King-Victoria Transit Hub

[Canard]

So the announcement is something for the transit hub, and not transportation itself?

[Momo26]

Interesting diagram nonetheless! I like the overpass over King St integrating the LRT. It looks like it'll almost invariably connect straight into the Sixo condos project across the street too.

[timio]

Cynical me suggests taking credit for the $43 million promised by the Liberals for the Hub wouldn't be beneath the PC's, but maybe it's something useful.

[NotStan]

Cynical me suggests taking credit for the $43 million promised by the Liberals for the Hub wouldn't be beneath the PC's, but maybe it's something useful.

Well I certainly would give credit to whoever gave me something rather than to someone who just said they would.

[Momo26]

Are we (Kitchener) getting said $43 millionsss?

[Canard]

Today's announcement had nothing to do with the Transit Hub.

[KevinL]

Yeah, the Kitchener Post seems to have made a mistaken assumption by putting a picture of it on their story for that.

[rangersfan]

The Region is going to take on the transit portion of the project. I feel doing things this way the transit elements likely won't be as integrated into the larger project but we may have something sooner.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/923...kitchener/

[danbrotherston]

The Region is going to take on the transit portion of the project. I feel doing things this way the transit elements likely won't be as integrated into the larger project but we may have something sooner.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/923...kitchener/

I noticed this.  I wonder what this failure of the private partnership suggests for the future GO plans of "make a private developer build all our transit stations".

My speculation: Either we're going to end up dangling a much bigger carrot (i.e., I think we're going to get ripped off) or we just straight up won't get any new GO stations.

[nms]

Either way, the construction will still take less time than the Union Station upgrades... :-)

[Spokes]

It'll be interesting to see what effect this has on the final design of the hub when it's all said and done. I'm thinking less grand than I originally envisioned

[REnerd]

It'll be interesting to see what effect this has on the final design of the hub when it's all said and done.  I'm thinking less grand than I originally envisioned

The public sector actually has a history of 'grand' projects.  The private sector on the other hand, not so much.

Calgary library is a really good recent example.

Respectfully, I hope you are wrong

[jamincan]

There are loads of ways they could accomplish this. For example, build the train station, but make the bus facilities a bit more temporary so that any future development could incorporate bus facilities, but not necessarily the existing ones. Alternately, and I actually think possibly preferably, just build an awesome facility solely focused on transportation. Loads of cities do just that with no problems and they can be key public spaces that really define the entrance to a city. We don't need skyscrapers on every corner. In some ways, we'd be better served redeveloping along Victoria toward the existing VIA station and spreading some of the growth further off King Street.

[urbd]

I think Spokes is right. If the Region does the build out the entire first level, imagine how hard that will be to future-proof the structure for something going on top. My guess is this just killed any hope for any kind of Towers. Any developer or architect will just say “uhhhh, you want me to build my tower on top if what you built 10 years ago? Ummm hi no”

There are loads of ways they could accomplish this. For example, build the train station, but make the bus facilities a bit more temporary so that any future development could incorporate bus facilities, but not necessarily the existing ones. Alternately, and I actually think possibly preferably, just build an awesome facility solely focused on transportation. Loads of cities do just that with no problems and they can be key public spaces that really define the entrance to a city. We don't need skyscrapers on every corner. In some ways, we'd be better served redeveloping along Victoria toward the existing VIA station and spreading some of the growth further off King Street.

My understanding is that the GO train related facilities will be built close/adjacent to the tracks, obviously, with an elevator and stairs/ramp going down to King Street (over or very near the underpass). See example below. This would leave the rest of the site untouched and ready for development when the consortium sees fit, depending on the market. Also, this would allow for the rest of the site to be temporarily paved for parking and part of the new bus facilities until construction of the main development starts. Most of the local buses will now stop either on King or on Victoria, so no need for a terminal like Charles, but there would be space for intercity buses in this temporary lot.

[Canard]

Now THAT I could believe happening.