ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[creative]

Sorry if I missed this somewhere along the line "pun intended". Does GrandLink's contract allow them to build, run and maintain phase 2? Won't this need to be put out for tender?

[KevinL]

Sorry if I missed this somewhere along the line "pun intended". Does GrandLink's contract allow them to build, run and maintain phase 2? Won't this need to be put out for tender?

It would be tendered separately, but GrandLinq would have a natural advantage in the bids.

[KevinL]

Once it hits Toronto (maybe later today), it'll sit in the [absolutely massive] Agincourt yard for a while.

Just had a look at that - it is huge, but a big patch in the middle of it is empty! Curious.

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.8041942,-...a=!3m1!1e3

[Canard]

Gah, things are changing fast. We are halfway to Aliston to try and catch it there, but just found out it was dropped off somewhere last night. So it won't be in Toronto today after all. More info shortly. "Dropped likely White River or Chapleau or Cartier or Sudbury"

[Spokes]

I guess the risk in having it all in one thread is that when some event occurs (train delivery, testing, system startup, system opening) we're going to have an absolute flood of information - and any single (but potentially important) post about Phase 2 is going to get lost in it. Now I'm on the fence.

Minor update: Train 1 should be into MacTier, ON for a crew change between 10am and 2pm today. That's between Barrie and Parry Sound. Getting pretty close now!

Once it hits Toronto (maybe later today), it'll sit in the [absolutely massive] Agincourt yard for a while.

That was my only fear.  This is already a HUGE thread as is.

[tomh009]

I think it's hard to use this thread (whether a single one or separate ones) for important news anyway. There will be a lot of activity in any case. And there will be overlap.

Or should we have threads for (1) Phase 1 construction, (2) Phase 2 construction, and (3) operation? I think one thread is better. Even if it's a busy one.

[Markster]

Together. We're part of the region too.

Um, I don’t have a strong opinion on whether to split or not, but by your argument everything on this site should be in one thread. We have individual threads for single building projects, some of them not even very big, so it’s not at all unreasonable to put Phase 2, a separate project, in a separate thread.

On the other hand I kind of like the idea that the main LRT thread would have by far more pages than any other topic on the site.

Yeah, I see it as an accessibility thing.  A 500 page megathread is difficult to follow. It's very opaque to outsiders.  Phase 1 and phase 2 are in very different stages right now, and so phase 2 stuff is getting buried instantly in photo updates of phase 1.  Phase 1 didn't have to compete with anything.

[MidTowner]

Won't "Ion Phase 1" discussion be included with Grand River Transit once it's actually operational? We only have one transit system.

In any case, though, Phase 1 and Phase 2 should be separated for Markster's reason above, that they are in completely different stages of implementation. The types of discussion during EA and route selection are very different than when the system is about to be commissioned.

[mgregorasz]

Gah, things are changing fast. We are halfway to Aliston to try and catch it there, but just found out it was dropped off somewhere last night. So it won't be in Toronto today after all. More info shortly. "Dropped likely White River or Chapleau or Cartier or Sudbury"

Latest update on the ION Tracker is it arrived in Sudbury this morning and will be leaving this evening. My guess is it's probably going out on 246 to be dropped off at Lambton Yard.

[Canard]

From what I'm gathering, it's actually coming up through Galt.  It'll be set off in the yard off of Courtland, then GEXR 518 will haul it up to the VIA station.  It'll sit there until the LRT team are ready for it, then go up the Waterloo Spur from there.

Seeing it snake all the way up through Cambridge is going to be something else!

   

[KevinL]

So it will pass Mill station (and near Block Line) on the way up! Amazing.

I guess the idea is to take the CPR as far as possible on the journey?

[Canard]

Yeah - one possibility is it may even have to go as far as London before coming back on a local switcher due to regulations preventing reversing into the Galt yard there. Insane!

The fact it'll likely be going through Cambridge, I think, is rather staggaring, given the seemingly far more direct route of the Kitchener GO line. But yeah, it's a CP thing...

...which makes me wonder if the remaining 13 LRV's from Millhaven will also all go up through Cambridge, too!

[dunkalunk]

Why would the train need to reverse through the CP yard? The CP junction in Galt is a full wye, they could easy take it as far as the CP/CN interchange yard at Block Line.

[Canard]

I was told it had to do with the signaling and operations, that since our LRV is at the end of the train (because it's "wide"), it would have to back in to the yard, in order to drop it off.

[ijmorlan]

From what I'm gathering, it's actually coming up through Galt.  It'll be set off in the yard off of Courtland, then GEXR 518 will haul it up to the VIA station.  It'll sit there until the LRT team are ready for it, then go up the Waterloo Spur from there.

Seeing it snake all the way up through Cambridge is going to be something else!

Cambridge is getting an LRT! Take that, nay-sayers!