Entry #14: Public Transit Part 1: Easy to Use

Good day fellow bloggers and internet surfers. Today I will be discussing the positives of using public transit and what the benefits are. There will  a time to ask me questions about the second part of this blog, which will be coming out this evening. Let us begin the look at public transit and the positives and the benefits of using public transit. To begin I will look at

Kitchener-Waterloo Routes

Introduction
In the Waterloo Region, which is comprised of Cambridge, Kitchener, and Waterloo and the townships. In Kitchener-Waterloo there is one source of transportation that helps many people, that is the Grand River Transit, or GRT for short. GRT has been in operation since 2000 and has continued to impress myself and others within the region. Kitchener-Waterloo has routes from the numbers 1-32 and 6 express routes, 3 being Conestoga College express routes. First I will look at the non-express routes like for example route 25 Queen South (to Forest Heights via Queen Street). These routes are very easy to board and the cost is cheap as well. Unlike the express routes, these routes stop at every stop to make sure that the person or people get to their destination safely, they also can help in making connections with the express routes at certain stops. For example, route 1 Stanley Park to Downtown (via River Rd. or Lorraine Ave.) will arrive at the major downtown transit terminal to help with making connections with the iXpress to Conestoga Mall in Waterloo or to Ainslie St. Terminal in Cambridge. The iXpress routes (200, 201, 202 and coming soon 203) have limited stops along the specific corridors they travel. For example, route 201 Fischer-Hallman iXpress travels from Conestoga Mall transit terminal to Forest Glen transit terminal in Kitchener via Columbia St. and Fischer-Hallman Rd. The iXpress routes are very quick and they also help with connections at certain stops which overlap with another route or at a major transit terminal. The stops are convenient and easy to spot. The destination sign for each of the routes will be different, for example if a person wants to get to Fairview from Charles St. terminal, they can take either the 7 to Fairview via Cannaught, via Weber, or via Wilson or the 8 Fairview via Franklin or 8 Fairview via Courtland or the 200 iXpress to Ainslie St. Transit terminal. 

Rush Hour Routes 
There are also industrial routes that operate to and from a certain terminal out to an industrial park in Waterloo and in Kitchener, those routes are, for Waterloo route 14 Bathurst (to Wayman and Colby) from Conestoga Mall transit terminal, route 32 to Kumpf (to Kumpf Dr. and Weber and Northfield) then returning to Conestoga Mall via Northfield Dr. and Conestogo Rd. but these services operate during the peak periods (during Rush-Hour) there are also peak period routes as well, for example route 19 Victoria South operates to and from Highland Hills transit terminal to Charles St. transit terminal in downtown Kitchener along the Victoria Street corridor (via Highland Rd., Eastforest Tr. Bankside Dr., Westforest Tr., Victoria St. S., Hazelglen Dr., Westmount Rd., King St. E, and Guakel St.) but this is a rush hour service, an alternative would be route 20 Victoria Hills, which follows the same routing except it goes into the Victoria Hills neighbourhood and down Fischer-Hallman Rd. to Highland Hills terminal. Route 33 Huron travels from Forest Glen terminal in Kitchener to the Huron industrial park (Trillium Dr.) to the Huron villiage (Parkvale Dr., Woodbine Ave. and Huron Rd.). This route has 3 different options, in the AM peak periods, it travels to the Huron village via Trillium Drive then returning to Forest Glen terminal via Strasburg Rd. From 2:15pm to 3:00pm, route 33 travels via Trillium to Groff Pl. then returning to Forest Glen. From 3:15-6:15pm it travels to Huron village via Strasburg Rd. then return to Forest Glen via Trillium Dr. Routes 9 Lakeshore and 31 Columbia  are  alternatives for routes 14 Bathurst and 32 Kumpf as route 16  Forest Glen is an alternative to route 33 Huron. Route 23 Idlewood during the AM and PM peak periods operates to Fairview Park Mall transit terminal and Charles St. terminal via Idlewood. There are 2 alternatives to this route, the routes are route 17 Heritage Park (to Victoria St and Lackner Blvd) and route 27 Chicopee (Quinte Cr at Morrison Rd).

Mainline Routes
There are 5 mainline routes in Kitchener, Waterloo and they are route 7 Mainline, route 8 University-Fairview Park, 200 iXpress Conestoga Mall-Ainslie St. Terminal, 201 iXpress Conestoga Mall-Forest Glen, and the 202 iXpress the Boardwalk-Conestoga Mall. These routes cover the majority of Kitchener and Waterloo, for instance, route 7 Covers all of King St from Fairview Park to Conestoga mall, but there are also the 7's which operate to the University of Waterloo (7D UW via University Ave. and 7E UW via Columbia). What I really like about the 7 is that they are easy to understand and what changes into what. Example 7F Fairview Park via Wilson arrives at Fairview and changes into the 7D UW via University. 7C Conestoga Mall becomes the 7B Fairview Park via Weber (from 9am-5:15pm Monday to Friday) during the Peak Periods the 7C becomes the 7A Fairview via Cannaught at 10 and 40 am and the 7F at 25 and 55 am. The 8's are the same way, what comes up University via Weber will go back as Franklin and visversa. the 201 and 202 interline at Conestoga Mall transit terminal.

iXpress
Since 2006, GRT has implemented 3 express routes that have helped move a lot of  people. These express routes are very handy and coming from a person that uses GRT on a daily basis, I really enjoy the scenery, espcially on the iXpress routes. the i in the iXpress stands for intelleigence, in which there is a little bar in front of the bus and it announces the next stop. In 2012-2013, all the routes have the stop announcers and it announces the stop, the date and time. Which is quite handy for the passengers.

Final Thought
I have been a customer of Grand River Transit since I was in high school (back in 2006-2007) and I have been very very impressed with the drivers and the routes. As a current Conestoga College student, I really like the 110 Fairview Express, but the 203 can help the 110 if it does begin at Fairview Park mall because the 110, everyone wants to take because it is the only express to Fairview, the alternative is the 10 (which takes 20 min, which is pretty good). I am always going to be using Grand River Transit, I personally know 1 driver, I have known her since she was driving school buses (yeah I was 10 yrs old) I do hope to see her driving the 1, 23, 10, or 110.