ION-Much more than a train

Our speaker on September 10^th was Regional Councilor Sean Strickland. Having served on regional Council since 2000 including many subcommittees related to the Regional Transportation Plan, Sean provides a unique perspective on our newly unveiled LRT.

The actual title of this presentation should be the “LRT at Work” as this is way more than a train, it actively links investment with people. In the weeks following the ION’s introduction on June 21st, there were more than 300,000 trips in the first 11 days. Admittedly, fares were free in this introductory period, but it shows that the community can embrace this new addition to our regional services. As part of the introduction of the ION, bus routes were adapted to connect to the train system. Since the end of the introductory period, Grand River Transit has seen a 20% increase in ridership across the entire network demonstrating increased demand for public transit.

 

The ION is an urban planning tool that supports the regional mandate to increase the density of the existing urban areas and not grow beyond the current city boundaries. Also, it appeals to the desires of the youth of today that have less affinity for cars, are more open to public transit and are against urban sprawl. The choice of trains over bussing as the focus of the regional investment was partially to give developers comfort. Train tracks cannot be moved, and this encourages developers to make significant investment near the train because it isn’t going anywhere. To further encourage investment along the ION route, development charges were waived for several years. The waiver of development charges has ended in Kitchener and Waterloo but continues in Cambridge as this is a future phase of the ION project. Further phases include a transit hub on Victoria Street (expected for 2022) that will link the regional transportation network to the provincial network such as GO to link our community to others like Toronto. Hopefully provincial priorities will be changed to enhance the provincial rail grid to allow for high speed trains but this will be a large undertaking as the existing tie and gravel rail system will need to be completely changed to concrete to allow high speed rail.

 

The list of new developments spurred by the ION is significant including: Breithaupt Block, The Metz, the Barrel Yards, the Strata and Gaslight among others. It is estimated that a total of $3.1B has been invested in our community partially as a result of the ION project. While there is a cost in infrastructure necessary to support this new development (such as the recent $1.5B in waste water investment), we have been able to leverage existing infrastructure to get the ball rolling and these developments will continue to provide a significant tax base for the future.

 

We are lucky to have the big city facilities and amenities of Waterloo Region but still be close to the country. The ION will help to ensure that future generations will still have rural areas to go to for recreation and to ensure a local food supply stays strong.