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Region Launches ION Community and Transit Talk Series

 Award-winning Canadian author Taras Grescoe to discuss transportation in Waterloo Region

Waterloo Region – Taras Grescoe, acclaimed author of Straphanger, will be the first speaker in the ION Community and Transit Talk Series. Grescoe will address transportation and sustainable transit for communities on Thursday, June 19 at Knox Presbyterian Church in Waterloo. Grescoe’s 7 p.m. presentation is a free community event that will be followed by a short question and answer session.

The ION Community and Transit Talk Series will bring relevant speakers to Waterloo Region to discuss timely, thought-provoking matters related to transportation, community building, transit and urban design. A second session in the series will take place in November.

Grescoe is a highly-respected non-fiction writer who has developed a reputation as a thought-leader on sustainable transportation, community building and transit. His books include Sacré Blues, Bottomfeeder and the acclaimed Straphanger, which explores urban transportation, city living and the world’s great transit systems.

Born in Toronto, raised in Calgary and Vancouver, Grescoe now lives in Montreal. He is a regular contributor to The New York Times, National Geographic Traveler and Canadian Geographic.

Copies of Straphanger can be purchased at Words Worth Books in Waterloo before the event as well as on-site on June 19.

Event details:

When: Thursday, June 19, 2014, 7 p.m.

What: ION Community and Transit Talk Series presents Taras Grescoe

Where: Knox Presbyterian Church, 50 Erb St W, Waterloo

ION, the Region’s rapid transit service is a visionary plan that will fundamentally help shape the community for the future by bringing light rail transit (LRT) in two stages. Stage 1, expected to open in 2017, includes a 19 km LRT route from Conestoga Mall to Fairview Park Mall, with stops in Downtown Kitchener, Grand River Hospital, UpTown Waterloo, both Universities and Waterloo Park. It also features a 17 km route of adapted bus rapid transit (aBRT) from Fairview Park Mall to the Ainslie Street Terminal in Cambridge. The aBRT service will begin operating in early 2015. Stage 2 will see the Region convert aBRT to LRT, creating a seamless 37 km ION service of 23 stops between Cambridge and Waterloo.

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For more information please contact:

Kimberly Moser,
Manager, Rapid Transit Community Relations, Phone: 519-575-4757, ext. 3461, kmoser@regionofwaterloo.ca