The vehicle is basically a streetcar but the key point is it doesn't share the tracks with cars. And it's not expected to stop every block. That was what LRT meant here - a way to distinguish from the perception of the way TTC streetcars operate.

It's several peak-hour peak-direction buses on weekdays, connecting to trains or buses in Milton, for a total trip time (from Galt) of 2 hours. Why take that when you could drive to Milton?

Low existing ridership on what?

It isn't revisionist - it was the rationale at the time, and you can find it in the original reports with the recommended course of action. The U-Pass in particular is a huge component of Grand River Transit's ridership, and at the time it was unclear whether Presto would be able and willing to...

The pedestrians are being directed there because the sidewalks have not yet been completed.

That's quite the claim. What's your source?

Why do they care so deeply about this? Is it simply to avoid the perception of competing with Greyhound, or is it because they actually want to be nice to Greyhound?

Operation is part of the whole contract for Grandlinq (including Keolis), so if it's a waste of money it's their waste of money and won't cost the Region of Waterloo anything extra.

Total hearsay, but what I heard was that GO was out looking at the Galt - Guelph railway (CN Fergus subdivision, I think). Whether or not that's true, it'd certainly be an interesting way to get around CP.

The TTC isn't involved. My understanding is that this is being done by Grandlinq, with Bombardier helping to commission the vehicles.

Yes, they are absurdly low.

I'll ignore the more ridiculous parts of your comment, but will address this part. Rarely in transit systems is there a single pair of points A and B between which people travel; instead there is a mess of destinations and travel patterns that transit can try to connect in useful ways. Perhaps...

If a direct route is all that mattered, then the ION phase 2 extension wouldn't be worth building. The amount of transit demand in Preston and Galt today is nowhere near what would be needed to justify it. The only way this makes sense if the extension is about city-building. Preston has some...

This is based heavily on redevelopment possibility and density of destinations. There's not very much opportunity on the stretch between Preston and Galt for redevelopment because of the river and flood zone. Meanwhile, Hespeler Road is full of big box parking lots that no one will miss if they...

Goals for this line: 1) Help guide urban growth to happen around the LRT corridor. 2) Provide sufficient transit capacity along the corridor at a 20-50 year horizon. Capacity during peak hours for the current bus system would be hit much sooner than capacity during off-peak hours.

There's been no indications that plans are afoot to push any envelopes. Back when LRT was being proposed as the preferred technology, the concept was that LRT would pretty much not need to stop for red lights - not just when it's running behind a conservative schedule. And that turns out to...

The project team has been extremely timid on many aspects of ION, unfortunately.

People who are used to on-street parking but not to on-street trains, and in a bunch of these spots, people who are used to on-street parking in those exact spots. Also many of them probably have heard that there aren't any trains yet anyway so figure it doesn't matter.

So, GO intercity service would be very welcome, and there's existing efforts to make that happen. But in my suggestion I'm not talking about a downtown-to-downtown connection, I'm talking instead about all the stuff in between that needs local transit. Victoria Street North in Kitchener...

If we're talking about potential future lines, personally I think one of the more interesting possibilities is a tram-train line from downtown Kitchener along Victoria St / old Highway 7 to Guelph and the University of Guelph. It would connect a lot of employment lands and land ripe for...