Grand River Transit

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 synchronized and buses began running between Cambridge and Kitchener; as a result, ridership in Cambridge improved dramatically, and there have been increases in service, including Sundays and late evenings Monday-Saturday.

In recent years, many new low-floor, wheelchair-accessible buses 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 installed bicycle racks 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 vans 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 MobilityPLUS, which provides specialized transit for disabled patrons using minibuses equipped with wheelchair lifts.

The GRT fleet consists entirely of motor-buses. Kitchener Transit operated trolleybuses earlier in its history, but they were withdrawn from service during the 1970s, well before the systems were merged. GRT has continued operating 23 compressed natural gas-driven buses inherited from Kitchener Transit but has not expanded this fleet; these buses are to be retired before the end of 2009. Until the 1950s, the area was served by electric passenger and freight trains run by the Grand River Railway, which even earlier in the 20th century had run streetcars on city streets before the separated railway lines were built.

Effective September 1, 2007, all undergraduate students at the University of Waterloo purchase a non-refundable 4-month U-Pass in their tuition for less than a quarter of the equivalent adult monthly pass.

On February 14, 2008, the members of Canadian Auto Workers 4304, which represents GRT employees, planned to go on strike. However a tentative agreement was reached before the deadline of 12:01 am and the strike was averted.

History

Public transit in the Grand River area began with private operators and slowly gave way to municipal run service. Interurban and streetcar service were the earlier modes and by the mid 20th century bus transit became the norm.

Kitchener-Waterloo

Cambridge

Public transit was provided to Galt and Preston before Cambridge was formed.

Elmira

Elmira had bus service to Kitchener that ended in 1997. Route 21 now travels to Elmira from Conestoga Mall in north Waterloo. Riders can then transfer to another bus to get to Kitchener.

New Hamburg

Starting April 25, 2016, Grand River Transit will start operating route 77 which connects The Boardwalk and the Wilmot Township (Petersburg, Baden and New Hamburg) during the AM and PM peak periods. This new route will be a BusPlus route and because of the length of the route, route 77 will operate every 75 minutes. GRT is using Voyager Transportation Services to operate the new route.

Grand River area also had interurban railway service from 1894 to 1955 by various operators.

iXpress

The iXpress bus rapid transit operated by GRT consists of four routes along main corridors in Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge. The older route, Route 200 (then known solely as the iXpress without a route number), was launched in September 2005, and runs from Conestoga Mall in Waterloo and Ainslie St. Transit Terminal in Cambridge primarily along King Street in Kitchener and Waterloo and Hespeler Road in Cambridge. The second route, route 201, runs from Forest Glen Terminal in Kitchener to Conestoga Mall in Waterloo, primarily along Fischer-Hallman Road in both cities. The third, route 202, runs in a crosstown fashion through Waterloo, primarily along University Avenue, between the Boardwalk shopping centre and Conestoga Mall. The fourth iXpress route, route 203, opened on April 28, 2014. It runs from Cambridge Centre to Sportsworld Terminal. An extension of the 203 to Conestoga College is made during the AM and PM peak periods when classes are in session. The fifth iXpress route, route 204, which began service September 2015. The 204 iXpress runs from Ottawa and Lackner to the Boardwalk via Victoria Street, Highland Road, Ira Needles Boulevard and Downtown Kitchener. Route 204 operates every 15 minutes during the week and every 30 minutes during the evening and weekends.

Future expansion

Grand River Transit has purchased six diesel-hybrid buses which began service in late August 2008. To get the best use of their powertrain, these buses run on routes like Route 7 Mainline, which have frequent stops and heavy usage.

Rapid transit

The Region of Waterloo is preparing for the implementation of rapid transit in the area, under the brand name ION, which would boost more compact urban growth along the main corridor. A light rail line is expected to run from Conestoga Mall in Waterloo to Fairview Park in Kitchener, and a bus rapid transit line from Fairview Park in Kitchener to Ainslie Street Terminal in Cambridge.

Fares

Buses accept cash fares and paper tickets; transfers are available for 90 minutes of travel following payment of a single-use fare. Monthly passes consist of a card purchased for service for a calendar month, accompanied by a photo ID card. Specialized passes for corporate or school purposes will generally consist of a limited-time photo card.

A new system using an electronic fare card, to be called the EasyGO Fare Card, is set to be introduced in 2016, in anticipation of the Ion light rail launch.

Conventional transit fares

Grand River Transit Fare Change effective Friday, July 1, 2016, as approved by Regional Council.

Routes

Route listing effective September 7, 2015. All standard routes are marked with and operated with low-floor, wheelchair-accessible buses. BusPLUS routes are not accessible.

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 Kitchener-Waterloo 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. Routes split were:

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 which was extended from Preston Parkway into south Kitchener by merging it with the former Kitchener Transit Route 20 Sportsworld/Gateway Park. (The route number 20 has since been reused in Victoria Hills); Cambridge Route 14 became 56, 17 became 60, and since 2000, additional routes have been numbered in the 60s.

Numbers above 100 are reserved for express-level service. Those in the 100s operate under standard branding (and, currently, all serve Conestoga College); the 200s operate under the iXpress branding.

During the Kitchener Transit - Cambridge Transit merger, many short-lived, experimental, or interim routes existed. One was the route 20 Sportsworld/Gateway Park, which was later merged with Cambridge Transit route 2 Coronation to form the route 52. At one point, a very short-lived route 61 existed as a satellite route operating from Highland Hills Mall. Soon after, this route was changed to a long-since forgotten route: route 41 Laurentian West - Highland West BusPLUS. This route did not last long, and its service area was later covered by routes 19, 20, and 22. Route 21 St. Jacobs started by running to St. Jacobs Market from Conestoga Mall via Northfield Drive and Weber Street.

School specials

GRT also provides school specials to most secondary schools in the Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge areas. The purpose of these routes is to help alleviate overcrowding problems on regular GRT routes, and supplement regular GRT routes by adding extra and/or short turn trips. The main function of many of the specials is to provide services between schools and neighbourhoods where limited or no regular service is available, or where multiple time-consuming transfers would be required. These specials usually operate on completely or partially different routings than regular GRT routes. Any other school bus services are yellow school bus services.

Bus fleet

Grand River Transit has a fleet of 259 buses and an additional 30 MobilityPLUS vehicles in their fleet.

Facilities

Major transit terminals are operated and staffed in both Downtown Kitchener (Charles Street Terminal) - (Routes 1,2,3,4,6,7A,7B,7C,7D,7E,7F,8,11,15,18,22,200,204) and the Ainslie St. Transit Terminal at Galt City Centre in Cambridge - (Routes 51,52,53,54,55,57,58,59,62,63,111,200).

Unstaffed off-road satellite terminals are also in place at Waterloo’s Conestoga Mall (Routes 6,7C,9,12,14,21,31,32,200,201,202), The Boardwalk (Routes 1,4,5,13,20,29,77,202,204), Kitchener’s Fairview Park Mall (Routes 1,7A,7B,7F,8,10,12,23,27,52,110,200), Forest Glen Plaza (Routes 3,11,12,16,22,33,116,201), Stanley Park Mall (Routes 1,20,23), Sportsworld (Routes 52,72busPLUS,200,203) and Cambridge Centre (Routes 51,56,60,61,64,67,75, 200, 203 iXpress Sportsworld).

Other significant transfer points include King Street/University Avenue (Routes 7C,7D,7E,8,9,12,200,202), Waterloo Collegiate Institute (Routes 7A,7B,7C,7D,7E,7F,8,9,12,29,31,91,92,200,201,202) the University of Waterloo (Routes 7D,7E,8,9,12,13,29,31,200,201,202), Uptown Waterloo (Routes 5,7C,7D,7E,200), Holiday Inn Drive/Hespeler (Routes 51,53,65,66,71), Conestoga College-Doon Campus (Routes 10,16,61,110,111,116) and the Preston Towne Centre (Routes 52,56,61,64).

Grand River Transit has two garages:

A third garage site is planned on Northfield Drive in Waterloo.