ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[ac3r]

Yeah midday it slows down and you can get a seat for most of the length of the route. Outside of working hours it picks up, then drops again as you near the end of the night.

[KevinL]

Good to know; my commute is usually not aligned with the usual rush, so hopefully I will get a seat more regularly.

[bgb_ca]

Same with mine. I usually head home after 8 so hopefully that trip is calm as well.

[KevinT]

Today I took a ride from R&T to Willis Way for lunch and had to dash for my train, so I pulled out my EasyGO card and blind tapped it on the podium as I went by. There was no sound but I didn't have time to look at the screen and just kept going, missing my train anyway. After lunch when I pulled the card out again to tap it for the return transfer, I had time to read the screen and saw that it was denied. I flipped the card over and discovered that it was my Presto card, which was at the end of the stack in my wallet instead of the EasyGO card because I had just used it in Toronto on the weekend.

No fare lost for GRT as the whole trip took less than 90 minutes and I tapped the correct card on the way back, but it made me wonder why on earth the podiums don't make a sound? A simple mid-pitch Bing for a valid tap and low pitched Brrrrrrt! for an invalid one would be extremely helpful for both the visually impaired and the traveller on the go. It seems weird for the podiums to be completely silent. I also found the screens hard to see without shading them with my hand, adding even more value proposition to combining the display with sound.

Does anyone recall if this was discussed during any of the community events? I haven't had much occasion to use my card on the bus, but my fuzzy recollection is that the fare box display there is combined with sounds.

[timc]

The fare boxes on the bus do make different sounds. I'm surprised that the ION podiums don't.

[Tony_Plow]

I finally got onto the Ion around 9 PM tonight. I headed to Fairview from Queen Station (parked at Charles and Benton for free), turned back around towards Waterloo, but had to get off at Central Station as I got a call from my son that someone was trying to break into his place of work (he was the only one there).

Still got a few photo's though. And I must say, very nice ride, if not a little crowded. The only negative I have is the seats facing one another -- very awkward. I was across from this younger, pretty all tattooed and pierced up female. Hard not to make eye contact, but luckily we were successful.

Some attached photos...

Great nighttime shots!

[Acitta]

Today I took a ride from R&T to Willis Way for lunch and had to dash for my train, so I pulled out my EasyGO card and blind tapped it on the podium as I went by. There was no sound but I didn't have time to look at the screen and just kept going, missing my train anyway. After lunch when I pulled the card out again to tap it for the return transfer, I had time to read the screen and saw that it was denied. I flipped the card over and discovered that it was my Presto card, which was at the end of the stack in my wallet instead of the EasyGO card because I had just used it in Toronto on the weekend.

I have done the same thing. I have tried to use Presto on GRT, EasyGo on the GO bus and even tried to use my laundry card once or twice.

[trainspotter139]

Today I took a ride from R&T to Willis Way for lunch and had to dash for my train, so I pulled out my EasyGO card and blind tapped it on the podium as I went by. There was no sound but I didn't have time to look at the screen and just kept going, missing my train anyway. After lunch when I pulled the card out again to tap it for the return transfer, I had time to read the screen and saw that it was denied. I flipped the card over and discovered that it was my Presto card, which was at the end of the stack in my wallet instead of the EasyGO card because I had just used it in Toronto on the weekend.

No fare lost for GRT as the whole trip took less than 90 minutes and I tapped the correct card on the way back, but it made me wonder why on earth the podiums don't make a sound? A simple mid-pitch Bing for a valid tap and low pitched Brrrrrrt! for an invalid one would be extremely helpful for both the visually impaired and the traveller on the go. It seems weird for the podiums to be completely silent. I also found the screens hard to see without shading them with my hand, adding even more value proposition to combining the display with sound.

Does anyone recall if this was discussed during any of the community events? I haven't had much occasion to use my card on the bus, but my fuzzy recollection is that the fare box display there is combined with sounds.

Some of them do make a sound and some of them for some reason or another are muted. There are techs going around to all the stations to tweak and fix issues that popped up today.

[MidTowner]

I also suspect that rush hour won't be the limiting factor. Rather, early evening and Saturdays, where they currently have 15 minute headways, is IMO where we'll see the first overcrowding. Because we don't have a big CBD I think the system will get lots of recreational, rather than commuter, use in the first several years.

This is an interesting prediction. I've thought that not having a single large CBD is a drawback for transit because driving and parking is so easy- downtown Kitchener is still small and sparse enough that finding parking is trivial, and inexpensive. Likewise for Uptown, and even the University Zone.

I took the 200 a lot, at all times and days, and it seemed like a commuter and student service. On Saturdays, it was usually not crowded, even though headways weren't great. Maybe the 301 will attract different types of riders, though.

I could definitely see 15-minutes being inadequate on Saturdays when there are events going on downtown or uptown or both. If 15 minute service is inadequate after 8:00pm on weeknights, that would be pretty impressive.

[danbrotherston]

I too found the 200 busiest during rush hour. However, I did also find it busy during the 30 minute headway Sundays, that really was too infrequent for that bus.

In other news, WRPS has completely blocked the Queen St. Station south entrance. Entirely needlessly, they say the station is open, but nobody with the slightest mobility difficulty (or frankly, being unwilling to walk through the garden) could access it. They're on a call of course, despite having nobody around, and of course having plenty of other places they could have stopped (they're literally beside a parking lot). I guess being on a call means taking zero consideration into where you stop...or...maybe they are taking it into consideration and blocking a rapid transit station is preferable to blocking 1-2 cars into in their mind.

*sigh*...

   

[ijmorlan]

I too found the 200 busiest during rush hour. However, I did also find it busy during the 30 minute headway Sundays, that really was too infrequent for that bus.

In other news, WRPS has completely blocked the Queen St. Station south entrance. Entirely needlessly, they say the station is open, but nobody with the slightest mobility difficulty (or frankly, being unwilling to walk through the garden) could access it. They're on a call of course, despite having nobody around, and of course having plenty of other places they could have stopped (they're literally beside a parking lot). I guess being on a call means taking zero consideration into where you stop...or...maybe they are taking it into consideration and blocking a rapid transit station is preferable to blocking 1-2 cars into in their mind.

*sigh*...

This is part of why I think there should be a lot more bollards. The idea is that sidewalks are absolutely reserved for pedestrians, no exceptions, enforced by the infrastructure so nobody with a job to do such as the police or the gas company (or just some random idiot for that matter) can just decide on their own to make an exception. If a utility company needs an exception, they can formally request temporary removal of one or more bollards.

[ijmorlan]

This is an interesting prediction. I've thought that not having a single large CBD is a drawback for transit because driving and parking is so easy- downtown Kitchener is still small and sparse enough that finding parking is trivial, and inexpensive. Likewise for Uptown, and even the University Zone.

I think it works both ways. On the one hand, you don’t get that massive crush of traffic and scarce/expensive parking strongly pushing everybody to transit; on the other hand, the transit line get traffic in both directions all day and all along the line, rather than being packed during rush hour in one direction only. So the transit helps more people for the same capital investment.

[MidTowner]

Re: Dan's picture. I think the point of that kind of behaviour on the part of the police is to be as obtrusive as possible, frankly, so there's nothing to be done about it. The message it sends is that their work- all of it, it doesn't matter which- is more important than whatever mere citizens may be doing. That is the message it is supposed to send.

No one should be driving their vehicles onto sidewalks except in the rarest occasion.

[MidTowner]

I think it works both ways. On the one hand, you don’t get that massive crush of traffic and scarce/expensive parking strongly pushing everybody to transit; on the other hand, the transit line get traffic in both directions all day and all along the line, rather than being packed during rush hour in one direction only. So the transit helps more people for the same capital investment.

That's a good point. And with relatively even loading along the length of the system and the length of the service hours, we might not run up against capacity issues very soon at all.

[danbrotherston]

Re: Dan's picture. I think the point of that kind of behaviour on the part of the police is to be as obtrusive as possible, frankly, so there's nothing to be done about it. The message it sends is that their work- all of it, it doesn't matter which- is more important than whatever mere citizens may be doing. That is the message it is supposed to send.

No one should be driving their vehicles onto sidewalks except in the rarest occasion.

I don't think that's their intention, I walked through, and asked if the station was open, they said, yes, it was, no problem, just walk around.  They weren't trying to block the station.

And if the police wanted to be in your face, constables are much more of a presence than a vehicle.

They aren't obtrusive, they're obstructive--frankly even more, the way they were standing, I was concerned about walking up to them, as I didn't want to "startle" them, but given they were both leaning into the vehicle, and wouldn't have a good view of what's around them....ugh....whatever....so many different problems in this photo.