ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[jeffster]

Aaaaaand you always have that one special rider that has such an important backpack that it needs a seat all to itself!

[Bob_McBob]

Happy Canada Day from Conestoga Mall 

[jamincan]

They were out in force yesterday too, vigilantly making sure the half-empty lot wasn't used by transit riders. What a wasted opportunity from the mall.

[jeffster]

Happy Canada Day from Conestoga Mall 

Wow.

The Region should make Conestoga Mall pay for that station.

As I said, though, I won't be shopping there ever again.

And I will add: Fairview Park was very busy on *mall* side of lot. No security handing out warning. SMH

[tomh009]

And this is on Twitter, too …

https://twitter.com/Waterluvian1/status/...2282880000

[jeffster]

I finally got onto the Ion around 9 PM tonight. I headed to Fairview from Queen Station (parked at Charles and Benton for free), turned back around towards Waterloo, but had to get off at Central Station as I got a call from my son that someone was trying to break into his place of work (he was the only one there).

Still got a few photo's though. And I must say, very nice ride, if not a little crowded. The only negative I have is the seats facing one another -- very awkward. I was across from this younger, pretty all tattooed and pierced up female. Hard not to make eye contact, but luckily we were successful.

Some attached photos...

[ert86]

If there's one thing ION has proven so far it's that there was a demand for earlier starts for a while. On Sunday I got on at about 6:20 am and by the time I got off at Fairview about a dozen people got on, and on Canada Day I caught the first one at 6:05 am and by the we got to Fairview about 10 people got on with 6+ waiting to go north.

Considering this was just the first weekend of full service I can only wonder where ridership would be had they ran the 200 from 7am or earlier on Sundays/holidays once they realized there would be a significant delay to the launch.

[eh-cun71]

They were setting up fencing this morning to prepare to construct the UW transit plaza. I thought they canceled the RFP a while back, so this is a nice surprise

[bgb_ca]

How's the crowds today? Thinned out any now that people have to pay?

[CuilTard]

They were setting up fencing this morning to prepare to construct the UW transit plaza. I thought they canceled the RFP a while back, so this is a nice surprise

Check this out for details https://www.reddit.com/r/waterloo/commen...egin_july/

[KevinL]

They were setting up fencing this morning to prepare to construct the UW transit plaza. I thought they canceled the RFP a while back, so this is a nice surprise

They sent out a simpler RFP just to build the roadways and curbs. They'll put up temporary shelter structures (they're moving over the old ones from Highland Hills and Forest Glen) until a new bid can be fulfilled for the nice permanent ones they planned, which should go up next year.

[D40LF]

They were setting up fencing this morning to prepare to construct the UW transit plaza. I thought they canceled the RFP a while back, so this is a nice surprise

They sent out a simpler RFP just to build the roadways and curbs. They'll put up temporary shelter structures (they're moving over the old ones from Highland Hills and Forest Glen) until a new bid can be fulfilled for the nice permanent ones they planned, which should go up next year.

Why though? I’m curious as to why this went the way it did.

[ac3r]

How's the crowds today? Thinned out any now that people have to pay?

Not really. I suspect that what we saw during the opening week will be pretty normal, although with perhaps a very slight drop-off now that pleasure riders and rail fan tourists are over it. Anyone who had no plans to switch to public transit would have maybe taken one novelty trip, so the people you saw riding all week have probably always used it or were new riders who were just waiting for this to launch. It will only keep getting busier (in a positive way).

[timc]

They sent out a simpler RFP just to build the roadways and curbs. They'll put up temporary shelter structures (they're moving over the old ones from Highland Hills and Forest Glen) until a new bid can be fulfilled for the nice permanent ones they planned, which should go up next year.

Why though? I’m curious as to why this went the way it did.

Money. The bids for the original RFP came in over budget, so compromises were made.

[bgb_ca]

How's the crowds today? Thinned out any now that people have to pay?

Not really. I suspect that what we saw during the opening week will be pretty normal, although with perhaps a very slight drop-off now that pleasure riders and rail fan tourists are over it. Anyone who had no plans to switch to public transit would have maybe taken one novelty trip, so the people you saw riding all week have probably always used it or were new riders who were just waiting for this to launch. It will only keep getting busier (in a positive way).

Since I asked this, I used it to get to work around 11 this morning, and it was a night vs day difference. Everyone on the train had a seat and no one was standing. Not sure what it was like during rush hour.