ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[insider]

I was just up at the OMSF and I guess they heard me - half the mobile offices are gone from the front part off The Dutton loop, and the yard has been cleared. They moved a bunch of lengths of rail into the middle. Phew!

Also, the Seagram/Laurier park stop is now revealed:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Seagram/Laurier platform revealed at <a href="https://twitter.com/WaterlooPrk">@WaterlooPrk</a> for <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a>! <a href="https://twitter.com/WRConnected">@WRConnected</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/TramWorld">@TramWorld</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/kwawesome?src=hash">#kwawesome</a> <a href="https://t.co/MwM6R3Lak8">pic.twitter.com/MwM6R3Lak8</a></p>&mdash; Iain (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/712766847804907520">March 23, 2016</a></blockquote>

That seems like a very high platform... and also a huge gap from platform to tracks. Thoughts?

[Canard]

The gap looks okay (our trains are chubby!), but I had the very same thought about the platform relative to rail height. The Northbound platform (on the other side) to the rail base is even higher, but there's no track or ballast there so it looks really high.

If I get adventurous on the weekend, I'll bring my tape measure and compare to R+T Park or the stop on Caroline. Worst case they have to re-tamp a bit of ballast under it, if it's a bit off.

[insider]

The gap looks okay (our trains are chubby!), but I had the very same thought about the platform relative to rail height.  The Northbound platform (on the other side) to the rail base is even higher, but there's no track or ballast there so it looks really high.

If I get adventurous on the weekend, I'll bring my tape measure and compare to R+T Park or the stop on Caroline.  Worst case they have to re-tamp a bit of ballast under it, if it's a bit off.

I'm sure it has been calculated properly, I never suggested it was off... it just visually seems that way. Also, I also meant higher relative to the surrounding park... I am assuming the platform is exactly at the street level of Seagram Dr.?

[Canard]

It's a little bit higher, with a ramp that gently slopes upward toward the platform level.  The rails are flush with the roadway of course, so whatever the step-in height of the train is above rail height (~300 mm?), that's how high the platform is.

I have a bit more information I can share about the trains:

• The first two FLEXITY Freedom trains are "Pilot Trains" that Bombardier is building for Metrolinx. Those two trains are in production, and will go to Millhaven (Kingston) for high-speed testing as I've mentioned before along the MOVIA test line on the North side of the site, where the Toronto Rocket (TR) trains were tested.
  
• FLEXITY Freedom train 3 is for Waterloo Region, and comes straight from Thunder Bay to Waterloo.
  
• When that happens, it'll run on the "test track" section of our line, from just South of Northfield, down to just North of the Erb/Caroline intersection. GrandLinq is on track to have this finished in June.
  
• Train 3 (our first) has a burn-in period where it will run for quite a while, back and forth, along the spur (!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
  
• Colours: Rendering is accurate, but the grey is a little lighter. Doors on the inside are the same blue as the outside, and seats are light blue with grey accents.
  
• Chime will be "TTC Chime" (3-tone) as Metrolinx wants a uniform, consistent look and feel to all trains on all projects going forward.
  
• Voice will be the same Text-to-Speech system on the FLEXITY Outlook LRV's (streetcars) that Toronto is taking delivery of right now. Voice may be slightly different but tech module is the same (Yay!).
  

[GtwoK]

I'm not as excited about the trains as you are Canard, but I'll be damned if I'm not eager to hear the station names read out by the TTS system.

[KevinL]

It's a little bit higher, with a ramp that gently slopes upward toward the platform level.  The rails are flush with the roadway of course, so whatever the step-in height of the train is above rail height (~300 mm?), that's how high the platform is.

I have a bit more information I can share about the trains:

• The first two FLEXITY Freedom trains are "Pilot Trains" that Bombardier is building for Metrolinx.  Those two trains are in production, and will go to Millhaven (Kingston) for high-speed testing as I've mentioned before along the MOVIA test line on the North side of the site, where the Toronto Rocket (TR) trains were tested.
  
• FLEXITY Freedom train 3 is for Waterloo Region, and comes straight from Thunder Bay to Waterloo.
  
• When that happens, it'll run on the "test track" section of our line, from just South of Northfield, down to just North of the Erb/Caroline intersection.  GrandLinq is on track to have this finished in June.
  
• Train 3 (our first) has a burn-in period where it will run for quite a while, back and forth, along the spur (!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
  
• Colours: Rendering is accurate, but the grey is a little lighter.  Doors on the inside are the same blue as the outside, and seats are light blue with grey accents.
  
• Chime will be "TTC Chime" (3-tone) as Metrolinx wants a uniform, consistent look and feel to all trains on all projects going forward.
  
• Voice will be the same Text-to-Speech system on the FLEXITY Outlook LRV's (streetcars) that Toronto is taking delivery of right now.  Voice may be slightly different but tech module is the same (Yay!).
  

What amazing news to take into a long weekend! Cheers.

[MidTowner]

[*]Chime will be "TTC Chime" (3-tone) as Metrolinx wants a uniform, consistent look and feel to all trains on all projects going forward.
[/list]

Why do we care what Metrolinx wants? This isn't their project, and we're out of their jurisdiction. But I find this curious that they would want a consistent look and feel- to what? All trains anywhere in Ontario?

Not that I dislike the TTC's chime, but it would have been nice to have come up with something unique to our system.

[Canard]

Yes - all of Ontario, or any projects that Metrolinx has any involvement in at all. Ours is a bit different, since the only portion of our project that Metrolinx is involved with at all is the vehicle procurement.

The way it was explained to me, is that since our order for 14 trains is procured by taking 14 trains from Metrolinx' original 182 train order with Bombardier, they still have a strong say in the look/feel/options and so on for the vehicles.

This is why our trains look just like Crosstown, with just a different colour stripe. Personally, I really like that, and am glad that they're thinking about things like this (branding/design/feel).

I'm 75% satisfied with having the TTC chime. I was dreading that it would be the default BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEP alarm that most of the other Flexity trams I've watched clips of on Youtube seem to have. First choice would have been a custom chime, for sure, but it was also explained to me that a custom chime brings a new problem: You have to involve the accessability/disability folks, because there are specific requirements on announcements and warnings and so on, so it would have been a much more drawn out project. That, coupled with Metrolinx looking over our shoulder, kind of made it a simple choice for them.

[KevinL]

Had a bit of a look along Charles this morning. First, now that the construction equipment is mostly gone, you can get a decent look along the completed ribbon that stretches from Ontario to Water.



Then, south of Benton, we can see the new tracks are going in well.




Though the rails don't yet reach Eby, that intersection has been closed. Rebar mats extend nearly to Cedar.

[Canard]

Thanks Kevin!

The weather forecast today keeps teasing that the sun is just an hour away from coming out - and it doesn't seem to be happening.  

Was up near Northfield today so popped by the OMSF and Conestoga platform.

   

   

   

   

   

[Canard]

   

   

   

   

[Canard]

A couple of repeat shots (sorry!) of Kevin's from this morning:

   

   

   

After seeing the positioning of this track lubricator/sensor, I'm convinced this is definitely a "whoops".

   

   

I'll be interested in seeing how they rectify this... either get out the die grinder and hack out a notch for the flange, or jackhammer out the concrete all around it and totally do-over. If you go look at the boxes a hundred metres South at Borden/Charles, it's immediately obvious that this one was placed incorrectly.

I'm sorry I questioned you, Kevin!

[jamincan]

I wonder how often mistakes like that happen in projects like this. The scrutiny grandlinq had on this forum seems almost unprecedented.

[Canard]

Oh no, sorry - I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining or criticizing! Mistakes happen all the time. I just enjoy technical details, that's all - I'm a mechanical designer. and our guys screw up stuff that I've designed like this all the time. They don't look closely enough at my (very detailed!) assembly drawings, make assumptions... and then when I come out to the shop and take a look at what they've done, I sheepishly have to point out that it's assembled incorrectly and they'll need to re-do it.

[tomh009]

Colours: Rendering is accurate, but the grey is a little lighter.  Doors on the inside are the same blue as the outside, and seats are light blue with grey accents.

OK, so where can I find this render?  I have been trying to catch up after two weeks of vacation, but I didn't spot this.