Transit Redevelopment Strategy and Rapid Transit Corridor Planning
Project Details
Transit Redevelopment Strategy and Rapid Transit Corridor Planning
Led by WATT, the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) Transit Redevelopment Strategy (TRS) is a comprehensive and implementable priority plan for improving the RDN’s conventional transit services over the next five years.
Informed by detailed analysis of the current system, projected community changes, and transit best practices, the plan determined how to optimize current services to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. It also outlines how to focus future investment in service and infrastructure to increase ridership, better align mobility with future development and population changes, and integrate transit with active transportation.
The TRS was guided by the RDN Board, elected officials on the RDN Board’s Transit Select Committee, and an advisory subcommittee of Board members that was formed to help shape this project. The project was also guided by a staff-level Working Group of project partners, and involved municipal and First Nation organizations, community groups, front line transit staff, transit passengers and the public in shaping the plan.
The project encompassed two phases. The first phase focused on reimagining the transit network to better meet the transit needs of each community and the larger region, while the second phase focused on infrastructure and planning for the Rapid Transit Corridor along the key road network spine within the City of Nanaimo.
As part of this work, the WATT team reimagined the transit network, based on travel and ridership data analysis as well as the results of two rounds of engagement with the public and numerous stakeholder interviews.
The TRS not only provided a new vision for the development of the system over the next five years, but it also produced year by year Implementation Plans for both service and infrastructure upgrades to the system over a period of five years.
As part of this work, the team also developed draft station spacing and location plans and then undertaken the preliminary corridor analysis using Synchro and VISSIM to identify priority intersection and station design candidates and quantify Transit Signal Priority opportunities.
The resulting TRS document was successfully approved by the RDN Board in May 2022 and is being used to guide future investment and improvements in the system.