ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Canard]

https://www.gregmcdonnell.com/trainspott...o-waterloo

[trainspotter139]

https://www.gregmcdonnell.com/trainspott...o-waterloo

How ironic that 21 years after the CP tracks were removed from Caroline Street, new tracks for ION were installed.

[ijmorlan]

https://www.gregmcdonnell.com/trainspott...o-waterloo

How ironic that 21 years after the CP tracks were removed from Caroline Street, new tracks for ION were installed.

And south of William, they are on almost the exact alignment. North of William I believe CP ran closer to the middle/east side of the street.

Also, the last CP artifact was not removed until ION construction. There was a signal box on a railway pole (not an electricity pole or streetlight pole) on the east side of Caroline just north of William which remained until they dug up the street to built the LRT.

[DHLawrence]

Any pictures? I never noticed it.

[ijmorlan]

Any pictures? I never noticed it.

I probably have pictures somewhere but I found it in old Google Streetview:

https://goo.gl/maps/4bE46c1g6XJ2

You can also see trees, some of which did not need to be removed for the LRT construction.

[Bob_McBob]

Finally an original complaint.

https://www.reddit.com/r/waterloo/commen...17_really/

I walked past the LRT station at Grand River Hospital a couple of days ago. What caught my attention is that all the lighting behind signage panels appears to be fluorescent. Even worse the lighting behind the Grand River Hospital panel was flashing intermittently as if the brand new bulb is about to die. I hope this isn't an omen of lighting reliability going forward.

I'm astonished that in 201x, let alone 2017, the station designers would have opted for fluorescent technology when LEDs are so much better in every way, brighter, longer lasting, less expensive to power, easier to maintain, etc. The LCD flat panel industry (e.g. computer screens, TVs) switched from fluorescent to LED backlighting something like a decade ago. Why would anyone put in new fluorescent lighting today?
Could there be a rational explanation for this decision or does it seem that the LRT designers didn't get the memo on LEDs?

[timio]

I've seen Laurier-Waterloo Park and Central Station flickering like that as well. I'm guessing it's an electronics issue rather than florescent light issue.

[dunkalunk]

Saw central doing the same a few nights ago, on both platforms. They may be testing something. Almost looked like a stress test to check for faults in the lighting by turning them off and on again.

[Canard]

I like that theory!

Yes, it's certainly controls related, though. It's not a random flickering from a failure. The frequency of the cycling is constant.

[Bob_McBob]

Now that I think about it, the Waterloo Park station had a flickering light for a while earlier this year.

[Canard]

Remember those little L-shaped temporary railings they had put up at a number of stations earlier this summer? Some of them are now replaced with the final product. They look good! Northfield, R+T Park, and Willis Way have them. Others may too; those are the ones I remember noticing in the last little while.

Final bits of track at Conestoga are now embedded, ready for buffer installation:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a> When will the buffers be installed? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> <a href="https://t.co/6vpRN5kcXG">pic.twitter.com/6vpRN5kcXG</a></p>&mdash; Iain Hendry (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/912067051451232257">September 24, 2017</a></blockquote>

I'm guessing this will happen soon, with testing beginning all the way up here in the next couple of weeks.

No sign of art installation at any of the stations yet, either. The project team had alluded that all 7 were going to be installed by this fall. I'm now quite doubtful of that, as Ken Hall's Network, for example, is this massive structure... and the birds at Fairway also are going to require a lot of work, I would think!

Scaffolding is back up at Weber - looks like they pull it down Monday-Thursday, and then it goes back up over the weekend, when the freight train isn't running.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Scaffolding is now back up again at the Weber St. Bridge. It looks like they are putting it up and down as train traffic requires. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> <a href="https://t.co/jndNcbQk64">pic.twitter.com/jndNcbQk64</a></p>&mdash; Iain Hendry (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/912061404341051392">September 24, 2017</a></blockquote>

[Canard]

With "Fall 2017" now upon us, and no art installation work, I queried the Project Team about the scheduling of installation of the major pieces along the line. They've quietly revised the installation to "all installed prior to launch in 2018". Meaning: There's been a delay.

Very unfortunate - I know it doesn't mean anything other than not getting to see them a little sooner, but I was really, really, really eager to see them installed.

[nms]

There was also street running on Victoria Street in Kitchener.  Phil Elsworthy has a photo of the tracks in his book "Evolving Urban Landscapes".  This is a great book if you want to see how Waterloo Region evolved over the past 40 years or so.  I had a chance to buy a copy recently and I definitely had a few "So that's what used to be there" moments.  I also got to play the game of thinking what the City of Waterloo would have been like if some of the downtown industrial architecture had survived long enough to receive the same attention that the Breithaupt Block or the Tannery received.

[Markster]

I wonder if the Region and Grandlinq have a deal going on.
The Region doesn't press GrandLinq to work overtime and finish construction, and in return the Region doesn't have to start paying 100% operations yet.

[kps]

There was also street running on Victoria Street in Kitchener.

… turning down Joseph to the GRR freight yard along Linden, which must have been a tight turn.

Also Charles.