ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[MidTowner]

Some of that capacity will be shifted to the new Ottawa St cross-town run, no?

Oh, you’re right. So some of the freed-up capacity will be used for the Ottawa iXpress, meaning it will create new ridership there. But I am assuming ridership gains will be pretty small across the system, while we introduce this huge extra cost of Ion. Our “farebox recovery ratio” will go way down, won’t it?

[GtwoK]

With Cedar now reopened, can anyone confirm if it's up and running using traffic lights, or just stop signs like before?

[Canard]

Did it reopen this morning? It was still closed last night when I biked by.

[timc]

Oh, you’re right. So some of the freed-up capacity will be used for the Ottawa iXpress, meaning it will create new ridership there. But I am assuming ridership gains will be pretty small across the system, while we introduce this huge extra cost of Ion. Our “farebox recovery ratio” will go way down, won’t it?

ION isn't being operated by GRT, so I don't think that it should enter into any farebox recovery metric. But I'm not an accountant.

[GtwoK]

Did it reopen this morning? It was still closed last night when I biked by.

The region seems to think so!

[Markster]

Oh, you’re right. So some of the freed-up capacity will be used for the Ottawa iXpress, meaning it will create new ridership there. But I am assuming ridership gains will be pretty small across the system, while we introduce this huge extra cost of Ion. Our “farebox recovery ratio” will go way down, won’t it?

ION isn't being operated by GRT, so I don't think that it should enter into any farebox recovery metric. But I'm not an accountant.

Revenue is going to be collected by one agency still.
I would consider it proper to consider the entire system, regardless of who operates what parts, when calculating the recovery ratio.

If GRT is not planning on cutting back on drivers/revenue hours, then in 2017(/18?) the total cost of our transit system is going to increase by the cost of ION operations. It's pretty safe to say that day 1 will not see an equal increase in ridership, so the global recovery ratio is going to take a hit.

[KevinL]

Can confirm Cedar intersection has opened, with temporary four way stop signs. Signals remain disabled.

[Canard]

Can confirm Cedar intersection has opened, with temporary four way stop signs. Signals remain disabled.

I think that's going to be standard on all of Charles until it opens up entirely.  It probably doesn't make sense to try and bring online just one signal at a time, especially since these signals will be networked/connected so that the LRV's get priority.

[Markster]

The signals at Queen and Benton are up and running, I would expect they'll start up the signals in any area when they hit that ~95% completion. Though, they're going to be working on the Market station for a while, so I can see Cedar staying as a 4-way stop for a while, while they finish that.

[Canard]

Oh, duh, of course. Chalk that up to lack of brain cells from listening to Toronto City Council's live feed today.

[KevinL]

Of course, Queen has its permanent signals operating while Benton still has them strung up on wires.

[Viewfromthe42]

Currently you can go south on Charles from the Tannery all the way to Ottawa (can't comment on what cars driving south from Borden face, just that they can). You can drive North from Stirling to Benton or Queen.

[Canard]

Is that as of this morning? Usually, there are still bits on Charles that are blocked off during the day for trackwork, heading South (between Cedar and Borden, mainly). After 5pm, it is generally completely open as you describe, though.

[Viewfromthe42]

That was definitely after 5pm last night, as you mention.

[GtwoK]

Can only go as far South as Queen at the moment, looks like that block has been closed in order to build the stop there.