If you look at KW, you can see the model. iOn was not built as a relief solution to an overcrowded bus network. Nor is it running at crush capacity. It’s not even that speedy a way to get across town. But if you look at how development has charged ahead, you see why iOn is a success. It too is used “well enough”. Peak passengers per hour may be useful in planning where Toronto places its higher order transit lines, but it’s not the sole criterion for placing LRT in smaller centres.
Hamilton has been down on its knees for a long time. This was totally the start of a fix for that. Ford simply doesn’t understand city building.
- Paul
That's not entirely true. While it's true that the main reasons for the project were reducing urban sprawl, and increasing density in the Central Transit Corridor, iON was also built to relieve the bus terminals, simplify the transit network, and decrease the number of vehicles travelling down the central transit corridor (the 7 used to run at peak frequencies of every 4 minutes, and the 200 every, 10). The removing of all those buses has significantly improved the atmosphere of downtown and definitely made the areas far quieter.
No brand new system should be designed to run at crush capacity for significant portions of the day (running trains at near-crush capacity while still having room to expand is different, see the Ontario Line, the Confederation Line, and potentially the Crosstown for the former), that's planning without any outlook.
iON, while it only gets like 22K PPD, still runs at crush capacities between some stations at regular intervals during the day. This is largely student-driven, however. Many are commuting from the google buildings or other downtown businesses to their apartments near UW, travelling from classes at UW/Laurier to their homes in Uptown, or travelling to/from high school (KCI, CHCI, St. Mary's, and ECI are all within a reasonable distance from iON).
A one-way trip is 50 minutes roundtrip, and this can likely decrease to 40 minutes with ATO, signal priority re-timing, and increasing the speed limits on some curves and separated sections. Regardless, 50 minutes isn't even that bad. Sure, it's slower than Line 2, but it's significantly faster and more reliable than the 200 or 7 ever were. It's also significantly faster than the bus in a lot of sections. Getting to uptown from UW used to take like 15-20 minutes, it now takes less than 4. Getting between uptown and downtown used to take as much as 15 minutes, it now takes 5.
What our system is lacking is integration. GRT and Keolis don't seem to schedule their vehicles considering transfers, and this makes taking the transit system very frustrating, especially when the wait for another bus is 30 minutes or more. The lack of bus loops/shelters makes finding connecting routes confusing, frustrating, and occasionally dangerous. The poor design of some stops creates a dangerous situation for walkers and trains. Finally, the lack of viable drop-off areas at some stations is a turn-off for a lot of users. Simply planning something like short term parking with a waiting area at a few stations (conestoga mall, Northfield, Fairview Mall, Block Line, and Mill), even if they're just a small siding next to the road, would have been really useful.
iON has succeeded in bringing development because it's useful for those living near it. If your system only warrants the use of drunk people on a Friday night, then the system will fail to get people out of their cars and on transit. It'll also fail to attract people to nearby developments. It has to be a viable form of transportation in order to succeed, speed, reliability, comfort, and integration and all.
