Entry #62 New University of Waterloo Station and Future Service Expansion

With the COVID-19 pandemic taking it's toll around the world and with more and more people getting the vaccines, which is a really good sign. This will bring in the opportunity for new service changes to transit in Waterloo Region. The first, is the University of Waterloo Station. This new station is still under construction, and it's so big, I would not be surprised if the layover at University and King for routes 8 and 12 will be moved to the University of Waterloo Station. I can see more routes having a layover at the University of Waterloo like routes 9, 12, 13, 19, 29, 31, 201, 202 will most likely have layovers at the University. By adding a layover this will add an additional 5-7 minutes to the routes, which is good because it will add more connections to the ION. Secondly, once the ION begins serving Cambridge, there will select routes in all three cities, that will operate every 24 hours. My guess is in Kitchener Waterloo, Routes 201 Fischer-Hallman iXpress, 202 University iXpress, 203 Maple Grove iXpress, 204 Highland-Victoria, 205 Ottawa iXpress, 206 Coronation Ixpress 1 Queen-River, 7 King, 8 Weber, 9 Lakeshore, 12 Westmount, 13 Laurelwood, 16 Strasburg-Belmont, 19 Hazel, 20 Victoria-Frederick, 29 Keats-University, 51 Hespeler, 55 Grand Ridge, and 61 Fountain are likely candidates for operating every 30-45-60 minutes. The ION trains are mostly going to operate every 30-minutes between Waterloo and Cambridge. Another interesting expansion I began thinking about was routes 22 Laurentian West, 26 Trillium and 33 Huron are probably going to be extended to Fairway Station. This way its more direct connections to ION and other Grand River Transit routes. On to the next expansion Cambridge. There's no sign of the expansion going on, unless plans get released to Regional Councillor. Routes 50, 53, 54, 59, and 63 are up for re-design and  more service hours in both Cambridge and Kitchener. It is unknown at this time when this expansion will occur. The first set of public consultations occurred in 2019 before the pandemic, it might be mentioned at regional council. I will keep people posted. That is all in transit news from Kitchener-Waterloo, everyone please stay safe out there.