Grand River Transit

[urbd]

Random question on a route name: the 7 Conestoga to Uptown. Runs only at peak times, loops around through Caroline Street, stops at Willis Way ION Station and goes to Waterloo Town Square and back north on King to Conestoga. Do you think this route should still be #7 even though it is quite different than the actual 7? I asked a bus driver and he told me that around 30% of the people that take it get super confused as to why it goes on Caroline and then loops back to Conestoga. I think this would be easily fixed by simply calling it a different number so people understand it is not the full 7. Thoughts?

I could go either way on this. It’s not really a different route, just a scheduled short turn of the main route. So the different destination captures what is going on. On the other hand, we have a small system with not that many route numbers and to my knowledge few if any other examples of different destinations for the same route, so putting it right in the route number might be helpful. I would say that it should definitely just be a letter — giving it a completely different number would not help with clarity.

It's a short turn of the main route only in theory. In real world usage, it is a different route because many riders take it exclusively to get to the Willis Way ION Station as it interfaces directly with the platform. The 7 main line does not. I have also noticed a number of people using the Albert/Bridgeport stop, which is not used by the 7 main line either. Anyway, I do see it as different enough in practical terms to justify a new number or letter for clarity.

[KevinL]

If you take the 7 a little further, it's a short hop to the Allen platform.

[ijmorlan]

If you take the 7 a little further, it's a short hop to the Allen platform.

Indeed. Nobody should be waiting specifically for the 7 Uptown just to transfer to Ion — both branches go to a southbound Ion stop.

Having said that, I think a letter designation would be reasonable.

Incidentally, my recollection is that there were 3 routes to Fairview Mall before Ion; recently, they were 3 letters (A, B, F), but previously, they were 2 letters, with 2 of the routes sharing a letter and differing only in what it said after “via” on the destination sign. I believe the only difference was which street they went down for a few blocks shortly before arriving at the mall. So there is precedent for using letters to identify very small differences between route branches.

[ac3r]

Yes, the 7 used to have the letter differentiation. The routes did follow more or less the same route, with some slight differences. When they got to where the Highway 7/8 interchange is, they split up due to Highway 8 dividing the two southwest part of the city for the most part. The B would go left, going down Weber Street. The A went right, going down Kingsway, one of the numbered streets, then I think down Connaught to Wilson. Both then arrived at the mall. It's not too different from the current 7, so I think it makes sense to have the current two different 7 routes easier be more distinct. The sign says it already, but it's a lot quicker to just look at a number and letter and know which bus it is rather than read an entire sign or listen to audio cues, which require the bus to come to a complete stop and open its doors before you realize you wanted the other 7.

[ijmorlan]

Yes, the 7 used to have the letter differentiation. The routes did follow more or less the same route, with some slight differences. When they got to where the Highway 7/8 interchange is, they split up due to Highway 8 dividing the two southwest part of the city for the most part. The B would go left, going down Weber Street. The A went right, going down Kingsway, one of the numbered streets, then I think down Connaught to Wilson. Both then arrived at the mall. It's not too different from the current 7, so I think it makes sense to have the current two different 7 routes easier be more distinct. The sign says it already, but it's a lot quicker to just look at a number and letter and know which bus it is rather than read an entire sign or listen to audio cues, which require the bus to come to a complete stop and open its doors before you realize you wanted the other 7.

I believe that is the old route designation. If I recall correctly, the A actually took one of two streets, either Connaught or Wilson, identified only by “via” on the sign. Later one of them was changed to F. I have an idea that might have happened when they got their bus location tracking system, which I hypothesize may require that each route designation correspond to a single route.

[ijmorlan]

I believe that is the old route designation. If I recall correctly, the A actually took one of two streets, either Connaught or Wilson, identified only by “via” on the sign. Later one of them was changed to F.

Actually, this was true for the University and Columbia branches, which were both designated as “7D”. Wilson was the oddball designated as just “7”.

https://web.archive.org/web/200106050718...gSep00.pdf

IIRC, the schedule was reworked in 2001 at which point 7E and 7F were added as well.

Thanks for digging that up. I miss the “extract from a real map” route maps clearly showing exactly where each stop was (I mean, you could tell whether it was nearside or farside!).

Also I had forgotten that both directions to UW used to be 7D. That might be what I was vaguely recalling instead of the Fairview end.

Much simpler now.

[Bytor]

Anybody hear any rumblings in the aether about transit funding since we had all those delegations at the meeting last week?

[Bob_McBob]

Some pretty big rumblings in Hamilton...

https://twitter.com/robertbenzie/status/...0095163392

[ZEBuilder]

potential GRT strike

https://www.kitchenertoday.com/local-new...rt-2005228

this isn't going to be good for transit users!!!!

[Acitta]

potential GRT strike

https://www.kitchenertoday.com/local-new...rt-2005228

this isn't going to be good for transit users!!!!

The press always talks about a strike when there are negotiations going on. It rarely comes to that. There are proposals and counter-proposals till they finally come to a reasonably acceptable agreement and life goes on. The press likes to turn everything into a crisis.

[KevinL]

Notably, in the unlikely outcome of a strike it would not affect LRT service as the Keolis operators are not (yet) unionized.

[ZEBuilder]

Notably, in the unlikely outcome of a strike it would not affect LRT service as the Keolis operators are not (yet) unionized.

 
if the ion were to break down and replacement shuttles needed there aren't any buses or bus drivers. i am not saying that the strike is going to happen but still if the LRT were to breakdown everyone would be completely screwed.

[plam]

potential GRT strike

https://www.kitchenertoday.com/local-new...rt-2005228

this isn't going to be good for transit users!!!!

The press always talks about a strike when there are negotiations going on. It rarely comes to that. There are proposals and counter-proposals till they finally come to a reasonably acceptable agreement and life goes on. The press likes to turn everything into a crisis.

And ultimately strikes are the leverage that the union has in the negotiation process, which is otherwise sort of one-sided in the employer's favour.

[boatracer]

The bid for the new GRT facility on Northfield closed this week. Bids were between $104M and $120M. I don't know what the budget was. It was a long process as the bid period started in October and there were 16 addenda making clarifications and changes.

https://regionofwaterloo.bidsandtenders....#Submitted

You can download the plans from the same page.

[Coke6pk]

That's a lot of articulated buses....

   

Coke