Grand River Transit

[timc]

It seems to confirm my fear that my transit commute is about to get worse.

[KevinL]

Yuck - seems to confirm my fear that 8 down Belmont is no more.

This has been established for some time now, I wasn't expecting a change.

[robdrimmie]

Mine is negatively impacted more than I anticipated. The commute length will increase by a few minutes, and my options are significantly curtailed. Today I can get between downtown and my house on the 3, 11 or 22 all of which pass a stop near my place once every 15 minutes during morning or evening commute times. After the switch it looks like the 3 will be the only viable option.

I'm still optimistic though. When I was reviewing the route maps I felt pretty good but it seems like there aren't as many buses that go from Alpine and Ottawa to the Mill St station as I was expecting. Also, I think this is the summer schedule which has always been worse than the regular schedule for me. I believe all three routes at present switch to 30 minutes between buses instead of 15 and so I'm hopeful there'll be more options when the regular schedule comes back in the fall. Also, I expect that after a year where the new routes and LRT are active there'll be some meaningful tweaks as data builds up, so I'm hopeful things improve over time which has typically been my experience wth the GRT (with the exception of stop clearing, *cough*)

[bgb_ca]

While people here are saying this will negatively impact them, feel free to hate me as it cuts my commute from the current 45 minutes to about 10 (Plus walking time to the stations)

For some reason however, it suggested I take a bus at one of the ion stations, however it would be faster for me to walk the 5 minutes from the station to work, so it needs work.

[timc]

I don't have a direct connection to ION. Things would probably work out better if I did.

[trainspotter139]

Mine is negatively impacted more than I anticipated. The commute length will increase by a few minutes, and my options are significantly curtailed. Today I can get between downtown and my house on the 3, 11 or 22 all of which pass a stop near my place once every 15 minutes during morning or evening commute times. After the switch it looks like the 3 will be the only viable option.

I'm still optimistic though. When I was reviewing the route maps I felt pretty good but it seems like there aren't as many buses that go from Alpine and Ottawa to the Mill St station as I was expecting. Also, I think this is the summer schedule which has always been worse than the regular schedule for me. I believe all three routes at present switch to 30 minutes between buses instead of 15 and so I'm hopeful there'll be more options when the regular schedule comes back in the fall. Also, I expect that after a year where the new routes and LRT are active there'll be some meaningful tweaks as data builds up, so I'm hopeful things improve over time which has typically been my experience wth the GRT (with the exception of stop clearing, *cough*)

There's also the 205 iXpress which has a stop at Ottawa / Alpine. It has 15 minute Peak and Midday service.

[MidTowner]

New trip planner is up with both new bus and Ion schedules

https://tripplan.grt.ca/

This thing does not seem to want to work for me. And it doesn't look like the actual schedules have been uploaded anywhere.

The thing I'm most curious about (besides the Ion travel times) is how much less frequent the 7 will be.

[KevinL]

They are still fine tuning the official schedules, so this is up as a preliminary tool.

[kaiserdiver]

Yuck - seems to confirm my fear that 8 down Belmont is no more.

This has been established for some time now, I wasn't expecting a change.

Where did you hear about this? I saw a comment a while ago suggesting it, but I didn't see anything official until this planner came out.

[PhilippAchtel]

This is borderline unusable.

• The Back button in the browser does nothing. You have to click the X. Bad and unintuitive design.
  
• Changing the depart or arrive time by even a single minute causes to planner to recalculate, meaning you have to reopen the options tab to put in data twice if you want to change the hour and minute.
  
• If you put the depart time at 6:00am for a route that interlines whose first trip is 6:20, it will recommend you take a second route and connect at a shelter rather than simply wait the 20 minutes for the interlining route.
  
• The options are hidden back in their tab after you put them in.
  
• On low resolution displays like a chromebook, the bottom of the box is cut off and there is no way to scroll down to access it.
  
• All these issues are multiplied on a mobile device.
  

Why are they so, so bad at this?

[KevinL]

The various re-consultations over the last year or so have shown the same route configuration for this part of town. Given that the planners did not significantly alter things (beyond extending the 16 past GRH to Uptown), I felt they'd made up their mind.

[KevinT]

So I should probably wait a week before heading down to get my Connect to GO flag set?

Also, it makes no sense that that flag has to be specifically set on a card, or that they didn't just make the system so that you can tap both cards together at transfer points.  I do development work with card readers that support Mifare and related card systems and they'll easily power up and individually address two cards in the field at the same time.  Even without knowing the Presto keys, they should at least be able to detect that a card has Presto on it by reading each card's Mifare Application Directly.  It's just software...

I went to the Charles Street Terminal on Monday after work to get my Connect to GO flag set, and after waiting in line for 20 minutes I get told "Oh, we're not set up to do that yet."  Seriously?  I see on their FAQ page now that it says "The Connect-to-GO flag is not available yet on the EasyGO fare card. GO train riders should continue to show the operator their Presto card or valid GO Transit ticket and deposit 50¢ in the farebox." but I'm pretty sure that if that was there when I first read about this flag that I wouldn't have bothered to head to the terminal.

As to the Mifare Application Directory on the cards, yes, Presto was readily recognized by the NXP TagInfo app on Android:



That means there's no reason that you couldn't just tap your Presto card at a transfer point followed by your EasyGO card within some reasonable timeout (10 seconds?) to get the Connect to GO discount.  No special 'flag' on the EasyGO cards required!

[KevinL]

I have not been on my social media as much, I missed this earlier today.

More resources are up for the new network: https://www.grt.ca/en/my-new-grt.aspx

There's a stop-by-stop breakdown of service changes, a page on Charles Terminal's fate, and a new PDF system map.

The latter specifically factors in service for the summer before the UW plaza is built, and how service will be handled. Routes on Columbia (the 201 and 31) remain there; a stop will be added at the tracks for a walking transfer to UW station. Ones that will later loop at the plaza (the 9, 19, and 13) will loop on Ring Road for now. Not ideal, bu the while University bus situation is a mess to begin with.

[Acitta]

I am really liking the new bus route changes. I live on Stirling between Highland and Mill. I will be able to take one bus to get to Food Basics and the other grocery stores on Highland which is something I can't do now. I will be able to take one bus to get to the Supercentre at Highland Hills Mall. Similar to now, I will be able to take two buses to get to the train station to catch the GO train, but I think that it might be faster with the connection at Frederick Station.

[bgb_ca]

Stop closure signs are popping up