Canadian Transit Thread II

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by cranes

https://www.therecord.com/opinion/co...370152a34.html
Service changes may put brakes on Ion’s gold standard of transit
Waterloo Region’s Ion light rail transit line is the best transit route in Ontario, writes Brian Doucet
By Brian Doucet Special to Waterloo Region Record November 16, 2023


https://waterlooregionconnected.com/...2011#pid112011


https://twitter.com/m_druker/status/...497367/photo/1

Best transit route in Ontario he says

[J.OT13]

Yeah, that's not great frequency. Surprised the ridership grew so much considering what it was.

[Beedok]

Pretty sure the Hamilton LRT is hoping for something like 5 minute peak frequencies?

[Dengler Avenue]

Indeed, please don’t be like York Region Transit’s VIVA network…

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by Beedok

Pretty sure the Hamilton LRT is hoping for something like 5 minute peak frequencies?

Hamilton LRT is projected to have like twice the ridership of Kitchener from what I recall. IIRC Hamilton is expected to hit around 50k daily riders vs Kitchener’s 20-25k.

[niwell]

At the Metrolinx Board of Director's meeting this morning they stated that they'll only announce the opening date of the Eglinton Crosstown line three months before actual opening day. Which they should know further in advance but fits into my theory of diminishing expectations then "surprising" us with some good news - likely a Spring announcement for a late Summer / early Fall opening. They're also hosting journalists at Yonge/Eg station early December for an update on progress which hints that things are getting very close to finished.

[Harrison]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Hamilton LRT is projected to have like twice the ridership of Kitchener from what I recall. IIRC Hamilton is expected to hit around 50k daily riders vs Kitchener’s 20-25k.

Yup, the ION essentially took all of the riders of the old iXpress 200 rapid bus and added a bit more from attracting new ridership to an LRT line. I wonder how long it will take for ION to crack 50k daily riders, as it has a ways to go.

[Luisito]

Has anything been said about the Eglinton crosstown opening up? I bet the Finch line will open up first.

[Innsertnamehere]

Metrolinx said today that they would announce the Crosstown opening 3 months out - so it's not opening for at least another 3 months.

I suspect we'll see Eglinton open some time next summer, it's getting very close.

Finch will open shortly after, but I'd be surprised if it beats Eglinton. Likely end of next year or early 2025.

[thebasketballgeek]

Any updates on the Hurontario line?

[GeneralLeeTPHLS]

I haven't been in Mississauga in a while, but they're continuing to install tracks and build the elevated guideway along Rathburn from Hurontario. (I've been looking occasionally on UT to see whats going on)

I figure it'll be done by late next year if not spring 2025.

[WhipperSnapper]

Finch has progressed to be near the end of the line? It seems like yesterday when ground was broken.

[Innsertnamehere]

Hurontario is supposed to be 2025.

[Doady]

Hurontario is not even close, lol.

5 minute frequency on opening day is ery bad. Already time for two-car or three-car trains to reduce it 7-8 minutes. Not a lot of room for ridership to grow before it is time to build a subway line, right?

Hurontario/Main was around 40k per weekday before the LRT construction, King/Delaware/Beeline around 33k.

[SteelTown]

There was a virtual open house last night for latest update on Hamilton's LRT. Here's two new conceptual renderings of the Queen and Wellington stops. More renderings will be released in January 2024.





Source: https://twitter.com/HamiltonLRT

[hipster duck]

I'm guessing the intent of these renderings is to show the preferred design of the stations/stops?

Are there plans for wider sidewalks, improved streetscaping and bike lanes on the route?

[Doady]

It's a shame they did not place the LRT along the south side of King Street to retain the street as one-way westbound for regular traffic. This arrangement would have allowed them to take away lanes on the north side of King for parallel parking as a traffic calming measure and provide a buffer for pedestrians from car traffic. Parallel parking space can also be used for patios for restaurants. Maintaining one-way for Main Street would have allow for parallel parking there too. Adding parallel parking would not only have improved the pedestrian environment in Hamilton's downtown, but also reducing the demand for off-street parking. The lack of parallel parking is the #1 problem of the design of King and Main Street, and this LRT fails to solve that problem.

[cranes]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Hamilton LRT is projected to have like twice the ridership of Kitchener from what I recall. IIRC Hamilton is expected to hit around 50k daily riders vs Kitchener’s 20-25k.

Perhaps someone else has a better proverb, but a bird in the hand (20-25k ridership built system) is worth two in the bush (50k unbuilt system). GRT 2023 ridership will be around 26.75 million. Isn't that higher than HSR? IF GRT's Sept 2023 44% year-over-year ridership growth continues, a Sept 2023 - August 2024 ridership projection would be 33.75 million.

ion ridership projections pre-launch: https://www.canadianconsultingengine...it/1003002784/

The daily ridership for the system is estimated at 27,000, increasing to 56,000 by the year 2031.

https://www.therecord.com/news/water...edfbec862.html
Ion to maintain minimum 15-minute frequency
But overcrowding during daytime will remain an issue, according to report
Bill JacksonReporter November 30, 2023

WATERLOO REGION — The Region of Waterloo’s Ion will run at least every 15 minutes after some pushback on a plan to shorten the interval between trains during the daytime but reduce service during off-peak hours.
...
Waterloo Region council members unanimously approved the change on Wednesday at a budget meeting, before hearing from about a dozen delegations who use the service and say they want to see more of it, not less.
...
The 2024 budget includes 1,900 hours more Ion service, part of a $4.8 million increase to the transit operating budget. The region also plans to add 45,000 hours of GRT bus service to help deal with crowding and growing demand. Cutting waits from 30 to 15 minutes on more bus routes is also important to create a more robust and an equitable public transit system, Doucet added.

@ZEBuilder 11-26-2023

The following is based on current Fairway bound trips departing from Conestoga.

Current week:
Every 15 minutes from about 5-6am, every 10 minutes from 6am to 6pm, every 15 minutes from 6-10:30pm then every half hour from 10:30pm-12am.

New week:
Every 15 minutes from 5-7am, every 10 minutes from 7am-8pm, every 15 minutes from 8pm-12am.

Current Saturday:
Every 15 minutes from 5:30am-10:30pm, every 30 minutes from 10:30pm-12am

New Saturday:
Every 15 minutes from 5:30am-12am

Current Sunday:
Every 30 minutes from 6am-7:30am, every 15 minutes from 8am-10:30pm, every 30 minutes from 10:30pm-12am

New Sunday:
Every 15 minutes from 6am-12am

Really the biggest change is removing every half hour in the morning and late evenings on weekends, having an extra hour of 10 minute peak headways and the removal of the summer frequency reduction (normally it would go from 10-15 minutes)

[Doady]

Originally Posted by cranes

Perhaps someone else has a better proverb, but a bird in the hand (20-25k ridership built system) is worth two in the bush (50k unbuilt system). GRT 2023 ridership will be around 26.75 million. Isn't that higher than HSR? IF GRT's Sept 2023 44% year-over-year ridership growth continues, a Sept 2023 - August 2024 ridership projection would be 33.75 million.

ion ridership projections pre-launch: https://www.canadianconsultingengine...it/1003002784/

He's talking about ridership of a specific line, not the entire system. The ridership of the entire GRT system 2023 or 2024 doesn't mean anything.

Yes, HSR system ridership will be lower than GRT while its operations are being hampered by continuing LRT construction and the striking bus drivers last month. No surprise.

And no, GRT's ridership is probably not going to grow by 44% in 2024. You can see Mississauga's ridership grew by 25% in 2023 on pace to reach 45.7 million. I am going to take a very wild guess and say that Mississauga's ridership probably will not reach 56.0 million in 2024, even if the LRT opens next year.

[cranes]

Originally Posted by Doady

He's talking about ridership of a specific line, not the entire system. The ridership of the entire GRT system 2023 or 2024 doesn't mean anything.

Yes, HSR system ridership will be lower than GRT while its operations are being hampered by continuing LRT construction and the striking bus drivers last month. No surprise.

And no, GRT's ridership is probably not going to grow by 44% in 2024. You can see Mississauga's ridership grew by 25% in 2023 on pace to reach 45.7 million. I am going to take a very wild guess and say that Mississauga's ridership probably will not reach 56.0 million in 2024, even if the LRT opens next year.

People are talking about a proposed Hamilton LRT line which won't open until 2030..2031..(who actually knows) vs an already built & operating line in Kitchener. They're comparing actual 2023 Kitchener LRT ridership vs expected 2031(?) Hamilton LRT ridership and then concluding the latter's going to be double. Why not compare expected 2031 vs expected 2031 ridership ... that would seem to make a lot more sense. Same thing goes for frequency.

GRT had a transit strike during 2023 as well.

I'll repost GRT's monthly #s. Instead of just dismissing my crude FTM estimation, please give me an estimate/methodology of what you think the forward 12 month total looks like.

["The September Multiplier"]
I took the total of Sept 2022 - Aug 2023 = 23.36 million
Divided by Sept 2022 (2.00 million) = 11.68
Multiplied by Sept 2023 (2.89 million) = 33.75 million (Sept 2023 - Aug 2024 crude estimate)