Highways and expressways

Highway 8 as seen from Franklin Street bridge.Kitchener was very proactive and visionary about its transportation network in the 1960s, with the province undertaking at that time construction of the Conestoga Parkway from the western boundary (just past Homer Watson Boulevard) across the south side of the city and looping north along the Grand River to Northfield Drive in Waterloo. Subsequent upgrades took the Conestoga west beyond Trussler Road and north towards St Jacobs, with eight lanes through its middle stretch.

The Conestoga Parkway bears the provincial highway designations of Highways 7 and 8. King Street becomes Hwy 8 where it meets the Conestoga in the south and leads down to the 401, but Old King Street survives as the street-route through Freeport to the Preston area of Cambridge. Up until construction of the Conestoga, Highland Road through Baden had been the primary highway to Stratford. Victoria Street was then and remains the primary highway to Guelph but this is slated to be bypassed with an entirely new highway beginning at the Wellington Street exit and running roughly north of and parallel to the old route.

There are two interchanges with Highway 401 on Kitchener’s southern border. In addition to the primary link where Hwy 8 merges into the Hwy 401, there is another interchange on the west side with Homer Watson Boulevard.

In order to reduce the congestion on Highway 8, a new interchange has been proposed on Highway 401 at Trussler Road, which would serve the rapidly growing west side of Kitchener. Although this proposal is supported by the Region of Waterloo, the MTO has no plans to date to proceed with an interchange at Trussler Road.

City streets

Unlike most southern Ontario cities whose streets follow a strict British grid survey pattern, Kitchener’s streets are laid out in a complex radial pattern on the Continental models most familiar to the German settlers.

There is good historical reason for this. Kitchener was one of the few places in Ontario where the settlers arrived in advance of government surveyors. The Mennonites who had banded together as the German Company to purchase the township from Richard Beasley simply divided their vast parcel of land by the number of shareholder households and then drew random lots to confer title on individual farms. There was no grid survey done—no lines, no concessions, no right-of-way corridors for roads. When it came time to punch roads through the wilderness, the farmers modelled the road network on what was familiar to them, which was the pattern of villages in Switzerland and southern Germany.

This is a Continental Radial pattern and the result was major streets extended through diagonals cutting across the grid of smaller streets and converging at multiple-point intersections which, as the communities became more prosperous and if the automobile had not displaced the horse, might someday have become roundabouts decorated with circular gardens, fountains or statuary in the style of European cities. Five-point intersections created by converging diagonals are legion in the older areas.

In 2004, roundabouts were introduced to the Region of Waterloo. Besides improving traffic flow, they will help the region lower pollution from emissions created by idling vehicles. In 2006, the first two were installed along Ira Needles Boulevard in Kitchener. Roundabouts are ideal for intersections in this region because of the aforementioned historical growth along Continental radial patterns versus the British grid systems.

For forty years, there has been a sharply controversial plan to extend River Road through an area known as Hidden Valley, but the pressure of traffic and the absence of any other full east-west arterials between Fairway Road and the Highway 401 is now forcing this development ahead.

Most streets that cross the municipal boundary between Kitchener and Waterloo retain the same street name in both cities. However, several streets which are divided into east and west sections in Kitchener shift to a north-south division in Waterloo. This primarily affects Weber and King Streets and Westmount Road. Since these roads do not actually change their primary directional alignment significantly, the shift in labelling can create confusion, since each of the aforementioned thoroughfares bears the labels north, south, west, and east on certain segments. However, it also reduces the potential confusion that would result from having separate west and east segments of the same street existing simultaneously in both cities.

The problem with giving streets in Waterloo Region compass-based labels, and attempting to divide each of the cities into quadrants comes from the radial layout of the roads, and the historical patterns of development. Waterloo’s quadrants, created by the intersection of King and Erb Streets, roughly correspond to compass directions, but Kitchener’s quadrants, delineated by King and Queen Streets, do not resemble compass directions whatsoever. A notable case is that of Lancaster Street, which runs almost exactly north-south, but is designated as east-west, since it crosses Queen Street, which divides the “east” and “west” halves of the city, yet follows a northeast-southwest orientation itself.

Public transport

GRT busSince 2000, public transport throughout the Region of Waterloo has been provided by Grand River Transit, which was created by a merger of the former Cambridge Transit and Kitchener Transit. GRT operate a number of bus routes in Kitchener, with many running into Waterloo and two connecting to Cambridge. In September 2005, GRT added an express bus route called iXpress from downtown Cambridge through Kitchener to north Waterloo.

Recently, proposals have been put forth regarding a rapid transit system serving the downtown cores of all three cities. An Environmental Assessment is being conducted by the Region. The current phase (2) of the EA is looking at options for technology, route, and station locations for the Region. Numerous Public Consultation Centres have been held where the public is encouraged to give feedback on the Rapid Transit Initiative.

Railways

Passenger rail service has long been a point of frustration for residents of Kitchener and its neighbouring cities. Two main lines come westward out of Toronto and then meet up again in London. The northern line passes through Guelph, Kitchener and Stratford to London. The southern line goes along the heavily-populated lakeshore to Oakville, then Brantford, then Woodstock, and then to London. This southern line is the primary rail corridor for CN, while the northern line through Kitchener is owned by a short-line railway called the Goderich-Exeter Railway (GEXR). The track and signalling conditions on the north and south route are very different which allows trains on the southern route to operate more frequently and more quickly, whereas trains on the northern route take an 1 hour and 40 minutes on average to get from Kitchener to Toronto and with a single track in use often need to pull into sidings to let oncoming trains pass. Consequently, Kitchener, with a regional population base equal to London and situated much closer to metropolitan Toronto, gets less than one third the frequency of passenger rail service.

Passenger service is provided by VIA Rail. Three trains in each direction travelling between Sarnia and Toronto stop at the Kitchener railway station daily. The station is slightly to the northeast of the city’s downtown on Weber Street near its intersection with Victoria Street.

GO Transit does not serve Kitchener; the nearest Go Train station to Kitchener is Milton station. City councillors and public petitions have called for the extension of GO Train service to the Region of Waterloo, but at present GO is studying if it will go beyond already-announced bus links. On September 2008, GO Transit announced a feasibility study into extending GO train service on the Georgetown line through Guelph to Kitchener, contingent on a source of funding.

Freight trains in Kitchener are operated by the Goderich-Exeter Railway and the Canadian Pacific Railway. These railways serve several customers (including ThyssenKrupp Budd), many of which are located in industrial parks in southern Kitchener.

Air

The closest airport to Kitchener is the Region of Waterloo International Airport in nearby Breslau, but while it is a thriving general-aviation field, it is not heavily-served by scheduled airlines. Most air travellers use Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson International Airport. Although there are no permanent public transport links from Kitchener to any of these airports, Northwest Airlines has three flights daily to Detroit’s Wayne County Metropolitan Airport and Westjet to Calgary respectively. Mesaba Airlines, using Saab 340 twin prop aircraft, is the regional carrier affiliated with Northwest and operates under the name Northwest Airlink. Westjet uses their 737-700 aircraft from their Calgary hub. They started service out of Waterloo International Airport on May 14 2007 for the summer season and then decided they will fly year-round due to strong passenger demand. Bearskin Airlines started offering service in the fall of 2007 with three flights daily between Kitchener and Ottawa using a Fairchild Turboprop aircraft. Strong demand has resulted in Bearskin Airlines adding a fourth flight on Fridays. During the winter vacation period Dec. 2005 to March 2006, Sunquest Vacations and Signature Vacations started flights to Mexico and the Dominican Republic, using Airbus A320 Aircraft. Both Signature and Sunquest have returned for the 06-07 and 07-08 winter seasons along with the addition of Sunwing with services to Punta Cana and Puerto Plata, DR, and Montego Bay, Jamaica. Recent upgrades to the runways, approach lighting and terminal building are permitting larger aircraft to use this airport. Air Canada has been in talks with the Region with an eye on starting flights to Montreal and WestJet is considering additional destination.

Why Choose a Kitchener Mortgage Broker

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