ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Canard]

Emergency Strip and Stop Request Button are two different things.

Standard equipment.  Leaves the operator flexibility if they ever decide to change how the line operates.

[BuildingScout]

In many cities late night service (1am-4am) is stop-by-request only.

[ookpik]

On some lines I've ridden in Europe most stops are mandatory but there are a few infrequently used ones that require an explicit request by way of push button. Those stops are labelled a bit differently and there's usually a voice announcement beforehand. I could see this protocol on ION

I can't recall a specific LRT line where this is the practice but here's an example where this is done on a short private narrow gauge rail line that's essentially an LRT (sometimes steam engine powered): Zillertalbahn railway stations and stops.

[Viewfromthe42]

The follow up question should be, do we have light-up "Stop requested" displays in the train? I expect we'll see the time and upcoming stations on something like this, but if there is any kind of dedicated "stop requested" signage, then it might be request stop only.

If we get to the point where trains are frequent enough so as to not be schedule adherents, and just run, then not stopping for stops no one has requested/no one is waiting at will help speed up the trip, which I'm sure few riders would have gripes with.

[Canard]

It's light rail, not a streetcar. I doubt we'll ever see stop request. The GrandLinq documentation is pretty firm on schedules and timetables for train allocation.

[Quiet One]

Interesting comparison between the Region and Hamilton's stalled LRT:

http://www.raisethehammer.org/article/25..._chose_lrt

[BuildingScout]

Interesting comparison between the Region and Hamilton's stalled LRT:

http://www.raisethehammer.org/article/25..._chose_lrt

Some choice quotes:

Between 2011 and 2013, over $1 billion in new residential and non-residential units were built within the transit-oriented development corridor. In 2013, construction within the transit corridor accounted for a third of all the development in the region.

The Region is looking at over 13,000 new residential units and almost 17,000 new jobs within the vicinity of ION stops.

[jamincan]

Compare Seiling's view of TriTAG to Jaworsky's:

"Seiling also celebrated the many community supporters, including TriTAG, a community group promoting active transportation, transit investment and smart growth. Instead of dismissing them as "activists", he praised their organizing efforts and public communication."

[Canard]

Hamilton was supposed to get ICTS back in the 80's (SkyTrain, Scarborough rt, etc), but cancelled it, because Hamilton. It would have been awesome, and way better than LRT, since it was to be fully elevated.

[clasher]

Elevated transit blows for anyone that has to live or work underneath it. The streets in Chicago that have the El are horrible to walk and a pain to drive.

[Canard]

And on-street transit sucks for those who drive. All transit options have pros and cons. I personally am a fan of elevated (Monorail, AGT, VAL, ICTS, etc.).

Elevated in Vancouver is beautiful and has public parks under a majority of the guideway.



But let's not get into this debate... I know I'll just loose, because everyone here is against elevated running.

[Drake]

Not everyone. I too am a fan of elevated. The Skytrain in Vancouver is awesome. I wish we had gone the elevated route especially because it is future forward and we wouldn't have been stuck following an existing rail corridor.

[BuildingScout]

So you build an elevated train so it doesn't hurt the traffic but put a park under it, which takes over the car lanes anyways.

I wish we had gone the elevated route

I wish we had buried it under the iron horse trail, though I'm quite aware that this might not have been possible given the increase in costs. Karlsruhe had to bury its LRT, mostly because it had become so successful that trains couldn't move fast enough at surface level.

[Drake]

Well Vancouver has had a Skytrain since 1985? Do a search of skytrain vs LRT... a quick review seems to indicate the LRT is second choice.

As for building it over existing roads only to put a park under it; I don't think that is what Canard was suggesting.

[clasher]

Elevated transit can work if it's built out into the suburbs where there is land to spare or along wide roads that have room for the pylons. King Street in KW is none of those things and is already terrible to drive because of the sheer number of buses and a lack of space to put left-turn lanes. Since most of the destinations for the LRT are ground level along the route I dunno why anyone would put transit farther away from the stops than it needs to be.

There's also little reason to build LRT or any mass transit on the Iron Horse trail, there's not really any destinations or trip generators along most of its length that aren't better served by King Street.