ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Pheidippides]

   

[Markster]

The GRT / Regional Transportation Master Plan goal was to reallocate the buses and service to the rest of the network, it's not supposed to cut bus service or funding.

It's really going to be interesting...

Is the level of service that ION displaces near the level of a regular service increase for GRT? ION is not going to be bringing in a particularly large (systemwide) bump in ridership, at least not immediately. The private contractor for ION needs to get paid, so I hope that GRT doesn't get starved of funding.

It's going to be interesting to see how the accounting comes in.

[MidTowner]

...Is the level of service that ION displaces near the level of a regular service increase for GRT?  ION is not going to be bringing in a particularly large (systemwide) bump in ridership, at least not immediately...

Doesn't Ion displace the entire 200 service between Fairview and Conestoga, plus arguably a lot of service by the 7? That would be a lot of capacity.

I don’t think I understand how the buses used on the King corridor could be deployed elsewhere without a big increase in the budget contribution to GRT. Like you say, there will be little new ridership as a result of Ion for a while. If the buses from the King corridor are deployed elsewhere, they will create some new ridership and revenue, but not nearly what they had been doing when running on King. We’re adding the annual cost of Ion to the transit budget, without taking any costs away in terms of buses and labour, and probably not increasing ridership in the short term. Isn’t the outcome of that a big increase to the budget while ridership and revenues flatline?

[Viewfromthe42]

My understanding has been that the rapid transit budget, the multi-year tax increase, the one always brought up in the Record, it encompasses all LRT costs. We cut them a cheque to meet the contract, which includes building the system, maintaining it, operating it to certain standards, etc. So the increase in cost is already there. I'd almost wonder if politicians would be tempted to try reabsorbing those service hours as a tax reduction effort.

[panamaniac]

I was just reading in the Ottawa news that OC Transpo hopes to cut up to 600 positions when Ottawa's LRT comes on line.  Very different transit situation in the Region, but have there been any estimates of Ion's impact on GRT employment?

The GRT / Regional Transportation Master Plan goal was to reallocate the buses and service to the rest of the network, it's not supposed to cut bus service or funding.

...Is the level of service that ION displaces near the level of a regular service increase for GRT?  ION is not going to be bringing in a particularly large (systemwide) bump in ridership, at least not immediately...

Doesn't Ion displace the entire 200 service between Fairview and Conestoga, plus arguably a lot of service by the 7? That would be a lot of capacity.

I don’t think I understand how the buses used on the King corridor could be deployed elsewhere without a big increase in the budget contribution to GRT. Like you say, there will be little new ridership as a result of Ion for a while. If the buses from the King corridor are deployed elsewhere, they will create some new ridership and revenue, but not nearly what they had been doing when running on King. We’re adding the annual cost of Ion to the transit budget, without taking any costs away in terms of buses and labour, and probably not increasing ridership in the short term. Isn’t the outcome of that a big increase to the budget while ridership and revenues flatline?

Some of that capacity will be shifted to the new Ottawa St cross-town run, no?

[MidTowner]

Some of that capacity will be shifted to the new Ottawa St cross-town run, no?

Oh, you’re right. So some of the freed-up capacity will be used for the Ottawa iXpress, meaning it will create new ridership there. But I am assuming ridership gains will be pretty small across the system, while we introduce this huge extra cost of Ion. Our “farebox recovery ratio” will go way down, won’t it?

[GtwoK]

With Cedar now reopened, can anyone confirm if it's up and running using traffic lights, or just stop signs like before?

[Canard]

Did it reopen this morning? It was still closed last night when I biked by.

[timc]

Oh, you’re right. So some of the freed-up capacity will be used for the Ottawa iXpress, meaning it will create new ridership there. But I am assuming ridership gains will be pretty small across the system, while we introduce this huge extra cost of Ion. Our “farebox recovery ratio” will go way down, won’t it?

ION isn't being operated by GRT, so I don't think that it should enter into any farebox recovery metric. But I'm not an accountant.

[GtwoK]

Did it reopen this morning? It was still closed last night when I biked by.

The region seems to think so!

[Markster]

Oh, you’re right. So some of the freed-up capacity will be used for the Ottawa iXpress, meaning it will create new ridership there. But I am assuming ridership gains will be pretty small across the system, while we introduce this huge extra cost of Ion. Our “farebox recovery ratio” will go way down, won’t it?

ION isn't being operated by GRT, so I don't think that it should enter into any farebox recovery metric. But I'm not an accountant.

Revenue is going to be collected by one agency still.
I would consider it proper to consider the entire system, regardless of who operates what parts, when calculating the recovery ratio.

If GRT is not planning on cutting back on drivers/revenue hours, then in 2017(/18?) the total cost of our transit system is going to increase by the cost of ION operations. It's pretty safe to say that day 1 will not see an equal increase in ridership, so the global recovery ratio is going to take a hit.

[KevinL]

Can confirm Cedar intersection has opened, with temporary four way stop signs. Signals remain disabled.

[Canard]

Can confirm Cedar intersection has opened, with temporary four way stop signs. Signals remain disabled.

I think that's going to be standard on all of Charles until it opens up entirely.  It probably doesn't make sense to try and bring online just one signal at a time, especially since these signals will be networked/connected so that the LRV's get priority.

[Markster]

The signals at Queen and Benton are up and running, I would expect they'll start up the signals in any area when they hit that ~95% completion. Though, they're going to be working on the Market station for a while, so I can see Cedar staying as a 4-way stop for a while, while they finish that.

[Canard]

Oh, duh, of course. Chalk that up to lack of brain cells from listening to Toronto City Council's live feed today.