ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Bob_McBob]

Neat photo from the Kitchener subreddit.

[Rainrider22]

Great picture....Who would have thought 10 years ago that a picture like this could be captured in Kitchener !

[danbrotherston]

Great picture....Who would have thought 10 years ago that a picture like this could be captured in Kitchener !

I did. It's a major reason that I'm here now.

[Spokes]

Great picture.

Interesting, but not surprising, that the 7 sees such a ridership drop. That's a good thing, it was often extremely overcrowded

[MidTowner]

I had the opposite reaction. I would have expected it to drop by a lot more* given its previous service levels versus the current headways. I'm surprised to see it carrying over a third of the ridership of the Ion LRT.

*They're comparing to 2018, when ridership would have been depressed anyway. I am assuming that 7's ridership would have been much higher a few years ago, when frequency was extremely high.

[danbrotherston]

Great picture.

Interesting, but not surprising, that the 7 sees such a ridership drop.  That's a good thing, it was often extremely overcrowded

It also no longer visits UW.

[KevinL]

Keep in mind, only part of its route overlaps the Ion. There's still solid demand Fairway to Borden, and Uptown to Conestoga.

[KevinL]

In other positive news, Tom Galloway has announced that a temporary crossing will be built by Traynor in November. Great to hear that will be up before winter.

[MidTowner]

Keep in mind, only part of its route overlaps the Ion. There's still solid demand Fairway to Borden, and Uptown to Conestoga.

Good point. And the Uptown to Conestoga segment has better service levels.

[ert86]

In other positive news, Tom Galloway has announced that a temporary crossing will be built by Traynor in November. Great to hear that will be up before winter.

I was just thinking that there needs to be some activity in that area if it's going to happen this year, now if only my apt would stop fixing the hole in the fence that connects to the path

[Bob_McBob]

I was driving west on Northfield yesterday and noticed an eastbound train was stopped at the station, but the crossing signal hadn't been set off. Has that whole Transport Canada thing about activating the signal as the train approaches even though it's going to stop at the station been relaxed a bit?

[ijmorlan]

Further to the discussion we had a while back about people having trouble getting their fare cards to be read on the ION platforms: I took the ION for the first time since the free days recently (I usually bike to work along the tracks, so don’t regularly use it). So it was my first time using the fare tap device on the platform. Initially I held the card against the screen like a debit or credit card tap, then realized/remembered that there is a separate contact area which I then used successfully. I don’t remember everything that was said but is it possible some people are tapping the screen rather than the contact area? Probably enough people are used to debit/credit tap that tapping the screen is a familiar action for them.

[ZEBuilder]

I don’t remember everything that was said but is it possible some people are tapping the screen rather than the contact area? Probably enough people are used to debit/credit tap that tapping the screen is a familiar action for them.

I see people tap the screen all the time not the contact area. I've even told people to tap the contact area then I see them tap the screen the next day once I explained it to them the previous day. People just don't like paying attention it seems.

[taylortbb]

I was driving west on Northfield yesterday and noticed an eastbound train was stopped at the station, but the crossing signal hadn't been set off. Has that whole Transport Canada thing about activating the signal as the train approaches even though it's going to stop at the station been relaxed a bit?

No, it's the CBTC system. While the gates do have to automatically activate, there's a button in the cab that can cancel gates when the train is stopped. So you'll see the gates start activating as the train arrives, it stops, and then the gates go back up, then the train has to inch out of the station to re-trigger the gates.

[danbrotherston]

I was driving west on Northfield yesterday and noticed an eastbound train was stopped at the station, but the crossing signal hadn't been set off. Has that whole Transport Canada thing about activating the signal as the train approaches even though it's going to stop at the station been relaxed a bit?

No, it's the CBTC system. While the gates do have to automatically activate, there's a button in the cab that can cancel gates when the train is stopped. So you'll see the gates start activating as the train arrives, it stops, and then the gates go back up, then the train has to inch out of the station to re-trigger the gates.

Yes, they always have to inch forward, it's annoying, I feel like there should be a button in cab to trigger the lights, so that they can trigger it as they close the doors, this would a) speed the train along because they could depart sooner, and b) not have us edge forward 2 feet only to shudder to a stop again, leading to a more comfortable ride.