ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Pheidippides]

Wooden poles on east side of King between William and Willis have been removed. Sidewalk still needs to be fixed.

Additional noise exemption asked for from February 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017:
"Work for 2017 mostly consists of deficiency work, surface asphalt placement and works on the LRT system, including but not limited to overhead and underground wire, the LRT stop works and finalizing LRT track."
http://www.kitchener.ca/en/Calendar/Down...b6d3dab94b

[Canard]

I put together a little "Welcome home" video for our first LRV. Enjoy!

[Canard]

Fantastic piece here in Exchange Magazine (page 8-12) with an interview with Tom Galloway about the successes we've already seen with Light Rail!

http://www.exchangemagazine.com/currenti...l34No4.pdf

[Canard]

1/1 - Saturday, February 25, 2017

   
Our first Bombardier FLEXITY Freedom LRV spends the weekend at the OMSF.

   
Sometime on Monday, it'll be rolled down the ramp, and tugged into the main hall.

[KevinL]

I noticed new illuminated "No Right Turn/Train" signs are up on Hayward, at Graybar's two entrance/exit crossings. Probably the only example of a private company getting this kind of thing along the line?

They're also in for the parking lot of Full Circle foods (on Charles below Queen).



Charles itself also has a couple for the entry.

[Pheidippides]

I've been trying to follow along with the Bombardier/Metrolinx feud(s) and I suspect that as with most PR battles the truth lies somewhere between the two narratives, but I still have some lingering concerns about our trains though. Perhaps Canard or someone can explain?

If this is the first production vehicle of the North American version of the Flexity why are we in such a hurry to take it? What if through testing LRV #1 they discover flaws that they need to change in vehicles 2 through 13? Won't they already be past the point of production in other LRV's and require more extensive fixes? Wouldn't it be better in the long term to spend some time getting all the bugs out before starting mass production? Maybe this has already been done?

The best analogy I can come up with would be, how many people would feel comfortable buying and taking home a concept vehicle from the auto-show floor before it has had extensive testing and reviews and goes into large scale production on the assembly line?

Even with these concerns though I am still excited to see it here in town; it makes the whole project seem more real than ever (even if still a year out from revenue service!).

Thanks to all, especially Canard, for all the tracking updates!

[Canard]

FLEXITY Freedom, while a completely new product for North America, is a variant of the already successful top-of-the-line FLEXITY 2 operating in Europe and Australia (G:link).  I'm all but certain that the North American team started off with the CAD from FLEXITY 2 as a baseline and modified whatever they needed to modify to satisfy North American regulations.  I know the cab frame, at the very least, is significantly beefed up from the European version.  I can't imagine what kind of catastrophic flaws might be uncovered that would require it to go back to Bombardier for repair (beyond frame issues - more on that below).  The bogies, I believe, are actually from Europe - they're probably the most complicated single-component on the train.  Bombardier has a factory that actually does nothing but bogies for all their products!

There have been horror stories in the industry with major problems being uncovered well into deliveries.  Most recently, Honolulu's Hitachi trains for their fully-automated light metro are in real trouble - they've uncovered a problem deep within the floor frame that requires something like 20 of their already-built trains to be completely stripped apart to access them to replace the faulty extruded-aluminium beams.  Absolutely catastrophic.  I think it was somewhere in Finland (going off memory) where another LRV vendor had to take back a huge number of their fleet due to frame cracking - track geometry was putting undue torque on the frames and cracking them apart - again, all internal stuff, where you have to strip it down to the frame to get at/replace bits.  Not good!

Toronto's FLEXITY Outlook LRV's are structurally similar enough to ours, and they've got a couple of years under their belts on a very poorly designed (geometry-wise) network that was never anticipated to be used with fixed-bogie LRV's.  They haven't yet had any issues with frame torque, so I think we'll be okay.

Maybe a closer analogy might be taking home the first production vehicle off the line of a car developed off of a concept vehicle.  Somebody's got to be first.  They might find a way after vehicle 4 to re-route a wiring harness that makes it a little easier to put together, but it doesn't affect the car already built.  In 5 years when they need to access it, they'll just re-route it at that time, for the future.  That kind of thing.  You're right that our vehicles haven't gone through the dynamic (speed) testing that they should have - and that will be done by Bombardier on-site on our own test track.

I've been dragging my heels on writing up an article about fixed-bogie LRV's and the pros and cons to them - and the solutions a system like ours is forced to implement to mitigate the cons.  With it snowing today and being so cold, maybe I won't go for a bike ride and I'll do that instead.  

[kps]

I think it was somewhere in Finland (going off memory) where another LRV vendor had to take back a huge number of their fleet due to frame cracking - track geometry was putting undue torque on the frames and cracking them apart - again, all internal stuff, where you have to strip it down to the frame to get at/replace bits.  Not good!

Siemens Combino in a dozen cities.

[tomh009]

I think it was somewhere in Finland (going off memory) where another LRV vendor had to take back a huge number of their fleet due to frame cracking - track geometry was putting undue torque on the frames and cracking them apart - again, all internal stuff, where you have to strip it down to the frame to get at/replace bits.

Bombardier (!) Variotram/Variobahn.  Admittedly the system was designed and the first units delivered before BBD purchased ABB/Adtranz.  40 cars still in use today in Helsinki.

[Canard]

For those who couldn't make it out today, our first LRV was unloaded off of the flatbed rail car!

At about 9:30am, the team finished up their safety briefing, and headed out to the yard.  The ramp was rolled up to it via the TrackMobile, and lashed in place.  The TrackMobile, using a flatcar as a spacer, then coupled to the LRV using a custom-made Scharfenberg adapter.  After it was slowly extracted from the flatbed, it was towed a small distance away.  After a lot of shuffling and re-organizing (the two flatbed rail cars were taken back to the siding just North of Northfield, presumably for GEXR to pick up at their leisure), and lunch , the team came back out and used the TrackMobile to take the LRV and ramp (all in one shot) back into the yard/OMSF.

They had an absolutely beautiful day for it. Was wonderful meeting and chatting with the folks who stopped by.

Video for now, photos to come later.  I'll try to limit it to a select few.



For fun, if you want to compare our process to that of others, here are a couple of other nice "extraction" videos:

• Blackpool - Bombardier FLEXITY 2
  
• Den Haag - Siemens Avenio
  

[tomh009]

Thanks for the great video, Iain!

[Pheidippides]

Some more details about some of the deficiencies work:
http://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/newsli...#othernews

Short-term road closures begin March 6 in UpTown Waterloo
February 27, 2017

Waterloo Region – GrandLinq has advised the Region of Waterloo that they require three, short-term road closures in UpTown Waterloo to complete finishing work related to their underground utility construction as well as to make minor repairs that were identified through the quality assurance program.
These short-term road closures are scheduled to begin on or about March 6 and will take approximately three weeks to complete. The closures will be done in three, back-to-back phases. Each phase requires a full road closure and will take approximately three to five days to complete. Crews will move onto the next phase as soon as the previous one is finished.
The first phase will begin on or about March 6 and take place on King, between Erb and William. The work requires a full closure of the area, including the King/Willis Way intersection. Both the King/Erb and King/William intersections will remain open during this time.

Once phase one is complete, crews will move onto the second phase: King, between William and Allen. This work, which could start as early as March 9, will require a full closure of the King/William intersection and will restrict southbound traffic onto King, from Willis Way, to local traffic only. The King/Allen intersection will remain open during this time.
The third and final phase, which could start as early as March 13, will take place on King, between William and John. It includes a full closure of the King/Allen intersection, and will restrict southbound traffic onto King, from William, to local traffic only. The King/William intersection will remain open during this time.

Construction will generally take place between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., Monday to Saturday. Detours will be in place and access to businesses, for both customers and deliveries, will be maintained along with pedestrian movements. The timing of all work is subject to weather conditions and construction constraints. 
For the latest construction information, visit www.rideION.ca or contact the toll-free GrandLinq hotline at 1-844-625-1010.

-30-

For more information, please contact:
Avril Fisken, Manager, GrandLinq Communications and Community Relations, 519-546-8454 or avril.fisken@aecom.com
Kimberly Newhouse, ION Manager of Community Relations, 519-575-4757 ext. 3461 or knewhouse@regionofwaterloo.ca

[Viewfromthe42]

I am curious how the deficiencies repair aligns with timelines and closures for final asphalt layers, since I don't think anywhere with new curbs actually has the asphalt up to even with the bottom surface of the curb.

[KevinL]

The official Facebook has shared a photo of LRV1 in the OMSF.

[trainspotter139]

I am curious how the deficiencies repair aligns with timelines and closures for final asphalt layers, since I don't think anywhere with new curbs actually has the asphalt up to even with the bottom surface of the curb.

Final asphalt laying will occur sometime closer to the end of construction and will most likely occur at night so as to not require closure of the roads during business hours.