ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[ert86]

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....)

Sounds like laziness to me, I walked 2.2km (20min) almost every Sunday morning to take the earliest 8 for the last 9 years and when it's nice out I'd bike the 25km round trip and I have a nice beer belly going. Time for some tough love.  My biggest issue with the redrawn map is with the elimination of several terminals, now they don't have places in between A and B linger and stay on schedule, so you either make it or wait for the next one.

[KevinT]

My biggest issue with the redrawn map is with the elimination of several terminals, now they don't have places in between A and B linger and stay on schedule, so you either make it or wait for the next one.

I've worried about that too. The closing of the Gaukel terminal with the ION rollout makes sense, but others like Forest Glen don't seem like such an obvious slam dunk to me.

[timio]

Highland Hills was a good move to close with only the 22 using it the past few years. It could have closed years ago by sending 22 around the Highland/Westheights/Queen's block, but oh well.

[KevinL]

Reports all through today of crowded LRVs.

If this continues once fares start being collected, we'd better be ordering more units ASAP.

[Lens]

I've seen about 5 go by this evening through DTK southbound and they have all been crowded.

[tomh009]

Reports all through today of crowded LRVs.

If this continues once fares start being collected, we'd better be ordering more units ASAP.

For sure there will be fewer passengers. Fewer tourists, and others that will choose another transportation method once they have to pay.

The question is how many fewer.

[Bob_McBob]

Reports all through today of crowded LRVs.

If this continues once fares start being collected, we'd better be ordering more units ASAP.

I wonder how it would play out if the region actually had to order more LRVs right away due to greater than expected ridership.

[jamincan]

Didn't the 200 already surpass their projections for Ion? Strong ridership would be expected, I'd think.

[bgb_ca]

My trip home tonight was me getting on at R&T just aftet 8 on a train that was running late but packed. I got fed up being packed in a train like sardines and hopped off at UW. A few mins later the one I was originally going to catch arrived on time and had a fair amount of space (I even managed to get a seat on that one even though it was standing room in the middle modules).

I can't wait for the free period to be over so they are not packed to the gills.

[jeffster]

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....)

Sounds like laziness to me, I walked 2.2km (20min) almost every Sunday morning to take the earliest 8 for the last 9 years and when it's nice out I'd bike the 25km round trip and I have a nice beer belly going. Time for some tough love.  My biggest issue with the redrawn map is with the elimination of several terminals, now they don't have places in between A and B linger and stay on schedule, so you either make it or wait for the next one.

It is laziness, IMHO. For the trip there, that is -- at night, though, I don't want him walking, borderline shady neighbourhood. I have had to evict people from the property when I've gone to pick him up, but I don't expect him to tangle with the homeless or addicts, but I've dealt with it for years and I know how not to escalate a situation, yet be firm enough for them to listen.

[jeffster]

Reports all through today of crowded LRVs.

If this continues once fares start being collected, we'd better be ordering more units ASAP.

For sure there will be fewer passengers. Fewer tourists, and others that will choose another transportation method once they have to pay.

The question is how many fewer.

It would be crazy if it turned out better than they thought. Unsure how quickly Bombardier could build new units, and I am not even sure what the ION has schedule for their next delivery, but I can't see it being less than 3 years.

[tomh009]

It would be crazy if it turned out better than they thought. Unsure how quickly Bombardier could build new units, and I am not even sure what the ION has schedule for their next delivery, but I can't see it being less than 3 years.

The actual build time is measured in months, and is not an issue now that they know what they need to build. The challenge would be finding available production slots, and that really depends on what other orders BBD is working on.

How many trains does the OMSF have capacity for?

[timio]

^28, iirc.

[Bob_McBob]

It would be crazy if it turned out better than they thought. Unsure how quickly Bombardier could build new units, and I am not even sure what the ION has schedule for their next delivery, but I can't see it being less than 3 years.

The baseline service plan in the project agreement calls for:

Timeframe	# vehicles	peak headway	max # double vehicles
2021-2024	16	8 min	0
2025-2030	20	7.5 min	3
2031-2035	23	7 min	6
2036-2040	27	7 min	9
2041-2045	30	7 min	12
2046-2047	33	7 min	all

[danbrotherston]

Can confirm the train at 9:30 out of R&T Park was similarly packed.

I do expect ridership to drop, but at this point, this is better than I expected.

Maybe instead of a summer schedule, it should just be free for the summer, that should even out the ridership levels.