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Grand River Transit, or '''GRT''', is the Public Transport operator for the Region Of Waterloo , Ontario , Canada . It operates daily Bus services in the region, primarily in the cities of Kitchener , Waterloo , and Cambridge . It was named for the Grand River , which flows through the Region; the naming also echoes the Grand River Railway , a former Electric Railway which served the area in the early twentieth century. GRT is a member of Canadian Urban Transit Association . OVERVIEW On January 1 , 2000 the Region of Waterloo created GRT by assuming the operations of the former Kitchener Transit (which also served Waterloo) and '''Cambridge Transit''' from these cities. By the end of that year, operations had been fully synchronised and buses began running between Cambridge and Kitchener; as a result, ridership in Cambridge improved dramatically, and there has been increases in services, including Sundays, and late evening Mondays-Saturdays. In recent years, many new Low-floor , Wheelchair -accessible Bus es have been purchased, principally from Nova Bus , Orion , and New Flyer , and these now constitute the majority of the fleet. Most operating buses are less than twenty years old, though a few older buses are used primarily for high-school special runs. GRT has also in recent years installed Bicycle Rack s on the front of its buses in order to encourage the use of sustainable transport; all standard and express buses now have these racks. Service to less dense areas is provided by the busPLUS system, large Van s which take regular fares on scheduled routes to new neighbourhoods and more remote facilities; if ridership is sufficiently high, these services can later be replaced with regular buses, as happened with the 71 Melran route in Cambridge. GRT also operates Mobility''PLUS'', which provides specialised transit for disabled patrons using minibuses equipped with Wheelchair lifts. The GRT fleet consists entirely of motor-buses; although the former Kitchener Transit operated Trolleybus es earlier in their history, these had all been withdrawn during the 1970s, well before the systems were merged. They have continued operating a small number of Compressed Natural Gas -driven buses inherited from Kitchener Transit, but have not expanded this fleet. Until the 1950s , the area was served by electric passenger and freight Train s run by the Grand River Railway , who even earlier in the 20th century had run Streetcar s on city streets before the separated railway lines were built. IXPRESS As part of its autumn service expansion, on September 6 , 2005 , GRT launched an Express Bus service called iXpress along a central transit corridor running from Conestoga Mall in north Waterloo, mainly along King Street and Highways 8 , 401 , and 24 (Hespeler Road) to the Ainslie Street bus terminal in downtown Cambridge. In order to provide faster service, the iXpress stops only at thirteen stations along its route, rather than having many closely-spaced request stops as do most other GRT routes. iXpress uses the same fare and ticketing structure as the rest of GRT’s bus routes. The buses do not bear GRT’s usual livery, but instead are white with a large iXpress logo on each side. These buses can be occasionally seen running regular routes, when the fleet is short on operable standard-livery vehicles, which recently has been quite frequent. The bus route, which is supported in part by funding from the Federal Government , presently runs weekdays, every fifteen minutes during peak times and every half-hour at midday. GRT reports that the buses are given priority at fifteen intersections, and that future expansion will add further priority measures such as queue-jump lanes, along with enhanced stations offering real-time passenger information, lockers, and Bicycle Rack s. Though it replaces and expands the former ''Express Route 101'', which had provided peak-time express services between Fairview Park Mall and University of Waterloo, iXpress is internally numbered as Route 200, while most public signs and maps mainly refer to it by its name only. The express bus is not considered sufficient to meet the Region’s long-term needs, but is seen as a way to build up ridership levels in order to demonstrate the viability of GRT’s plans for higher-grade transport services. In early 2006, new bus shelters have been installed along the iXpress route, at McCormick, R&T Park, UW, Laurier, and Grand River Hospital statons. These new shelters are state-of-the-art, and are powered by a solar panel on the roof. Of a modern design, more are to be installed at other stations in future. Other features to come, according to GRT, include real-time tracking, which will show what time the next bus will arrive, through a GPS system that will be installed on the buses. Maps will also be put up in shelters. These changes are scheduled to occur through 2006 and 2007. Stations
FUTURE EXPANSION In 2004 , the Region began preliminary design work on an existing proposal to construct a Light Rail way to provide higher-grade public transport than current bus services can offer. The initial stage would serve the main transportation corridor in Kitchener-Waterloo, using existing railway lines and on-street lanes to carry trains along 14 Km of track to ten stations. This phase would replace the northern section of the iXpress bus route, between Conestoga Mall and Fairview Park Mall; further extensions would bring the service south to Cambridge, and possibly north to St. Jacobs and Elmira . The Ontario Government has given the plan its support, and the federal government has provided funding for an environmental assessment now underway, but no construction funding has yet been pledged. The light-rail proposal has received some criticism because it would run relatively infrequently (compared to other such systems; it would still outperform the Region’s best bus services in its overall service capacity) and be limited by the narrow main streets of the area, which are often only two lanes in key downtown areas where it would not be feasible to remove any capacity for car traffic. In keeping with the rules of such procedures, the current environmental assessment is examining all possible transport technologies, such as BRT and Monorail, rather than being restricted to the light railway the Region currently favours. An environmental assessment is being performed, and public meetings to discuss the first phase are scheduled. {Link without Title} A meeting is taking place on Thursday, April 20th, 2006, to discuss the possibility of a rate change-meaning higher prices, not lower. Cash fares are expected to stay the same-passes and tickets, however, will be raised in price. ROUTES Routes marked with are routinely operated with Low-floor , Wheelchair -accessible buses; other routes sometimes use new buses, but do not do so reliably. Cross-service area routes
Kitchener-Waterloo service area
Cambridge service area
Numbering notes Route 8 is so numbered because its travelled route forms a rough figure 8 through Kitchener and Waterloo, with the Charles Street terminal as the central point. Many routes in the K-W area had their numbering split in the early 2000s as interlining was handled differently, to allow more flexibility. The separated sections usually had major route or schedule changes at the time. Many Cambridge-area routes are based on their former Cambridge Transit numbers, with 50 added to the number. Thus, the 51 is the former Cambridge route 1, and the 52 is the former route 2 Coronation with an extension from the Preston Parkway area into south Kitchener; route 14 became 56, 17 became 60, and since 2000, additional routes have been numbered in the 60s. School specials GRT services most of the high-school specials in the area, which will often follow a normal GRT route. Any others are Yellow School Bus services. BUS FLEET
Denotes Wheelchair - Accessible vehicles. FACILITIES Downtown transit terminals are operated and staffed in both Kitchener (Charles Street) and Cambridge (Ainslie Street). Major unstaffed terminals are also in place at Waterloo’s Conestoga Mall; Kitchener’s Fairview Park Mall , Forest Glen Plaza, and Highland Hills Mall; and the Cambridge Centre and Cambridge Markets (Holiday Inn Drive) shopping centres. The Kitchener-Waterloo fleet, and all central operations, are run from the agency’s headquarters on Strasburg Road in Kitchener (across from the Laurentian Power Centre); the Cambridge fleet has its base on Conestoga Boulevard, behind the Cambridge Centre. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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