ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[JoeKW]

Not attacking but I'm wondering how this is different from living under a flight path and then complaining about aircraft noise?

[Canard]

Not at all different Joe - valid point totally and very much agreed.

The folks who live next to Canada's Wonderland kicked up a huge stink when they built Behemoth (and later, Leviathan) at the perimeter of the park. Yet they chose that location to live when they moved in!

I suppose the only thing you might argue is that back in 2008 (when occupancy took place), LRT wasn't really in anyone's radar at all.

[danbrotherston]

...

I suppose the only thing you might argue is that back in 2008 (when occupancy took place), LRT wasn't really in anyone's radar at all.

That is about the only reasonable argument.  Where it has been a long standing goal to increase use of the park.  That was a little used railway spur that up until recently had no plans for major expansion.

But I still don't buy it that much, or at least, I'd say that too much noise overnight might still be a reasonable complaint, but daytime noise, yeah, it's a transportation corridor, it was foreseeable it could be heavily used.

[ijmorlan]

Not at all different Joe - valid point totally and very much agreed.

The folks who live next to Canada's Wonderland kicked up a huge stink when they built Behemoth (and later, Leviathan) at the perimeter of the park.  Yet they chose that location to live when they moved in!

I suppose the only thing you might argue is that back in 2008 (when occupancy took place), LRT wasn't really in anyone's radar at all.

Although as far as I know, the "lights and bells" locations are all on existing railway lines. So if one were to assume that an existing rail line would slowly fade towards abandonment, that would be a bet which one might win or lose, and in either case one has no grounds to complain about the outcome.

Way back when the first tourist train started up between Waterloo and St. Jacobs I remember people complaining. I remember thinking that unless they had been living in their house since 1880 they really don't have much cause for complaint. Although to be fair I think some of them had concerns about the station layout and so on, not just the presence of the train itself.

I hadn't heard of the Canada's Wonderland situation. That's kind of funny.

[Canard]

It is. It's the same up around Pearson - if you drive through any of the housing developments that are spawning up around there, they have absolutely massive signs with a huge WARNING printed on them and an airplane symbol, warning future home-buyers of the noise and that "it's your fault if you move here".

[Viewfromthe42]

It's an argument I hate hearing come up, because it's how our communities are largely speaking. In a region of almost 600,000, so many people still feel they're part of communities of under 100K (Waterloo folks often ignore students, which would perhaps just get you under that bar). This leads to the arguments about Catalina being the appropriate scale of "urban" development. You live in a core area, expect that the densest, noisiest, widest-array of development is coming to be your neighbour.

[tomh009]

I put weather stripping around my door, but I'm also at the end of a hall. If my neighbour slams his kitchen cupboards closed with force, I hear them. Even a friend in Arrow lofts recently agreed to a condo offer to better soundproof walls (though they only did some, which seems doubly wasteful to me).

We live at Arrow, and we're very pleased with the low noise levels -- it's quieter than our house in the townships was!  The only thing I have done is weatherstrip the front door frame, and I did that mainly to cut off the light leakage around the door, not for the noise.  I have no recent data point from any other condo building, though.

[Canard]

Be careful with the weatherstripping thing - it's actually illegal and the Fire Marshal can fine you.

[KevinL]

I see from some Twitter posts that the Wilson Avenue track has been put in - embedded! I was expecting plates on sleepers, here.

[isUsername]

I see from some Twitter posts that the Wilson Avenue track has been put in - embedded! I was expecting plates on sleepers, here.

Could it be because it is a longer crossing length and no freight runs on it?

[Canard]

Yeah, this might be weird - it'll go from ballasted on the hydrocut, to embedded in the crossing, back to ballasted for the crossover...and then potentially back to embedded in the station platform area. That's weird!

[tomh009]

Be careful with the weatherstripping thing - it's actually illegal and the Fire Marshal can fine you.

Hmmm.  A web search found some similar statements but I couldn't actually find anything like that in the fire code.

[Canard]

IIRC we were sent notices (or maybe it was brought up every year at the condo meetings), but it was expressly prohibited as a huge safety hazard in the event of a fire, and that the Marshal could come in at any time and fine people if they caught them with anything sealing the doors. I was so torn about what to do because the gap under our door was huge (like 1 cm) and the noise was unbearable. In the end, we moved out.

At any rate, hugely off topic - but I am curious what sorts of discussions are happening internally at the building these days!

Big-time discussions on facebook about what some people seem to think is parking on Caroline, between Allen and William, on the West (track) side of the road... just putting it out there: it's not! I don't know why anyone would think it was.

[Canard]

GrandLinq, GRT, bus driver named in $2-million lawsuit

[KevinL]

GrandLinq, GRT, bus driver named in $2-million lawsuit

The alleged incident happened in May? And this did not catch the attention of our fine local media at the time? Hmm, legitimacy is somewhat in question here.