Grand River Transit to test replacement shuttle service for LRT

New replacement shuttle service signs have popped up around Waterloo region, and the shuttles will be tested in the coming weeks. The shuttles will be offered if there's ever a disruption in the Ion LRT service.

Officials say they aren't expecting the shuttle tests to cause any traffic disruptions, but people will see more out-of-service buses running near LRT routes.

"It could be part of the alignment is de-energized or perhaps something has made contact with the overhead wires, and created a disruption that the propulsion system on the train doesn't work," said Peter Zinck, director of transit services for the Region of Waterloo. "It could also be planned maintenance."

If that happens, rider alerts will go out to people who have signed up through grt.ca, audio announcements will be made and information posted on digital displays at the platforms, said Zinck.

Buses will mimic Ion route

The stops are marked with similar signs to regular bus routes, but are red and say 301R — marking it as a replacement service.

All routes are as close as possible to the Ion map, and stops are — for the most part — just across the street. 

"There's sections of the Ion line which buses won't be able to operate on," said Zinck, "Where there's ballasted tracks where you can't run vehicles that aren't trains."

That includes the area between the Fairway and Block Line stops in Kitchener, the stop in Waterloo Park and the Mill station.

The shuttles will be spare Grand River Transit buses. Testing will be done in the coming weeks in partnership with Grandlinq.

"We need to understand travel time, a little bit, how easy it is to make some of the turn manoeuvres in a bus — they're not typical for all of our routes. Those are some of the things we'll be looking at."