ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[bgb_ca]

515 is now apparently at Lancaster. My guess is it will make the journey up the spur line tonight.

https://twitter.com/mrjasonli/status/136...02946?s=20

(And Spokes, not sure if you are aware but the twitter embed seems to be broken)

[trainspotter139]

[ac3r]

515 going past Waterloo Square Station last night: https://twitter.com/mrjasonli/status/136...6415800321

[bgb_ca]

I compiled a video collection of my videos of the Ion LRV deliveries (including the one last night).

[ac3r]

Thanks for the video. First time I've seen a GP40-2LW locomotive in the GEXR roster.

[ijmorlan]

Thanks for the video. First time I've seen a GP40-2LW locomotive in the GEXR roster.

It’s not GEXR any more (if you’re referring to recent video); it’s CN. When CN took back the lines through town from GEXR all the locomotives switched over.

[Bytor]

I compiled a video collection of my videos of the Ion LRV deliveries (including the one last night).

I wonder why 515 came without the "fenders" hiding the wheel bogeys?

[KevinL]

My guess is that it had a longer journey off the freight car after unload - apparently that happened way up in St Jacobs - and so had to travel a good couple kilometres of the spur tracks on its own wheels. In case of debris or other unexpected obstacles, I imagine they wanted easy access to the wheels.

[danbrotherston]

Sorry, but I'm going to plug my petition again.

The Frederick and Queen St. ION stops are some of the most central stations we have, but have completely inadequate pedestrian access. It's unbelievable that it was built that way, but here's a way to retrofit Frederick St. to fix it.

Basically I suggest tighter turn radii, converting to two lanes to make room for a two-way cycle track. This way the ION station can have a direct access at both ends, all we need to do is retrofit some curbs in.

I have a Youtube video describing the idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rygMdouz...rotherston (gosh I wish we could embed like twitter).

If you think we can improve Benton and Frederick Sts. please sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/betterbenton

[ijmorlan]

I have a Youtube video describing the idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rygMdouz...rotherston (gosh I wish we could embed like twitter).

Brilliant video. If there is anybody who is not fundamentally convinced by this then I have absolutely no understanding of their thought processes. I’m sure there are lots of minor items that could reasonably be discussed or debated but the overall thrust of the proposal is indisputably a huge improvement on what we have.

[danbrotherston]

I have a Youtube video describing the idea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rygMdouz...rotherston (gosh I wish we could embed like twitter).

Brilliant video. If there is anybody who is not fundamentally convinced by this then I have absolutely no understanding of their thought processes. I’m sure there are lots of minor items that could reasonably be discussed or debated but the overall thrust of the proposal is indisputably a huge improvement on what we have.

Thanks! You're certainly right there are details that could be reasonably discussed (I'm not sure which side of Frederick it should run on Between Duke and Lancaster).

But the general idea is fairly solid. Those who oppose it will be the ones who are offended by ANY infringement on where they can drive their car.

[kalis0490]

map of ridership - you can see university has the highest ridership - should ion branch there

[ac3r]

map of ridership - you can see university has the highest ridership - should ion branch there

Branch as in add a 3rd LRT line? There will of course be a Line 3 built at some point, though there is no exact plan as to where it might go yet. I've had many talks with colleagues in architecture and planning about where it might go and there are some potential options, but there is a hell of a lot to consider and a huge obstacle is finding the land to build tracks on. The current Intensification Strategy Plan does have some proposed intensification areas currently being studied. Below, the areas highlighted in yellow/with pink dotted lines are intensification areas:

Below includes potential routes that I've had in discussions with some colleagues. Breslau to Boardwalk makes good sense. Have it start in Breslau at the future GO Train station, follow Victoria and completely revamp that awful street until it hits the new train station downtown, have it make its way around Victoria Park using that small CN spur, then run it down Highland which is a very dense area, then run it up Ira Needles to The Boardwalk.

In addition to that, the red dashed lines include optional extensions that could service the intensification areas. If it were to go northbound after The Boardwalk, it could go up Ira Needles, down Erb and terminate at the University. If it went south, it could follow Ira Needles south, make its way down Ottawa Street, connect to Mill Station, then branch off so it could go down Manitou and Homer Watson terminating at Conestoga College/Highway 401. Both of these ideas follow the intensification plan the Region of Waterloo has set out and IMO the latter makes more sense because the potential for future development along the proposed intensification routes would be a lot greater than what can be developed along Ira Needles/Erb to the University. Another benefit is that this would allow a 3rd line to have an interchange at both Central Station and Mill Station for people who need to travel north/south on Line 1.

[kalis0490]

my proposal

king/university/erb line to board walk with Kitchener west go.


boardwalk - highland/Victoria line

spur Kitchener south to cambridge

[Bytor]

Given those two maps, I'm sure people would be interested in the 2019 per-route numbers that I finally managed to obtain from GRT.

Code:

route | yearly_boardings
-------+------------------
301   |         2,958,276 * only last half of year
7     |         2,840,589
12    |         1,794,285
201   |         1,676,775
8     |         1,610,404
200   |         1,384,869 * only first half of year
202   |         1,187,834
10    |           832,302
1     |           820,151
9     |           812,667
204   |           788,453
51    |           786,885
13    |           721,324
302   |           700,880 * only last half of year
20    |           694,646
29    |           651,129
16    |           608,070
52    |           589,497
19    |           588,689
6     |           492,864
61    |           406,302
110   |           396,793
205   |           349,583
206   |           318,912
5     |           313,599
22    |           311,228
31    |           298,304
3     |           295,709
203   |           255,078
23    |           252,087
4     |           221,605
33    |           186,142
55    |           158,299
11    |           152,354
75    |           152,235
59    |           150,918
60    |           150,440
53    |           141,908
2     |           141,202
63    |           140,728
21    |           138,317
56    |           134,800
27    |           100,581
54    |            99,970
58    |            96,184
64    |            89,361
67    |            81,607
57    |            76,104
28    |            70,494
116   |            56,811
92    |            55,704
62    |            51,359
14    |            49,740
99    |            43,361
26    |            36,915
36    |            35,591
34    |            33,355
50    |            21,086
72    |            15,459
98    |            13,370
76    |            10,403
77    |             9,723
73    |             8,270
111   |             7,621
91    |             3,889
901   |             1,579