ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[ijmorlan]

His point still stands and is interesting, though. If June 21, 2018 is the target date, vehicle testing on the last vehicle would have to start on January 1st. If August 22nd, 2018 is the target date, vehicle testing would have to start at the beginning of March 2018. How likely does any of that sound right now?

It’s still hard to say. If the LRVs that aren’t arriving yet are having minor adjustments and fixes done so that they are completely ready to drive when they get here, and if assembly of the remaining vehicles is continuing, conceivably we could suddenly have a vehicle arriving every week. I thought the last news was that everything up to vehicle 9 was in a reasonably advanced stage of assembly.

Then as to the testing, I’m not worried about the burn-in. 600km is something like 15 round trips, so running regular service for a week would be amply sufficient for burn-in. What is much less clear to me is how much other testing is required, especially on each car — things like safety systems and procedures that aren’t meant to be used regularly (indeed, like car airbags, we hope they end up being utterly useless). And of course if the burn-in uncovers sufficiently serious problems then we could be in a very bad shape indeed.

I assume and hope they don’t feel a need to do a pull-through test on each vehicle. If one vehicle can be successfully pulled-through and if the new vehicles fit through a loading gauge plate, then per-vehicle pull-throughs would be superfluous. In general, tests of “the system” shouldn’t need to be repeated 14 times. But other tests will need to be done on each vehicle.

[panamaniac]

His point still stands and is interesting, though. If June 21, 2018 is the target date, vehicle testing on the last vehicle would have to start on January 1st. If August 22nd, 2018 is the target date, vehicle testing would have to start at the beginning of March 2018. How likely does any of that sound right now?

Well, I'm sceptical that "Spring, 2018" will be met, I just wanted to point out that they seemed to have given themselves a bit of wiggle room on the launch timing.

[MidTowner]

That's true, the new launch estimate (not being much of an estimate at all) does offer plenty of wiggle room.

[urbd]

any of the spies in the forum should investigate the actual internal expected launch date... I'm sure there is one!

[tomh009]

Well, I'm sceptical that "Spring, 2018" will be met, I just wanted to point out that they seemed to have given themselves a bit of wiggle room on the launch timing.

Skepticism is OK, but none of us here know when the service will actually start.  Grandlinq and the region will have a plan (which they are not revealing at the moment) but they won't be able to foretell the future, either.

Fortunately we'll know much better roughly six months from now!

[Pheidippides]

any of the spies in the forum should investigate the actual internal expected launch date... I'm sure there is one!

Not that it matters now, but this Gantt chart from the GRT Proposed GRT Business Plan 2017- 2021 back in August showed Ion Revenue Service as of 02-Apr-2018 (ID #32 below) - which is a Monday. So with the slippage in schedule we know they are planning for after that for sure.

[Canard]

Revenue service on a Monday, but the opening ceremony will be on a Saturday or Sunday, likely with free rides all weekend.

[JCnb]

Flexy had it's nose poking out of the maintenance building a second ago with a crew walking around.... could today be the day??

[ijmorlan]

Flexy had it's nose poking out of the maintenance building a second ago with a crew walking around.... could today be the day??

         

[urbd]

yay! finally testing!

https://twitter.com/rideIONrt/status/927901380341243904

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">ION LRV testing has started on the <a href="https://twitter.com/RegionWaterloo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RegionWaterloo</a> tracks! Stay tuned for more photos. Please leave space for crews to work safely. <a href="https://t.co/flnfoUnufn">pic.twitter.com/flnfoUnufn</a></p>&mdash; ION (@rideIONrt) <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt/status/927901380341243904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2017</a></blockquote>

[Canard]

Wow, we even made Independent Rail Journal already!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Light rail vehicle testing begins on Waterloo's Ion LRT <a href="https://t.co/LTVc6bbP15">https://t.co/LTVc6bbP15</a> <a href="https://t.co/LWj7FONgoo">pic.twitter.com/LWj7FONgoo</a></p>&mdash; IRJ (@railjournal) <a href="https://twitter.com/railjournal/status/927927105089933313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 7, 2017</a></blockquote>

[Markster]

I suspect everyone who reads this forum is already there, but really, you all must go tot he "I Support Light Rail" facebook group. There are lots of photos and videos getting posted there.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/81680629050/

[chutten]

Thanks for the link, Markster. I don't do the faceboo thing, so it's a helpful reference for me.

In Bombardier news, well, not news, I ran across this slickly-produced video essay about Bombardier's C-series airplanes. It's a heckuva story.

[trainspotter139]

Tom Galloway has told 570News that powered testing may happen as early as next week!
http://www.570news.com/2017/11/07/ion-te...aterloo-2/

[KevinL]

Note that they were only testing the southbound track today - the train was not switched over when they got to Erb. They're checking how it works northbound on that track as well - presumably another day will see the other track checked.