GRT News

[kitchener-lrt]

Province chips in for region's new buses

RECORD STAFF

WATERLOO REGION

Plans by Waterloo Region to increase its bus fleet by 10 could now be covered by the province.

Yesterday, the region received $5.3 million from the Ontario government to improve public transit services.

"This will help us pay for those buses and potentially free up money for other transit acquisitions," said Mike Murray, regional chief administrative officer.

This one-time grant of $5.3 million is the local allocation of the $500 million the province announced for public transit in December.

The money can be spent to buy buses, shelters, security equipment or fare-collection systems,

Murray said the region plans to buy 10 additional buses in 2009, of which six will be hybrids.

Another 11 replacement buses will be bought.

A conventional bus costs about $400,000, while a hybrid bus costs $500,000, bringing the total cost for the 10 new buses to $4.6 million.

The region's capital budget for Grand River Transit is $12.8 million this year and $10.6 million in 2009, and this announcement means regional taxpayers will be paying less of that bill.

"Announcements like this really help," Murray said.

Since the region assumed control of Grand River Transit in 2000, both ridership and hours of service have increased by 50 per cent.

[WaterlooInvestor]

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[rapid_business]

/\ Well, there you go.

[rapid_business]

Just got an email from the RTUpdate with GRT. It is essentially a compiled and amalgamated list of the responses from the open-houses they did for the future RT line. Aside from preffered routes and the rest, there are some interesting things to read in the Q & A section that makes up the last dozen pages or so.

Such as why they don't have a consideration to extend to Elmira (ridership/cost wouldn't warrant it, but they are starting a bus route out there in Sep. '09 on a trial basis). They also address some of the method to their madness with potential stations at Northfield/Parkland and Sportsworld as well.

Anyways, worth a read through.

[kitchener-lrt]

Here's the report that Onishenko was talking about:

http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web...df?openelement

It talks about relocating the train station !

[waterloowarrior]

proposed 2008 service changes (implementation for september)

staff report
information on the changes

one good change is the iXpress moving from 30 minute to 15 minute service 10a-3p

[kitchener-lrt]

Thanks for posting Waterloowarrior. Here's what I think of the proposed changes.
I love the Waterloo proposals. Columbia-Lexington-University was never served adequetly, so hopefully this'll change with this new route. I just don't get why they're calling it Rim Park . Wouldn't Lexington be a better name for the route? The modified route 35 looks cleaner and more direct. And finally, the industrial park routes are cleaned up! The timetable was so hard to understand .

For the Kitchener section, I was expecting to see more service, but that'll probably come in September 2009. I like option B for Kitchener, as it'll serve the high school.

For Cambridge, I Love the route 111 !!! There's nothing better than getting from Ainslie to Conestoga in about 10-15 minutes, with an exceptional view of the Grand River on a congestion free road . I think that the 57 Blair is messy (in terms of the layout). Good to see more service on the 53, although I would've imagined that it'd be a pretty busy route.
Finally the 61 is going to connect at a proper terminal, with a connection to the Ixpress!

And lastly, the Ixpress is getting more service .

[WaterlooInvestor]

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[WaterlooInvestor]

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[kitchener-lrt]

GRT's got some more detail of what exactly they're planning on doing come September:

http://grt.ca/web/transit.nsf/5f2289...f!OpenDocument

http://grt.ca/web/transit.nsf/5f2289...1!OpenDocument

http://grt.ca/web/transit.nsf/5f2289...4!OpenDocument

http://grt.ca/web/transit.nsf/$All/AF5301AD645E4D8C8525736100524862/$file/Cambridge%20Proposal%20Map.pdf?openelement

[jcollins]

Originally Posted by kitchener-lrt

GRT's got some more detail of what exactly they're planning on doing come September:

http://grt.ca/web/transit.nsf/5f2289...f!OpenDocument

I like the changes, especially the ixpress interval increases. But does anyone else think the times could be changed a bit? 10am-3pm doesnt service a lot of people. I figured they'd do like 8-6

http://grt.ca/web/transit.nsf/5f2289...1!OpenDocument

If I had to pick between the two, Id pick option B. But what about somehow combining them?

[waterloowarrior]

^ it already has 15 minute frequencies at those times

edit: actually I just double checked and it has half-hour frequencies btwn 9 and 10 am... wonder why that's not included, or maybe they've already added those times and it's just not online

[jcollins]

My mistake, thanks for the correction.

The other thing I forgot to mention, 11pm seems a bit early to stop service, maybe bump that a bit later?

[kitchener-lrt]

http://www.cptdb.ca/index.php?act=at...e=post&id=7035

I've got the goods. GRT ROUTE FIGURES ARE HERE!

Just a question: I assume this is the way to figure out the total number of boardings/day, but would you: multiply the # boardings/hr, by the number of hours that route operates?
Enjoy.

[rapid_business]

/\ doesn't work if I'm not a member?

[kitchener-lrt]

GRT 2007 Year To Date Route Performance Estimates

Boardings/ Hour for December 2007

Base Routes Current Month Previous Month Year to Date Average

7 Mainline 60 69 60
51 Hespeler Road 47 44 43
12 Conestoga Mall/Fairview 46 56 46
8 University/Fairview 38 44 40
52 Fairview Mall 32 33 32
1 Stanley Park 31 33 34
25 Queen South 31 35 30

Base Route Average 46.5 52.5 46.8

Local Routes Current Month Previous Month Year to Date Average
110 Conestoga College Express 81 44 43
14 Waterloo Industrial 71 83 65
200 iXpress 67 56 43
10 Con. College 61 77 61
16 Forest Glen/Con. College 48 58 43
20 Victoria Hills 48 46 45
55 St. Andrews 47 45 42
9 Lakeshore 47 53 39
13 Laurelwood 46 65 50
27 Chicopee 45 54 51
64 Langs 45 42 39
56 Dunbar 42 37 38
11 Country Hills 41 44 37
19 Victoria South 41 45 38
22 Laurentian West 40 45 40
3 Ottawa South 40 41 35
60 Northview Acres 39 41 38
24 Highland 38 35 34
59 Christopher 36 33 34
58 Elmwood 33 33 33
17 Heritage Park/Fairview 33 37 31
5 Erb West/Lancaster 33 39 33
15 Frederick 32 32 31
71 Melran 31 28 23
54 Lisbon Pines 31 32 31
6 Bridgeport 29 31 27
63 Champlain 29 25 26
2 Forest Hill 29 30 23
53 Franklin Boulevard 29 30 27
65 Fisher Mills 29 29 26
26 Trillium 28 30 29
67 Lovell Industrial 27 26 26
29 Keats Way 26 50 37
66 Winston 26 23 26
62 Woodside 25 24 24
23 Idlewood 25 28 25
35 Eastbridge 19 15 20
61 Con.College 18 18 13
57 Blair Road 18 15 14
18 Guelph Street 16 17 18
4 Glasgow 15 17 21
75 Saginaw 13 14 12
68 Eagle Street 12 21 13
72 Cherry Blossom 6 7 7
74 RIM Park 5 6 5
21 St. Jacobs 4 8 30
73 Northlake 2 3 5
Local Route Average 40.2 42.2 35.1

Data current to end of December 2007

[rapid_business]

It's pretty dumb they don't have a daily figure.

[kitchener-lrt]

I agree.

[WaterlooInvestor]

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[WaterlooInvestor]

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