Wednesday 10 June 2015

Entry #27: New routes for September 2015

Good day everyone,
most recently, I was watching the Region of Waterloo council meeting for the approved transit improvements, although they were approved in February Regional council all they wanted was to give it the "stamp of approval". The changes for September include:

200 iXpress: new stop at Parkside Dr. and Northfield
ION aBRT: Connects Fairview Park and Ainslie St. terminal via highway 401 and Hespeler road. 10 minute peak hour service, 30 midday, evening and weekend service.
201 F-H iXpress: New stop at Fischer-Hallman / Queens to make connections with routes 1 & 2
NEW 204 Victoria-Highland iXpress: New express route that connects Ottawa/Lackner and the Boardwalk via Victoria Street, King Street, Duke Street, Frederick/Benton Street, Queen Street, Highland Road and Ira Needles Blvd to the Boardwalk. 15 minute weekday service, 30 minute evening and weekend service.
Route 1 Queen-River: a crosstown route that connects Fairview Park mall and The Boardwalk via Fairway Rd., River Rd., Krug St., Queen St., and Ira Needles. 30 minute evening and weekend service and 15 minute peak-period (Rush-hour) service.
Route 2 Forest Heights: connects downtown Kitchener and the Forest Height and Forest Hill neighbourhoods with two way service along Highland Rd., Stirling Ave. S., Greenbrook Dr., Westheights Dr., with service to Highland Hills mall via Queen Street. 30 minute service Monday to Saturday.
Route 7B via Weber: removed service from Kinzie Ave. and Thaler Dr., streamlined service to Weber St. E.
Route 8 via Franklin: Removed East Ave. extension and added service along Weber St. between Bordon Ave. and Frederick St. at all times.
Route 20 Victoria-Frederick: New service from the Boardwalk to Stanley Park Mall via Victoria St., Weber St., and Frederick St. to Stanley Park mall via the Heritage Park neighbourhood (Natchez Dr., Halifax Dr., Confederation Dr., Lorraine Ave., River Rd.). 15 Minute during peak periods, 30 minutes  Midday, evening and weekends.
Route 22 Laurentian West: 60 minute Sunday service between Highland Hills Mall and Forest Glen Plaza.
Route 23 Idlewood: New service along the Fairway Rd., Zeller Drive, Oldfield Dr., Ottawa St., and Holborn Dr. neighbourhoods connecting Fairview Park and Stanley Park Mall 30 minutes Monday to Saturday.
Route 27 Chicopee: New two way service along Morgan Ave. and 30 minute evening and weekend service.
NEW Route 34 Bingemans: New route that connects downtown Kitchener and the Wellington St., Shirley Ave., Bingemans Ctr. Dr., and Centennial Rd. employment area. 30 minute peak-hour service ONLY.

I like seeing improvements within the GRT system, but there are a few things that are bothering me about September, and they are routes 22, 23, 27, 34 and the aBRT. Why did I single out these routes and not the others? Let me explain, route 22 Laurentian West is one of the busiest routes at GRT. It connects Downtown Kitchener, Forest Glen Plaza and Highland Hills via the Laurentian West and Activa neighbourhoods. Why is the new Sunday service for route 22 bothering me? It is because only half of the 22 would get Sunday service, the other half would not. The half that is getting Sunday service which is between Highland Hills and Forest Glen plaza. The other half (Forest Glen and downtown Kitchener) would not get Sunday service. In my own personal view as well as my experience riding route 22, the full routing of route 22 should get Sunday service. If only half of the route gets Sunday service, don't run the route.
Route 23 has no Sunday service. As a person that frequently uses route 23, and more than likely will become a regular on the 23 and 20, there needs to be Sunday service on the 23. Adding 6 day a week service is good, but Sunday service would be nice. I did how ever, read the report, and the planners did mention that there was no budget money for additional Sunday service, but it did sound like the 23 might get Sunday service in the future (2016-2017).
Route 27, what can I say about route 27, besides that ridership is slowly slipping on it, I honestly believe that route 52 would replace it,  but the planners want to have a more of a grid system for KW and Cambridge (i.e. Toronto). So by taking the 27 off of King Street (between Fairway and River) and adding service on Morgan might help save the 27 from being on the chopping block.
Route 34, as I have road on the 15 Frederick Centennial extension (I swear I will never ride that extension again because it's busy) it will get very busy, and it is also servicing Bingemans' Park, who have been fighting for bus service for years, and finally get one, but it's peak hour only. That will make people decided walk to Victoria St. to catch the 204 iXpress, which is a very bad idea. Victoria Street is busy. My proposal is to have the Centennial section of the 34 be peak only and during the midday, evening and weekend, have it turn around within Bingemans so that people can get dropped off and come home.
The ION aBRT is going to replace the Cambridge portion of the 200 iXpress. Beginning September 2015, the 200 iXpress will only go between Conestoga Mall and Fairview Park mall and the ION aBRT would be covering the Cambridge portion. This will force people that ether transfer to the aBRT, or route 52, or take the 10 to Conestoga College and wait for route 61 at the college. This can make people have second thoughts about the ION LRT as well as seeing the bus passengers transfer rather than just stay on the one route that covers all of Kitchener, Cambridge and Waterloo.

There is some sad news, when I was walking along King Street downtown Kitchener, between Andrew Street and Victoria Street, all of the business are gone. They closed up due to LRT work, no one could get to them so what was the point, I have a feeling skyscrapers will replace the old businesses along King street so that people can live in the downtown core.

So there is what is in store for September, I do hope everyone has a great day and I will see you all again in the near future!

David Sej