ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Rainrider22]

When they got on with the Second Phase of ION, they should put a park and ride stop. This way people coming into the city could park and ride the train to where they want to go...

[robdrimmie]

I did a bit of searching to find the bylaws that describe Conestoga Mall's parking regulations but couldn't. My guess is that there's a limit on how long you can park there - 2 hours perhaps - and they are ticketing violators.

[Rainrider22]

If I was shopping there and longer than two hours, and came out to find a ticket, no problem, but you will never get my business again.

[robdrimmie]

I mean, it's speculation about a rumoured situation so don't place too much stock in my guess. Has anyone posted a first-person story of getting a ticket at Conestoga Mall? I just did a quick scan through r/kitchener and r/Waterloo and don't see anything, but I don't pay much attention to facebook.

[KevinL]

I agree with this, but it was Northfield that they identified as a potential park-and-ride site, though that doesn't make much sense to me. Where were the spots ever going to go?

There's space across Northfield going spare - a lot behind the fire station is currently used by the Nissan dealership for overflow of their inventory.

[Bob_McBob]

How does Conestoga Mall identify illegally parked vehicles? It seems to me that, since the parking is free, the only difference between illegal and legal parking is whether the occupants went into the mall. It’s not a validation system or something like that.

I'd imagine it's the same way as places like University Plaza that monitor people leaving the property to issue them parking fines.

[neonjoe]

What if you just parked on the other side of the mall and walked through it?

[SammyOES]

Like anything they probably don't need a fool proof system. Probably not that many people willing to do that.

It'll almost certainly die down because there's tons of free parking in other places along the route and the # of people riding just for the sake of riding is going to drop off pretty quickly (especially after free rides end).

The University student situation is one case where I could see a long-term issue. But I bet if you enforced it plaza-style around the actual train station you'd kill off 95% of the "abuse" pretty quickly.

[KevinL]

Still very busy out there - two northbound trains in a row between 11 and noon that were standing-room-only. Some real scrambles at the doors at times as people tried to get off or on.

[tomh009]

Still very busy out there - two northbound trains in a row between 11 and noon that were standing-room-only. Some real scrambles at the doors at times as people tried to get off or on.

Lunchtime tourists!

I counted pax on four separate trains (near Kitchener Market) around 6:30 AM, and they averaged maybe 10 people each.

[MidTowner]

There were ~12 on a southbound train around 6:35 at Grand River Hospital, and 18 (including me) on the northbound train at 6:40. That's pretty similar to the 200 on a given weekday at that time.

[danbrotherston]

I was going to say I've never seen a train with fewer than 4x what you're claiming, but then I saw the time, I definitely haven't seen a train that early. Most of the trains I saw between 8 and 10 were pretty full, many people standing, even if a few seats open.

[kalis0490]

Guess I no longer need this!

The ION was still quite crowded at 8pm on Sunday. 10+ people got off at R+T Park station, the station which I expected to have among the lowest ridership.


A significant number of people got on at Frederick and got off at Waterloo Town Square. Mill and Block Line seemed to be that least crowded stations.

As others have said, it feels more like the Disneyland monorail than crosstown rapid transit.

[EdM]

> people riding just for the sake of riding is going to drop off pretty quickly (especially after free rides end).



My trip today (to Vincenzo's for lunch) was opportunistic, although with 90 minutes of travel on one fare (and thus the ability to go there and back) I would do it even if it weren't free. Assuming of course that the kinks are worked out and they can maintain the schedule / headways - my lunch trip included a lot more waiting than expected... we ended up with Toronto style bunching by the time I got off at Victoria Park.



   

[jeffster]

Also, perhaps you misread what I wrote -- if he were to take the bus only, he'd be saving 200 metres. If he took public transportation all the way to work, he'd hop on the bus, be dropped off at an Ion station, get off at the 3rd Ion station, then walk about 200m to the closest Xpress route, wait for that bus, and this would drop him off 400m from his job. Looking at the GRT trip planner, it was almost an hour.

How far from your house is the nearest LRT stop? If he can walk there (a strapping young lad!) that would reduce the commute to a single change, and likely cut out a big chunk of time. Or the nearest iXpress stop?

Minimizing the walking often ends up increasing the travel time.

The walk to the LRT is about 3 km, further than what his work is. The closest Xpress is about 2.5km. I noticed when I re-did the planner today, it no longer showed the Ion as a transfer point, but it would take him to the closest Xpress which he could then hop onto that, after 1 transfer. Though he could walk to avoid a transfer and only have one. They other route had him on one transfer, but time wise it was longer.

Doesn't matter though -- I'll have to pick him up all summer. He'll need to figure out a way there some days, either leave an hour+ before and bus it, or walk the 35 minutes or whatever it might be, or use an UBER or Taxi, since it's slightly less than 3km that cost would be under $10....(or he could use the BIKE that I bought him, but no....)