ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[alexsmith]

Does anyone know how GRT is going to deal with all the students from the McCormick 200 Ixpress stop? There is no planned Ion stop there, and the 9 will not be able to handle the increase in riders. The 200 can barely handle the current amount of riders during peak hours as it is, and a large majority of the riders are getting on/off at the McCormick stops in the morning/evening. The 9 might be able to handle the addition of the WLU (the Ion won't service WLU), but it couldn't handle both WLU and UW students, which it does service.

This seems like the perfect spot for a stop, tons of riders, access from both Albert and Parkside, space to build it. It wouldn't function as a commuter stop, but the Northfield and R&T stops can act as the commuter stops because there is space for parking.

And just to make sure people don't think I am being selfish and just fighting to get a stop near me, I am going to be finished school and off doing my Ph.D. (hopefully outside of Canada) before the Ion is finished.

[KevinL]

I imagine some kind of shuttle would likely get set up for peak demand here. I don't feel an Ion stop is warranted though.

[timc]

Does anyone know how GRT is going to deal with all the students from the McCormick 200 Ixpress stop? There is no planned Ion stop there, and the 9 will not be able to handle the increase in riders. The 200 can barely handle the current amount of riders during peak hours as it is, and a large majority of the riders are getting on/off at the McCormick stops in the morning/evening. The 9 might be able to handle the addition of the WLU (the Ion won't service WLU), but it couldn't handle both WLU and UW students, which it does service.

This seems like the perfect spot for a stop, tons of riders, access from both Albert and Parkside, space to build it. It wouldn't function as a commuter stop, but the Northfield and R&T stops can act as the commuter stops because there is space for parking.

And just to make sure people don't think I am being selfish and just fighting to get a stop near me, I am going to be finished school and off doing my Ph.D. (hopefully outside of Canada) before the Ion is finished.

I think this would have been a good spot for a station. There are a lot of people that live near McCormick, including many students and lower-income people that really need public transit. Maybe GRT could modify routes to connect from the current McCormick stop to the R&T Park and/or Northfield stations.

I think it would have been idea to put ION stations at McCormick, Columbia, and University Avenue. But I understand that there was some politics involved with the locations that were chosen.

[chutten]

I can definitely see a re-routed 201 iXpress stop there with connections at the Conestoga Mall, Northfield, and R&T Park ION stations... but I don't think that such a reroute off of Columbia and King would happen.  

Maybe some mythical Weber iXpress would route West across Bridgeport then North along Albert to Bearinger. Then AMCC, Northfield ION, King @ Northfield, Conestoga ION, and done?

[Markster]

My druthers for station placement would have been: University, Columbia, Bearinger, Northfield. But yeah, politics ruled the day.

Route 9 really is going to need some updating in the post-ION world, but I'm at a bit of a loss for what to do with it. The road network and station placement really do not work well together.

I think part of what's just going to happen is that McCormick will be slightly less desirable for students, and after a few years, you'll see some of the buildings become less student focused. Back in 2004, before the iXpress and before the #9 extension to UW, the people who moved up there either had a car, or were willing to do the walk down the Laurel Trail.

[Canard]

I wonder what the timing will be for all the bus route changes, too - like, do you think on ion opening day, boom, everything will shift over to a new map? Or will most of it be incremental, with the bus lines that parallel the route either shifting or be eliminated?

[Markster]

I wonder what the timing will be for all the bus route changes, too - like, do you think on ion opening day, boom, everything will shift over to a new map? Or will most of it be incremental, with the bus lines that parallel the route either shifting or be eliminated?

GRT has me pretty convinced of their penchant for risk aversion, and preference for schedules. The ION launch will be a moving target, and it's hard to schedule major updates around that.

I wouldn't be surprised if the only Day 1 change is that the 200 stops running Conestoga to Fairview. Other changes, like Route 7 rationalization, would follow at the next regular seasonal schedule update.

Of course, I could be wrong. Maybe the ION launch date will be set in stone well in advance, and GRT will be able to plan a mid-season update around it.

[KevinL]

The launch is set for autumn 2017; usually the schedule changes are rolled out on Labour Day weekend. If the two don't coincide we could have a bit of a wonky period where the two services are not working together as expected. Then again, they could arrange for them to coincide if they can get a concrete enough Ion launch date.

[MidTowner]

My druthers for station placement would have been: University, Columbia, Bearinger, Northfield. But yeah, politics ruled the day.

Route 9 really is going to need some updating in the post-ION world, but I'm at a bit of a loss for what to do with it. The road network and station placement really do not work well together.

I think part of what's just going to happen is that McCormick will be slightly less desirable for students, and after a few years, you'll see some of the buildings become less student focused. Back in 2004, before the iXpress and before the #9 extension to UW, the people who moved up there either had a car, or were willing to do the walk down the Laurel Trail.

You are right on all counts. That is the logical station placement because those are the major cross streets, allowing for good bus routes that actually connect with Ion. Connections are going to be hard with the current station placement, but the ship is sailed.

And that's exactly what is going to happen with McCormick. It's popular with students right now because of the iXpress stop, but without that it will naturally become less so except for folks willing to walk. I can't see what rerouting of the 9 would happen to serve it nearly as well as it is served now (I want to see a Weber express because it would be truly fast, but a lot less so with the detour chutten describes above). I think that residency choices will just change, and there's no population who can do that faster than students.

I do think that, even with the current station placements, an Ion station at the McCormick Centre would have been called for. But, again, what's done is done.

[D40LF]

Route 9 really is going to need some updating in the post-ION world, but I'm at a bit of a loss for what to do with it.  The road network and station placement really do not work well together.

Plans from years ago called for route 9 to be rerouted through the R & T Park with a new route between UW and Northlake via Hazel, Albert, and Weber

[KevinL]

Work on Charles is WELL under way, witnessed by the giant long tent over the right of way - which stretches from north of Water, to well under the Manulife building.

[mpd618]

I think part of what's just going to happen is that McCormick will be slightly less desirable for students, and after a few years, you'll see some of the buildings become less student focused.  Back in 2004, before the iXpress and before the #9 extension to UW, the people who moved up there either had a car, or were willing to do the walk down the Laurel Trail.

And that's exactly what is going to happen with McCormick. It's popular with students right now because of the iXpress stop, but without that it will naturally become less so except for folks willing to walk. I can't see what rerouting of the 9 would happen to serve it nearly as well as it is served now (I want to see a Weber express because it would be truly fast, but a lot less so with the detour chutten describes above). I think that residency choices will just change, and there's no population who can do that faster than students.

Yeah, I agree with this. With the massive amount of housing being built in the university district, my understanding is that these more outlying areas are returning back to non-student use. That'll continue, and the student population will shift to where the transit is pretty quickly.

[timc]

Yeah, I agree with this. With the massive amount of housing being built in the university district, my understanding is that these more outlying areas are returning back to non-student use. That'll continue, and the student population will shift to where the transit is pretty quickly.

But what does this mean for the non-student residents of the area?

[chutten]

Yeah, I agree with this. With the massive amount of housing being built in the university district, my understanding is that these more outlying areas are returning back to non-student use. That'll continue, and the student population will shift to where the transit is pretty quickly.

But what does this mean for the non-student residents of the area?

It means they'll be forced to walk some double-digit minutes of time to the nearest transit stop.

Like me :(

[Pheidippides]

Route 9 really is going to need some updating in the post-ION world, but I'm at a bit of a loss for what to do with it.  The road network and station placement really do not work well together.

Plans from years ago called for route 9 to be rerouted through the R & T Park with a new route between UW and Northlake via Hazel, Albert, and Weber

Isn't that what the route 9 late night loop already does?

GRT seems to be fairly incremental about the system wide changes; I expect that will continue. I don't think we will go to bed one night and the next morning when Ion is up and running have a completely different network.

I think after the #7 rationalization takes place they could probably re-route the 201 from King/Columbia to follow the current 200's route through Northfield/Parkside/North campus; especially if we end up with an "express" 7 going straight down King.

I could also see an new express running from the Boardwalk north, up Erbsville and across Conservation down Westmount and across Northfield and down Weber, especially once that Beaver Meadows District is built out.

Recognizing that I am also contributing, but perhaps this conversation needs to be moved over to the GRT thread; it is drifting a little bit off of Ion.