steveintoronto
Superstar
That's very nice. For some odd reason, the PM peak is not considered to last all day.
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steveintoronto
Superstar
"Back peddling"? You have some serious issues reading.
steveintoronto
Superstar
I'd *love* to ride the ION, had high hopes for it, but the rough-riding 200iX goes as fast as GO buses along that stretch of the 401 every time I've taken it from Charles Terminal (after alighting the GO 30 express from Bramalea. Unfortunately, there appears to still not be an option to connect with the 200iX at the south end of Kitchener, which is abysmal planning on everyone's part).(edit: Actually there is, by taking yet another bus to tie Sportsworld to Fairway, it's ludicrous)
I'll return to taking the 48(47?) GO bus from Bramalea to Square One, then the 29 to Cambridge, then the 200iX from there down to Ainslee. I do distance cycling, but know where not to cycle, and Kitchener and Cambridge epitomize that decision. I do cycle from Ainslee down to the Cambridge to Paris to Brantford to Hamilton tail at the south end of Cambridge. Even that short stretch is iffy since the erosion of Hwy 24 has closed the cycle lane.
As to cycling in that region, going north from Pinebrush Plaza loop, once the 401 bridge is cross (by foot, that stretch of road is considered the most dangerous in Ontario for cyclists) cycling north through Hespeler is heaven, wonderful back route to Guelph.
Looking at the map, the original routing for ION along the 401 seemed direct and rapid to connect Cambridge to K/W. But alas, it would now be best to continue the connection with the 200iX (recently refurbished, haven't seen them yet) and run two separate LRTs routes, albeit I agree on ridership being low in Cambridge, I don't see the purpose of much of what's being done. Cambridge isn't a creation that supports LRT type service. K/W does.
Cambridge drinks gasoline.
muller877
Senior Member
Its now the Grand River Hospital Freeport Campus. The main KW hospital is the Grand River Hospital KW Campus. Most people I know still call it Freeport but it sorta makes sense to be the Grand River Hospital (being beside the Grand River).
It's mostly palliative care with some outpatient clinics (also palliative related). There would be very little demand for patient/visitor transit. Some demand would exist for employees but many of them are off-peak shift workers and as such are less inclined/incentivized to use transit.
timio
Active Member
There's a new flex route that serves Freeport (903, I believe) from Fairview mall. It's all that's needed at the moment.
nfitz
Superstar
Transit is primarily designed for peak. The whole point of grade-separation and reserved lanes for surface routes is to move people faster at peak. An off-peak express bus even without a reserved lane is always going to win - except in the rare case where the rail line goes diagonally through the road grid and there's no freeways.
I think that's been true for years - even when I lived in KW. But even recently, friends have spoken to me about visting people at Freeport or St. Marys. Normally when I hear people say just Grand River, they are talking about the old K-W Hospital on King Street a bit south (east) of Union. But I spend less and less time in KW over the years ... and language shifts. I've observed that people have started casually talking about the K-W location as just Grand River with nothing else ... but I've never heard anyone in KW call either the Freeport or St. Mary's locations just "Grand River" before! I guess language shifts ... though seems a bit confusing.
KevinT
Active Member
As part of the widening of the 401 from Hwy 24/Hespeler Rd to Townline ride, the Hwy 24 bridge is being demolished and rebuilt with a dedicated cycle/pedestrian path on the eastern side, similar to what was just done for the Franklin bridge. You can kinda sorta see what Franklin looks like now in this article: https://www.cambridgetimes.ca/news-...ranklin-boulevard-bridge-now-open-to-traffic/.
The original routing assumed that CP would let ION add tracks alongside them between Sportsworld and Eagle like CN did for Phase 1 along the Huron spur in Kitchener. I suspect that either fell through with CP or just proved to be infeasible for various engineering reasons. The current routing takes another page from Phase 1, re-using old rail corridors. One between Eagle St and the Speed River, and another that starts at Hespeler Rd running southeast between Norfolk and the CP tracks with a sweeping turn ducking under the CP tracks to continue southwest between Beverley St and Shade St to Main. These street-averse routes will speed it up, not slow it down, despite appearing less direct on a map.
Bingo.
bgb_ca
New Member
First LRV/Vehicle collision. Train 514 was hit by a car making a right hand turn while the no right hand turn sign was on that ran a red light.
www.kitchenertoday.com
Breaking News | Top Local Stories | CityNews Kitchener
Local breaking news, with live updates on traffic and weather. National, business, real estate, lifestyle and politics. CityNews, Everywhere.
www.kitchenertoday.com
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Kyle Campbell
Active Member
First LRV/Vehicle collision. Train 514 was hit by a carmaking a right hand turn while the no right hand turn sign was onthat ran a red light.
Breaking News | Top Local Stories | CityNews Kitchener
Local breaking news, with live updates on traffic and weather. National, business, real estate, lifestyle and politics. CityNews, Everywhere.
A first every one knew was coming, but nobody wanted.
KevinT
Active Member
Breaking News | Top Local Stories | CityNews Kitchener
Local breaking news, with live updates on traffic and weather. National, business, real estate, lifestyle and politics. CityNews, Everywhere.
I like this quote from the article: "He says they currently have ten trains testing each day, which will be about the same amount that will be on the tracks when the service launches on June 21." He being Thomas Schmidt, the region's Commissioner of Transportation and Environmental Services.
I thought I heard more than six trains acknowledging an 'All LRVs' message on the radio today, but they came so fast and furious that I wasn't keeping accurate count.
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jordanmkasla2009
Active Member
Not necessarily true. Hespeler Rd. is the slowest segment of the 200 iXpress by far. Even with all the twists and turns in the route the main difference between the 200 iXpress and this route is that the ION won't have to stop for traffic lights or deal with congested lanes.
KevinT
Active Member
I heard on the radio today that they were running to full schedule adherence, so I headed on over to the R&T Park stop to see what that would look like. I caught three simultaneous meetups just 8 minutes apart. Here's what the second one looked like:
Dan416
Senior Member
Damn those bells are annoying AF.
Cool video otherwise
Cool video otherwise
nfitz
Superstar
Yeah, they are going to have to do something about that ... I hadn't even realized there was a vehicle crossing at that station - I'm not quite picturing it. That's the stop just south of Bearinger, right?
KevinT
Active Member
Correct. There's lights and bells (no gates) at either end of the platform. The ones at the north end are for crossing the northbound track to exit the platform east to Phillip St, the ones at the south for exiting west to R&T Park. I suspect they were mandated by Transport Canada.