ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Bob_McBob]

The GRT summer service schedule reduction announcement says ION is going back to every 15 minutes during the day, though they haven't posted the schedule yet. Not sure what the justification for this is given there are no more Covid restrictions and based on 2019 there was clearly never intended to be this kind of service reduction in the summer.

[dtkvictim]

Has ridership recovered to 2019 levels?

Just subjectively from my own experience, no, but it's a lot closer than it was last year.

[tomh009]

On a rough level, I'd say that March/April was around 75% of the pre-pandemic levels -- but those were the first two months approaching normalcy.

[danbrotherston]

Also, despite the fare hike going through...GRT's service levels for other services have not returned to the planned expansion from 2019. AFAIK.

[ac3r]

The GRT summer service schedule reduction announcement says ION is going back to every 15 minutes during the day, though they haven't posted the schedule yet. Not sure what the justification for this is given there are no more Covid restrictions and based on 2019 there was clearly never intended to be this kind of service reduction in the summer.

What a pain in the ass. Why lower the frequency at all throughout the year? That's gonna annoy me when it's hot out and I want to get into the LRT where there is air conditioning.

[clasher]

Like a snake eating its tail... Why does no one ride transit? No one is riding transit, let's reduce service.

[ac3r]

Like a snake eating its tail... Why does no one ride transit? No one is riding transit, let's reduce service.

Yeah and I mean, wouldn't more people ride transit in the summer? This is Canada where we only get a couple months of warm and beautiful weather each year. When it's here, people want to get out and enjoy it whether it's going to a festival downtown, eating on a street patio, going to the park, cycling around the city and shop etc.

The clowns who sit in council chambers and in Zoom meetings make some really stupid choices here...

[danbrotherston]

Transit ridership drops in the summer. I believe the main driver is that many students leave. I think a secondary reason is that some people bike or walk when they might ride transit in the winter.

[dtkvictim]

Transit ridership drops in the summer. I believe the main driver is that many students leave. I think a secondary reason is that some people bike or walk when they might ride transit in the winter.

I recently came across this photo (Source, which is interesting: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/ar...6516301831)



While there are a lot of different ways to look at modal share, at least this measurement shows that high rates of cycling primarily take away from transit usage (though the distinction between transit and train isn't clear to me). This is true for me personally as well, I take the ION a lot more during the winter, and bike more during the warmer months, for the same trips.

[danbrotherston]

Interesting graph.

Yeah, I'm also unclear on train vs. PT. I'm guessing train doesn't include LRT, Tram, or subway, and only includes mainline rail.

That would track here for sure. Transit is...not amazing (although still worlds better than KW or London). But the train network is exceptional. Bikes solve the last mile problem for fast intercity transit.

That being said, still very car oriented, just not car dependent the same way KW is. FWIW...measuring mode share is quite hard. If you measure by VMT...you prioritise long trips which obviously prefer the car. If you measure by trip, you prioritize short trips and stumble on chaining. Ultimately like most things, it's just more complicated than it appears at first.

I know I also rode transit more in the winter. Even after I started biking in the winter (for one year I biked in the summer then took the bus in the winter) I would still be much more likely to be lazy and hop on the ION in the winter even if I mostly commuted by foot or bike.

[Bob_McBob]

There was some debate over whether ION service was actually going to be reduced for the summer since GRT didn't post an updated schedule. The reduced schedule has now been posted, echoed by a complaint about waiting 15 minutes for a train on Reddit. Headway is 15 minutes even during rush hour now.

[JoeKW]

I wonder how reduced service schedules factor into the PPP agreement.

[danbrotherston]

So, "COVID is over" but the schedule reductions aren't.

This is becoming a very depressing world.

[Bytor]

Email from city staff called it a "regular summer reduction", without any explanation as to why they are doing so when they did not in 2019.

[Bob_McBob]

If this is now the "regular" summer ION service reduction, it's certainly not in line with the scheduling when it opened. The difference between 10 minute and 15 minute headway is huge for attracting ridership.