ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[danbrotherston]

And the station would have been closer to the buildings at Fallowfield, and Homer Watson.

Fallowfield is not going to work like you think.



The tower nearest Block Line is still a 7 minute walk to the nearest corner, putting the furthest tower a 10 minute walk away, and that's assuming there are reasonable entrances on the backsides of them. The near edge Fallowfield is a and 8-9 minute walk, and the intersection of Fallowfield and Joshua is a 10-11 minute walk, effectively beyond the catchment area.

By making people trek up and down these stairs or ramps for access to this alternate station, that distance to the nearest tower becomes an 8 minute walk to that nearest tower, or a 9-10 minute just to get to the near edge of Fallowfield Dr and 11-12 minutes to Joshua, definitely outside the catchment area. You would not be adding anybody from Fallowfield to the catchment area that is not already in it.

Homer Watson is currently a 11 minute walk from the Station, so it isn't even inside the catchment area to begin with, and the alternate station location will similarly make it further away by walking distance

So all you are doing by putting the station down in the little valley beside the track making the trek longer for everybody within the current station catchment area without expanding the catchment area to any new residents or employers.

You've made the station less useful to everybody who lives or works near by, reducing the effective catchment area, all for making the total end-to-end trip time a couple minutes shorter.

As for "the work necessary"...this is the same work that's needed at every single grade separated station everywhere in the world.

It is still extra work here, regardless of whether it's been done elsewhere or not. And extra work costs extra money. In this case for a demonstrable decrease in station utility. Spend more to make it worse.

I will be the first one to argue for ground level stations, they do provide better integration into the pedestrian realm, but in this instance, you're looking at a savings of 4-6 minutes travel time, plus a better street level realm (the current Courtland route is utter trash--partly because of the LRT routing), plus a trade off of better connections to some places, and worse connections to other places, seems like a very strong win.

As the map shows, you don't actually get better placement for anybody when you look at the actual distance a pedestrian would have to walk.

Also, I question some of your numbers, the track in question is only 74 meters from the current station access (remember, street level design is trash), and the bridge pier is only 65 meters. And even if AODA ramps required a switchback (which they don't have, too, they could be accessed by elevator instead) most grade separated stations also have stairs which can be much shorter.  So you're really looking at a 65-70 meter further walk, plus stairs, and again, that's added to the Courtland side, but subtracted from the Fallowfield side.

Again, see attached map.

Your attached map is contrived and bizarre...your stairs are double or triple the length needed, and there is no reason for the station access to be at Courtland, it would be accessed directly from Block Line obviously. I have no idea why you would suggest this arrangement, it really would be bizarre.

Also:

"In this case for a demonstrable decrease in station utility. Spend more to make it worse."

I have been very clear about what the benefits are...we'd be seeing a 3-5 minute decrease in transit times. That's up to a 10% improvement on the entire line, and for shorter trips we are looking at a huge improvement. 

This station does not exist in isolation.