ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[tomh009]

No way to get to downtown Kitchener from the west/north between Weber and Park...a kilometre. That's quite the detour.

My wife's reaction (we live in west Mount Hope, and mostly walk): "I guess I'll be walking Uptown rather than Downtown when I need to run errands the next few months."

Pretty much the same for us, except that we are on the other side of the detour.  Fortunately it's getting warmer so with a bicycle there will be more options (Iron Horse Trail to get to Waterloo).

[Canard]

Waterloo has giant Danger/Don't cross here signs there but people just push past the fence anyway.

If it is NOT truly a danger, then it's problematic because it leads to a culture of feeling that it is ok to just ignore signs and do whatever the hell you want. Then someone gets killed by a train or falls down a pit where there really IS a danger, and the project is delayed and opening will get pushed back (which will really annoy me.).

GrandLinq has many times in the past responded rapidly when an issue is brought to their attention. They can't fix a problem if they don't know it's there!

[MidTowner]

Waterloo has giant Danger/Don't cross here signs there but people just push past the fence anyway.

If it is NOT truly a danger, then it's problematic because it leads to a culture of feeling that it is ok to just ignore signs and do whatever the hell you want. Then someone gets killed by a train or falls down a pit where there really IS a danger, and the project is delayed and opening will get pushed back (which will really annoy me.).

I think this is very well-said. If it’s a case that it’s perfectly safe, then people are being inconvenienced for no reason. I know that some people are crossing at Waterloo, but they are not supposed to be and from what I can observe most people are going around to Duke. As far as the City and Region are concerned, Waterloo and King are both closed, and Duke will be, too. I don’t think they are assuming that the detour is only affecting the risk-averse and the law-abiding.

[panamaniac]

Just up the road at KCI, the steps are looking better and better:

I was up that way this afternoon and I see that the concrete of the front wall of the staircase is being covered with a brown/yellow brick that seems a close match to that of the school.  Should look very good!

[Canard]

Are there any renderings of what the final product will be? I wonder if one whole project team is dedicated to just doing this whole stairwork thing.

[Canard]

Trackwork on Caroline:

   

Trackwork between Seagram and University, pre-tamping:

   

   

   

[Canard]

OCS (catenary) tensioners have been installed on either side of Columbia!  2 on the North side, 2 on the South.  This is where one line stops, and another begins.  These tensioners function by using a large, cylindrical weight hanging from a rope which is fixed to the larger diameter on that big pulley.  The smaller diameter has another rope wound around it - giving a huge mechanical advantage.  A little big of weight gets a lot of pulling force.  This is what keeps the overhead line tight.

   

   

   

   

   

[ijmorlan]

Waterloo has giant Danger/Don't cross here signs there but people just push past the fence anyway.  

If it is NOT truly a danger, then it's problematic because it leads to a culture of feeling that it is ok to just ignore signs and do whatever the hell you want. Then someone gets killed by a train or falls down a pit where there really IS a danger, and the project is delayed and opening will get pushed back (which will really annoy me.).

GrandLinq has many times in the past responded rapidly when an issue is brought to their attention.  They can't fix a problem if they don't know it's there!

I can see multiple perspectives on this.

On the one hand, I am sometimes amazed at how careless people are about signage and closures. I remember a photo you posted of people jogging across the tracks in the park right next to machinery rolling back and forth on the tracks, contrary to signage and probably fencing as well.

On the other hand, there are so many pointless or unnecessary closures, that it’s hard to blame people for not obeying all the signs. I can think of several closures of paths that have extended for months with absolutely no hazard in the closed area. I don’t mean areas where it’s closed for a week but no work happens on, say, Wednesday. I mean that there is a period of several months during which a closure is completely unneeded. I immediately think of the path beside the tracks between University and Seagram, and the track crossing to Father David Bauer just south of the Laurel Creek bridge.

There certainly were times when those areas needed to be closed (including when you took your photo), but only a small fraction of the time during which they actually were closed.

I think that people who encounter a sign should default to respecting it, only violating it after careful examination of the area, on the assumption that there could be hidden hazards. It is possible for an apparently useless closure to actually be legitimate. And those in charge of construction projects should do a much better job of minimizing closures to only the times that they are actually needed, especially for non-vehicular route users who are still second-class citizens compared to the drivers (can anybody name a pointless road closure that has gone on for months?).

[ijmorlan]

And thanks for the great new photos. From the bus driving past I saw that the catpoles weren’t just poles any more but I couldn’t get a good view. These new photos show a lot of detail of what is going on.

[kps]

On the other hand, there are so many pointless or unnecessary closures [...]

There's been no work at Waterloo St for at least 3 months… other than repairing the fence.

[KevinL]

OCS (catenary) tensioners have been installed on either side of Columbia!  2 on the North side, 2 on the South.  This is where one line stops, and another begins.  These tensioners function by using a large, cylindrical weight hanging from a rope which is fixed to the larger diameter on that big pulley.  The smaller diameter has another rope wound around it - giving a huge mechanical advantage.  A little big of weight gets a lot of pulling force.  This is what keeps the overhead line tight.

Nice to see a preformed cylindrical mass here. Many such weights in Europe are simply stacks of bricks lashed together!

[ijmorlan]

On the other hand, there are so many pointless or unnecessary closures [...]

There's been no work at Waterloo St for at least 3 months… other than repairing the fence.

I haven’t seen it myself, but that certainly sounds like an unnecessary closure. I understand there is some regrading of the rail corridor, which might be a possible reason why Waterloo needs to be closed, but given the extensive closures of King and Duke, significant effort should have been put in to keep Waterloo open to pedestrian traffic.

I think there is a tendency to kneejerk: either any complaint about closures is just a version of NIMBY — any excuse to complain about the LRT project; or any closure is just part of Ken Seiling’s master plan to force everybody to ride the white elephant LRT by snarling traffic. Real life, of course, is more complicated than either of these options.

[taylortbb]

The Waterloo St closure is intended to be permanent, that's why it hasn't re-opened. Construction of the transit hub will go right across Waterloo St, and at that time a pedestrian/cyclist underpass or bridge is supposed to be constructed (likely leading into the transit hub concourse). So yes the work at Waterloo St is done, but it's not going to re-open.

[GtwoK]

There was the rendering from a while back. Everyone claimed it wasn't what it would look like, but turns out, it does :p. I'm on mobile, otherwise I'd find it.

If there IS an entire team dedicated to this, think of how fast King St will be finished once they complete the stairs and the team can move on to that!

Edit: oops, this was in response to the last post on the previous page. Didn't notice the new page!

[Pheidippides]

Yes, Waterloo street was closed permanently to vehicular traffic when the parcel of land it occupies was transferred from the city of Kitchener to the region in June of 2015 to form part of the larger transit hub parcel. The fencing to keep pedestrians and cyclists from crossing is some sort of transport Canada requirement related to the king underpass I think. "Waterloo street" will only ever "reopen" when the hub is developed and only then to pedestrians and cyclists.