.

[chutten]

What? No, they're not too dumb to do that. They're explicitly designed to be able to do this for transit and emergency vehicles. The trouble is that this functionality isn't used much for transit, for fear of impacting non-transit traffic in any way.

But aren't they one-size-fits-all "you must green in the direction I'm going while I'm coming and then cycle the lights once I'm gone"?

Incidentally, I watched an Ambulance head through Westmount/Erb with preemption live about a week ago. It gave Erb two cycles in a row while I was waiting in the Nbound left turn lane on my bicycle. It is for this and other (green wave, people being in general quite bad at self-transportation) reasons that I believe that the infrastructure's unable to do anything smart.

But, as you so rightly identify, it could very well be that it isn't the intelligence of the infrastructure that's the chokepoint, but the intelligence of those in charge of it...

Railway crossings by buses are about to get a lot more common, and it is yet another thing that makes buses act differently than cars in traffic.

Are you saying that buses need to stop where light rail crosses an intersection? And is that true? Otherwise, I can't think of a lot more railway crossings.

Do they not? Will they not be

railway crossing[s] that [are] not protected by gates or railway crossing signal lights

[Canard]

I think you guys are forgetting there are essentially two operating modes from a safety standpoint of the LRV's:

-Low speed, urban modes operating in a centre ROW at the same speed limit as traffic around it, but generally operating slower through intersections (20-30 km/h). ie, Charles/Benton, etc. - there will be no gates or signals here beyond regular traffic signals and tram signals.

-Higher speed, spur-line modes, operating on upgraded railway track. Analogous to a conventional train or railway, with warning signals, bells, and crossing gate arms.

The former would see buses operate exactly as they do today at any intersection; proceeding through a green light, even if it means crossing the tracks.

The latter would still see buses stop (or, I should say, behave exactly as they do when crossing any mainline railway).

[timc]

Do they not? Will they not be

railway crossing[s] that [are] not protected by gates or railway crossing signal lights

No. As far as I know, the LRT is not a railway in that sense. Crossing the spur line is a different story.

[KevinL]

I hear that the Hayward/Family Centre BusPLUS service is approved, but I've yet to see a route. It's supposed to operate out of Forest Glen, but there doesn't seem to be anything more available. :/

[isUsername]

I hear that the Hayward/Family Centre BusPLUS service is approved, but I've yet to see a route. It's supposed to operate out of Forest Glen, but there doesn't seem to be anything more available. :/

Transit improvements typically don't take effect until the fall of the budget year that they are approved.

[Pheidippides]

I noticed that the Waterloo Spur at Weber has crossing arms now!  Maybe they've been there for weeks/months, but I only just noticed them today.  Are they active? Has anyone seen them in action yet?

My question is, how do we lobby GRT to drive through, without coming to a complete stop at, these fully controlled intersections?

It does seem overly risk adverse given that:
1) the small amount of rail traffic at that crossing
2) the known schedule of rail traffic (12am to 5am) that does not coincide with GRT service hours along that corridor (6am to 12am)
3) the slow speed of the rail traffic at that crossing
4) the improved barriers at the crossing

[jwilliamson]

Maybe it will change once ION is running, but there is a freight train that went through the Waterloo Spur tonight at 11.

[KevinL]

There's been a few mentions of the U-Pass for Conestoga recently, but one aspect has not been brought up yet: the students still have to approve it. That's being run by the student association; there will be a referendum held Feb 1-3.

I'm not sure how strong student sentiment is on this one way or the other, but given how little mention there has been, I suppose we can conclude it is likely to pass.

[nms]

I find it a little unfortunate that the Conestoga students will be paying more for their proposed pass than WLU and UW students currently do.  Arguments about a smaller student body size or more expensive service improvements don't hold water for me.

[timc]

I find it a little unfortunate that the Conestoga students will be paying more for their proposed pass than WLU and UW students currently do.  Arguments about a smaller student body size or more expensive service improvements don't hold water for me.

Unless I'm mistaken, it isn't costing more. The UW U-pass is $81.15 per term. That is $20.29/month. WLU is paying $81.65 per term, $20.41/month. The Conestoga College proposal is for $245/year, or $20.42/month.

[Andy]

Why don't they hold water? You are looking at the undergrad population of both WLU (16,000 undergrad) + UW (30,000 undergrad) compared to Conestoga (12,000 fulltime). So there's 3 times the buying power right there.

Conestoga is in the middle of nowhere. The only transit in the area is used by students going to/from the college. The majority of the service updates will only serve the student population. Where the routes servicing the universities (especially WLU) would be there regardless, albeit not as heavily used.

What ulterior reasoning would GRT have for attempting to charge more for the passes? They could be trying to get as much money as possible out of the College students before it won't pass, but that's just how these things work.

[chutten]

I find it a little unfortunate that the Conestoga students will be paying more for their proposed pass than WLU and UW students currently do.  Arguments about a smaller student body size or more expensive service improvements don't hold water for me.

Unless I'm mistaken, it isn't costing more. The UW U-pass is $81.15 per term. That is $20.29/month. WLU is paying $81.65 per term, $20.41/month. The Conestoga College proposal is for $245/year, or $20.42/month.

Multiplied by the size of the student bodies... 35.9k UW (2014), 17.16k WLU (2010), 44k CC (2014) we get...

$728.411k/month UW
$350.2356k/month WLU
$898.48k/month CC
------
$1977.1266k/month from U-passes across all three campuses.

Or, just under $2M per month income, guaranteed, month-over-month, time without end.

Wow, that's pretty awesome. I could go for $23M per annum, recurring, right about now.