The Elusive Route 19

What should the next route for Kitchener be? Some people on the KWTransit mailing list debated this question, and here are two proposals which came forward...

Proposal for Route 19 - Crosstown

By Warren Schnurr - 'GRT Monorail'

Click on Image to Enlarge

This route would not just link Country Hills to Stanley Park, this would act almost as an express service between these areas of Kitchener. The problem right now is that travel times from Country Hills to Stanley Park is approx. 40 min. This route would decrease travel times to approx. 25 min-30 min. without travelling to either Fairview Park Mall or the Downtown Terminal. The problems right now are 1)You have to travel to these locations to get to these locations, there is almost no way around this. 2)You have to transfer to another bus to accomplish this trip. 3)To move to a more efficient transit service we need to move to more of a combination grid and hub/spoke system, rather than hust hub/spoke The hubs for GRT are at the major transfer points along the King Street corridor is K-W (We won't know about Cambridge until the proposed "major" changes are complete).

Amended Proposal for Route 19 - Crosstown

By Joseph Preiditsch

I believe a better alternative for this route would see it continue along Ottawa Street to the new Ottawa/Strasburg Power Centre, Forest Glen plaza will go under as soon as Zehrs moves the the Power Centre and their new 80000 sq ft Store (biggest in region). After passing the power centre this route would continue up Ottawa street up to Fisher Hallman and have a time stop in the Crossroads Centre whcih is to be built at Ottawa and Fisher Hallman. The bus yould continue through Winderness Dr, then Activa Avenue, finally to meet the proposed (Westmount?) Extension. The bus would go along Westmount? to Fisher Hallman where there is to be a new 50000sq ft Sobeys store and a plaza, accross the street the Williamsburg plaza is to be built, The route can then coutinue along Westmount past the Price Chopper Plaza and the aparmnets and Westmount and Ottawa and turn right along Ottawa to get back to Stanley Park mall.

This route would not be started immediately there is always a long process to get anything new in Waterloo region, but it would serve new neighbourhoods and may encourage people to leave their cars behind. It is also going by some prime retain, three Grocery stores in the west segment. There is high density development by Ottawa and Westmount. It will also turn The westmount/Ottawa Intersection into a transit hub with three routes 12, 19, 3. It eliminates bus plus service if the 2 or 1 goes to the Crossroads centre. The Power centre by GRT operations will also serve as a terminal. There is strangely a sign on Ottawa that says GRT bus terminal and points down Strasburg, with 4 routes at that corner a Terminal can be built for RT 2, 3, 11, and 19.