King-Victoria Transit Hub

[danbrotherston]

"As danbrotherston pointed out, the entire thing isn't even that necessary for our region."


As someone who regularly uses the go train, I can say this is false, Have you seen the station at 7am? literally 100s of people swarmed on the station, with not enough seating. Post pandemic rush is much greater than prepandemic rush . Even non-peak trains are full  (see below)

I think Kitchener SHOULD have a great train station, but I'd rather they have a basic but properly located and service train station today than waiting a decade for this white elephant of a station to get funded which seems to have almost no amenities.

FWIW the city I live in now has 3 stations. The Centraal station is a huge affair with many platforms, a huge building tons of retail, etc. etc., obviously nothing like KW. But the other stations in the periphery ARE similar, carrying a similar number of passengers as we might optimistically expect in KW (while seeing many more trains admittedly).

They are nothing more than a small plaza, bike parking, platforms, stairs and elevators. They're great, and function just fine for passengers here. KW should have a better grander central station, but the passengers deserve a functional station today, not the nonsense that is the former Via station. Waiting a decade to build a grand station does a disservice to everyone now.

And that's before I object to the ridiculous cost of the proposed station.

https://twitter.com/not_taylorx/status/1...27872769#m 


"the train station is great for suburban drivers who want to commute to downtown Toronto."

I guess it is that way now as it is the only train station in the region. However the Breslau train station is being constructed for those people, not the Kitchener central Station (the only reason why surface parking is being included is because the region could not find a partner for TOD). However I would say that students are probably a much larger demographic already than suburbanites and if the number of departures improve, I can't see why more students would not use the train over the crowded buses.

This I agree with, there's pretty limited parking at the station, few people are going to be able to drive to it. FWIW...I don't much like the plans for the Breslau station either...we have wasted enough money building free parking for drivers, but seems like Metrolinx isn't going to stop doing so any time soon, despite what they claim.

"I truly don't think we'll have a working train station for at least a decade and I think that's being optimistic in a best case scenario. I can see it being finished and open by 2032 if we're lucky - probably even 2035"

Keep in mind this project has two phases, 1  - the platforms and bus amenities ( done by Metrolinx) and  2 - actual train station.  1 is necessary and will be done anyways by Metrolinx ASAP using the existing funds. 2 is the part the could be called a "white elephant". I think the delay on part 2 could indicate that the region possibilities want to switch to older (2014 era) designs? (as being speculated on other sites)

The reason Breslau station isn't being build yet is that GO switched from paying for suburban stations to a model where developers pay for the stations. This was good for the new inner stations in Toronto but bad elsewhere. Thomasfield balked at paying the price ( they assumed they would get a free station) so  GO has been looking for other partners. However as Confederation GO shows, they are likely to pay for the station anyways.

I'm not really sure of the project structure...if it is set to be done in Phases, then Phase 1 should start, that should be the basic station that gets constructed ASAP, while the complete station can get built if and when we have the money...or like...a more sensible plan.

If Metrolinx cannot find partners, they should do the development themselves. The public should be the one benefitting from these developments.

PS 

Kitchener would see 30 minutes service during the peak hour to Toronto and hourly service off peak, which means we could see roughly 25 departures per direction/day. For 30 minutes off peak service one would need to build the Georgetown grade separation for the Halton Sub.