ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Markster]

Why is it only on one side?

Aha, but it is on both sides! Here's a picture of some on the West side of King.
   

I hope that more will go in, after they finish the track work.  If not, then... I guess they determined there wasn't enough space?

Marketer, on UrbanToronto, you said:

They built this station with two side platforms, to reduce the property impact at the mall.

...with regard to the terminus stations.
[...]
Or do you mean because the length of the whole thing is greater because the tracks have to spread prior to going in?

That is my understanding. A centre platform may only be 1.5x as wide as a side platform, but there's also the wasted space as the tracks spread apart (and converge back together).

I can only think of two that I have done that have what you suggest (with the single track toward the ends), and that's the new Canada Line in Vancouver [....]  Actually when I rode the Canada Line I was shocked at the configuration; I immediately understood why they did it, but thought it was really poor future planing because an expansion would be that much harder to push through.

My understanding of that is that it was strictly a cost-savings measure. The PPP that was building it cut-cut-cut to get the thing in under-budget, and that meant several concessions, including the single-tracked end-of-line, the short station boxes, single-entrances, and cut-and-cover being used to build most of the line.

Though it's quite amusing how there's a bank right where the second track should be...