(09-21-2015, 07:08 PM)Canard Wrote: GRT wasn't (and shouldn't have) been involved in stop placement selection. That should have been (and was, to the best of my knowledge) left up to engineers and planners who have the data and knowledge on where best to place the stops. GRT should (and may) also listen to those same planners for their routing. Yes there should be integration between ion and GRT, but GRT should not dictate where the stops are.
Talking to GRT would have been useful to figure out how that integration would work, and what tradeoffs a given choice of station would have. My understanding is that those conversations didn't happen.
(09-21-2015, 08:16 PM)Drake Wrote: The engineers used an existing industrial rail corridor for the Waterloo section of the LRT I suspect for cost savings and placed stops where they could rather than where they should.
Cost was a factor for the choice of route, but the stop placement around the universities has nothing to do with cost and everything to do with politics.
That said, ultimately, some amount of politics was needed in order to get enough stakeholders to be willing to support the project for it to happen.