Wednesday 30 September 2015

Blog Entry #38 Route 20 Victoria-Frederick BACK to Charles St. Terminal and Changes to Conestoga College Expresses

Today, GRT (Grand River Transit) made some amazing changes. I say amazing changes because the changes involve routes 20 Victoria-Frederick, 110 Fairview Park-Conestoga College Express and 116 Forest Glen-Conestoga College Express. To begin lets review the route 20 Victoria-Frederick:

Route 20 Victoria-Frederick - This route has former routes 15 Frederick, 19 Victoria South combined that creates a crosstown route that connects The Boardwalk and Stanley Park Mall via Downtown Kitchener and the Heritage Park neighbourhood along the Victoria Street and Frederick Street corridors, which is in fact an amazing route, but the main issue was route 20 was pulled from Charles St. terminal as a test to see how people would react and use the on-street stops along Victoria Street, Weber Street, and River Road as well as the Boardwalk and Stanley Park Mall terminals to make connections. The test for the 20 failed horribly. There were so many complaints it was unbelievable. I understand everything should get ready for ION LRT, but first the King-Victoria hub should have been built then that would make an easy transfer from Charles St. Terminal to the hub would be smooth. I still believe that route 20 should also be extended beyond the Stanley Park Mall into the Idlewood, Zeller Drive and Sims Estate neighbourhoods (thus replacing rt. 23 and having another Boardwalk-Fairview connection.)

Route 110 Fairview Park-Conestoga College Express and Route 116 Forest Glen-Conestoga College Express

With all respect to Conestoga College, it's growing and needs more bus service. Since, I understand that Conestoga will be getting their ONE cards with similar payments like the University students (Bus tuition within the card) then more service will be delivered. This means 203 iXpress would be extended to Fairview Park via Sportsworld, the College and Highway 401 and many new routes and current routes being redesigned. But since that's a bit far away, GRT looked at route 110 and increased the frequency during the PM peak hour from 30 minutes to 20 minutes with an extra trip to Fairview departing Conestoga College at 6:07pm.
The 116 changed departure times from 58-28 to 25 and 55.

I believe this is 'phase 1' of many to connect more and more people.

That's the blog for today, have a great day everyone,
David

Friday 18 September 2015

Blog Entry #37 King-Victoria Hub, Charles St. Terminal, Route 20 and Cambridge Ctr. Terminal

It has been two weeks since the implementation of the new 2015 GRT routes, which have picked up within the first few days of being in service. These new service changes are for the better, not just because of the LRT coming in the next few years, but in general because more and more subdivisions are being built and they require other methods of transportation. The main point of this particular blog post is mainly focusing on the new King-Victoria transit hub, the Charles St. terminal and the route 20. To being, let's look at the King-Victoria transit hub. The King-Victoria hub is going to be the main terminal for making connections in Downtown Kitchener, but there is a catch, not all of the routes will be servicing the hub. The routes that will be servicing the hub via on street parking include routes 6 Bridge, 7 Mainline, 20 Victoria-Frederick and the 204 Victoria-Highland iXpress. The routes actually turning around within the hub include routes 2 Forest Heights and route 34 Bingemans, with the possibility of routes 3 Ottawa South, 4 Glasgow, 11 Country Hills, and 22 Laurentian West (Depending what the 2016-2017 GRT service changes are proposed and what will look like). The routes that will not service this hub include route 1 Queen-River (transfer at Frederick/King also known as Kitchener Market Square), 5 Erb (transfer at Uptown), 8 University-Fairview Park (transfer at Fairview Park or any where else along the 8 routing), Route 23 Idlewood (Stanley Park-Fairview Park run, transfer to the hub at Fairview or Stanley Park mall) 27 Chicopee (transfer at Fairview), 29 Keats Way (Transfer at the Boardwalk or University/King) 31 Columbia (Transfer at Conestoga Mall), 33 Huron (Transfer at Block Line Station). In order to get people used to transferring to make connections on the street, the hub should have been built before the LRT construction, that way, people could have been taught to make transfers on the street, rather than making these huge changes and requesting people to transfer on the street without warning. As for the Charles St. terminal, I heard rumours floating around that it will no longer be around once the King-Victoria hub is operational, but it turns out, Charles St. Terminal will be used as a back up terminal. I can see that Charles St. becomes a Greyhound terminal (mainly greyhound, more runs will be needed to be created) with some GRT buses servicing it (route 2 and other routes) then continuing to the King-Victoria Hub. Since the introduction of the new revised route 20 Victoria-Frederick, it no longer services Charles St. and it is the only bus that travels along Frederick St. and services the Frederic Street mall. There have been many issues with the 20, mainly with senior citizens asking why the route 20 no longer services Charles St and what other bus routes can be used to make connections with the route 20. Personally, route 20 should have never been taken out of Charles St., it needed to stay in that terminal until the new hub was built then pull every bus out of Charles St. and move it to the King-Victoria hub. Now looking south of the Region, Cambridge, one of its main hubs is the Cambridge Centre. There are two main hubs in Cambridge, Ainslie St. and Cambridge Centre, these transit terminals are very very busy and as proposed in 2015, the Cambridge Centre terminal would be moved closer to Hespeler Rd. to make connections with the BRT (currently route 200 iXpress, as of 2017 ION BRT). Unfortunately, it was not moved this year, but in 2016 it will be moved to make more direct connections with the BRT along Hespeler road.

Saturday 12 September 2015

Entry # 36 My Review of the Grand River Transit 2015 service Changes

As of September 7 2015, Grand River Transit has altered many routes even discontinued others, the routes that have been changed are route 1 Stanley Park, 2 Forest Hill, 7B via Weber, 8 via Franklin,  20 Victoria Hills, 23 Idlewood,34 Bingmans and new 204 iXpress Victoria-Highland. The routes that have been discontinued are routes 15 Frederick, 17 Heritage Park, 19 Victoria South, 24 Highland and 25 Queen South. These changes needed to happen and these changes are for the best. So without further question, here is my review of the new Grand River Transit 2015 service changes:

203 Maple Grove iXpress: With the introduction of new weekend service on the 203 Maple Grove iXpress, this will provide travellers an alternative to get to Cambridge. This iXpress route connects Sportsworld Crossing and the Cambridge Centre via the Lovell Industrial Park, Cambridge Industrial Park, and the community of Fisher Mills along the Franklin Boulevard and Maple Grove Road. Since the introduction of this iXpress route, it has gotten busy as GRT riders have found another way to get to Cambridge Centre as well as getting people to work on weekends. The one thing I would like to see for this iXpress is for it get be extended out to the Conestoga College Doon and Cambridge campuses during the midday and weekends to provide another alternative for passengers to get to other destinations. As I am beingnning to see a trend between the industrial routes (route 14 Waterloo Industrial, 33 Huron, 34 Bingemans, and 67 Lovell Industrial) will no longer be peak hour routes but be part of the service 7 days a week to provide workers and shopping centres service. Like the 203 and 52 via Cherry Blossom.

204 Victoria-Highland iXpress: This express route connects The Boardwalk and the intersection of Ottawa and Lackner via Ira Needles Boulevard, Highland Road and Victoria Street. Since the introduction of this iXpress it has gotten busier than former route 24 Highland. That is because rt. 24 Highland mainly connected Downtown Kitchener and the Forest Heights West neighbourhoods and it was 30 minutes Monday to Saturday. The 204 iXpress route connects more and it is more frequent, this iXpress route is an excellent alternative to get to places. The business on Highland Road and Victoria street get more business from passengers because the 204 is 15 minutes Monday to Friday 30 minutes evening and weekend. 

1 Queen-River: This route connects The Boardwalk and Fairview Park via Downtown Kitchener along Ira Needles Boulevard, the community of Forest Heights West, Queen Street, Krug Street, and River Road. This crosstown route is amazing, it is very direct and it allows passengers to connect with other routes at The Boardwalk, Charles Street Terminal, Stanley Park Mall (board on River Rd.) and Fairview Park. This route will be extremely busy, especially during the AM and PM peak hours, the midday it can also get pretty busy, depending what time during the midday. I can see in the future that route 1 gets 15 minute service all day to provide connections with routes at each of route 1

2 Forest Heights: This route connects Charles St. Terminal and the communities of Forest Hill and Forest Heights. Since this route has been expanded beyond Fischer-Hallman, it can be a greater improvement from what its original routing. With rt. 2 servicing Rolling Meadows Dr., Driftwood Dr., and Westheights Dr., it will get busy and will pick up more service. 

7B via Weber: Streamlined this section of the route 7 Mainline to provide direct service along Weber Street to Fairway Road, with route 1 servicing Kinzie and Thaler, route 7B will be more direct and can make connections faster.

8 via Franklin: With the removal of the East Ave. extension this gives passengers more time to make connections at Fairview Park and Charles St. Terminal. 

20 Victoria-Frederick: This route has been combined with former routes 15 Frederick and 19 Victoria South to provide an East-West crosstown route connecting The Boardwalk and Stanley Park mall via the Victoria Street and Frederick Street corridors the Heritage Park neighbourhood and Downtown Kitchener. I like this route that it is very direct and can provide other connections with other routes along Victoria Street and Weber Street. Since this route no longer services Charles St. Terminal, there are other routes that route 20 can connect with. Like on Weber Street route 4 Glasgow, 6 Bridge and 8 University-Fairview can be connected with route 20, and on Victoria Street route 7 Mainline, 6 Bridge, 34 Bingemans and 204 Victoria-Highland iXpress can be make connections with to get to the Charles St. Terminal.

22 Laurentian West: With the introduction of Sunday service route 22 is going to require more than 60 minute Sunday service. Since the service started on September 7 (Labour Day) nothing was open, but this up coming weekend, the malls are open so that means route 22 will get much busier than normal.

23 Idlewood: Since this route has been modified to operate along Zeller Drive, Oldfield Drive, Holborn Drive, Old Chicopee Drive, and Fairway Road connecting Fairview Park and Stanley Park Malls, it has gotten much busier than traveling along Lackner Boulevard. The main issue I have seen is that the seniors have to transfer in order to get to the Frederick Street mall (route 20) and downtown kitchener (route 1). If the route 20 was combined or interline with 23, it would provide more options for people as well as get busier than normal. Sunday service along route 23 would make it more attractive to passengers. 

27 Chicopee: Since this route got its frequency increased during the evening and weekends, I can see ridership picking up. In 2014, route 27 lost its summer service due to low ridership, but since the evening and weekend has been increased, I can see that lost ridership being gained. 

34 Bingemans: This route needed to happen. Bingemans has a bus route that can get families to their park as well as the employment area along the Bingemans Centre and Shirley Ave. corridors. There is one problem, this route is peak hour only (6:30-9:10am, 2:30-6:00pm). This route I can see getting service all day (like the 203 Maple Grove iXpress) to get people to Bingemans, with the possibility to get the route to service the Bingemans Park property. I can also see that this route can get busy. 

This is my review of the new Grand River Transit service improvements. 

Wednesday 9 September 2015

Entry #35 Future Bus Stops, 2016-2017 Possible Service Changes

With respect to expansions within cities for transit purposes, when a route gets modified to service a new area and the bus stops are removed, instead of completely removing to bus stop and have no idea what will service that stop or corridor. Instead of completely removing the bus stop, replace it with a sign that says "Future Bus Stop" that way it can give passengers and future passengers an idea that a bus stop will be servicing their neighbourhood as well as the corridor the route is service. As the possible 2016 service changes could include the routes 3 Ottawa South, 9 Lakeshore, 10 Conestoga College/Fairview Park, 11 Country Hills, 12 Fairview Park/Conestoga Mall, 14 Waterloo Industrial, 16 Conestoga College/Forest Glen, 22 Laurentian West, 23 Idlewood, 27 Chicopee, 33 Huron, 72 Cherry Blossom busPLUS73 Northlank busPLUS, 76 Doon South busPlus201 Fischer-Hallman iXpress to Fairview Park, and 203 Maple Grove iXpress to Fairview Park via Conestoga College. These would be the main changes done for the "north" (Kitchener-Waterloo) side of GRT. The final year of changes for GRT, 2017 include routes 51 Hespeler Rd., 52 Fairview Park/Ainslie St. Terminal, 53 Franklin, 54 Lisbon Pines, 55 St. Andrews, 56 Dunbar, 57 Blair Road, 58 Elmwood, 59 Christopher. 60 Northview Acres, 61 Conestoga College-Cambridge Ctr., 62 Woodside, 63 Champlain, 64 Langs, 67 Lovell Industrial and the last 3 Cambridge iXpress routes. These changes are to make crosstown routes, connecting cities faster rather than taking 3-5 buses to get to your destination.