ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[KevinL]

On the more positive side, a nebulous 'infrastructure announcement' is coming tomorrow morning at the Northfield bus barn. Three levels of government reps, so it seems important. https://www.canada.ca/en/housing-infrast...erloo.html

[neonjoe]

On the more positive side, a nebulous 'infrastructure announcement' is coming tomorrow morning at the Northfield bus barn. Three levels of government reps, so it seems important. https://www.canada.ca/en/housing-infrast...erloo.html

Due to the location being there instead of at Colby, my suspicion is that it’s bus related. Probably funding for new vehicles. I would love to see articulated vehicles.

[danbrotherston]

On the more positive side, a nebulous 'infrastructure announcement' is coming tomorrow morning at the Northfield bus barn. Three levels of government reps, so it seems important. https://www.canada.ca/en/housing-infrast...erloo.html

Due to the location being there instead of at Colby, my suspicion is that it’s bus related. Probably funding for new vehicles. I would love to see articulated vehicles.

I dunno...

Articulated vehicles are an excuse to run fewer trips.

Which is exactly what they're fucking doing: https://archive.ph/fraE2

Of course the police slush fund continues unabated.

Nothing ever changes.

[danbrotherston]

Also these quotes are fucking wild:

“But there’s just certain realities around the budget that we have in front of us, trying to balance more people who are homeless and all those kinds of things,” he [Vrbanovic] said.

But he voted TO cut GRT...so does that mean that more homeless people mean we need more police and less transit.


“That is why when we had an external consultant come in, they talked about the fact that this is what we need to invest in now for this region to continue to stay on the cutting edge of solving crime,” Redman said.

“Policing is more sophisticated because the bad guys are more sophisticated.”

How do people still win elections when they spew the most blatant copaganda as that.

[neonjoe]

Here's the news release related to the media advisory.

https://www.canada.ca/en/housing-infrast...ments.html

Part of today’s investments will support the construction of the Kitchener Central Transit Hub (KCTH). Seamlessly uniting active transportation, ION light rail, GO transit, VIA rail, intercity buses, passenger vehicles and Grand River Transit, the new facility will operate as an important node connecting Kitchener to the greater Region of Waterloo and beyond. It will include modern and accessible features such as Wi-Fi, advanced security systems, a central plaza, and integration with the local trail network. Through this investment, the adjacent bus terminal at the corner of King Street and Victoria Street will also be upgraded with four additional bus bays and one mobility bus stop.

Funding is also being provided for public transit projects that will improve and support the delivery of affordable and reliable transit options in the Region of Waterloo. The projects include purchasing 56 hybrid buses to replace retired diesel buses and expanding the fleet with up to 70 additional hybrid buses. Other projects will enhance access to transit by supporting improvements for paths and pedestrian bridges and support general transit operations by improving accessibility and commuter comfort and safety.

[KevinL]

So I teased it in the wrong thread - should be King-Victoria Transit Hub

[KevinL]

There are a couple Ion-adjacent things in the funding - as former forum member Canardiain pointed out on Bluesky. https://bsky.app/profile/canardiain.bsky...a3asx7wc2c

To sum up, the pedestrian crossing behind Fairway will be upgraded to have full signals, and the path stub at the north end of R&T station will be finished to allow a through connection.

[danbrotherston]

There are a couple Ion-adjacent things in the funding - as former forum member Canardiain pointed out on Bluesky. https://bsky.app/profile/canardiain.bsky...a3asx7wc2c

To sum up, the pedestrian crossing behind Fairway will be upgraded to have full signals, and the path stub at the north end of R&T station will be finished to allow a through connection.

Canardiain: "I’m wondering if the majority of the ~$8M is to re-do Traynor but that is a *lot* of money - could that be for a tunnel or a bridge?

We need that temporary (“T”) 20 km/h limit gone there. It’s brutal"
- 2:28 PM · Dec 18, 2025

Leaving aside the absolute insanity of a 20km/h limit at a ped crossing (trains can only go 20km/h but cars can go 80km/h...make it make sense), I can absolutely see it costing 8 million dollars to install a crossing.

[Acitta]

There are a couple Ion-adjacent things in the funding - as former forum member Canardiain pointed out on Bluesky. https://bsky.app/profile/canardiain.bsky...a3asx7wc2c

To sum up, the pedestrian crossing behind Fairway will be upgraded to have full signals, and the path stub at the north end of R&T station will be finished to allow a through connection.

For some reason, he is blocking me.

[dtkvictim]

There are a couple Ion-adjacent things in the funding - as former forum member Canardiain pointed out on Bluesky. https://bsky.app/profile/canardiain.bsky...a3asx7wc2c

To sum up, the pedestrian crossing behind Fairway will be upgraded to have full signals, and the path stub at the north end of R&T station will be finished to allow a through connection.

The fact that the north path at R&T was clearly planned but not just built from the start always annoyed me. It's such a needless barrier in the middle of otherwise decent cycling infrastructure. Glad to see it rectified at least.

[kalis0490]

Interesting Analysis by Tritag (local transit advocacy group) about how to improve the speeds of ION. https://www.tritag.ca/blog/2026/02/22/on...en-faster/

ATP tuning seems to be the major way to improve the line.

[danbrotherston]

Interesting Analysis by Tritag (local transit advocacy group) about how to improve the speeds of ION. https://www.tritag.ca/blog/2026/02/22/on...en-faster/

ATP tuning seems to be the major way to improve the line.

I said this 5 years ago. I swear the intent of these engineers is for the system to be bad. And yes this statement upsets people but there is no justification for some of these choices. “Overly conservative” doesn’t really follow when you are putting restrictions on a system assuming your failure mode is both normal and emergency breaks fail completely. If we required airplanes to keep flying in the event that both wings fell off air travel would also be slower than driving. 

The crazy thing is that KWs LRT is positively speedy compared with the bullshit going on in Toronto.