ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[tomh009]

Happily there are no fences on Charles these days, making it easy to walk the track (and take photos)!

[tomh009]

Apparently Charles St will open to bi-directional traffic sometimes mid-August.

Now, that's Francis to Benton.  How about Benton to Ottawa?  Most of those intersections will be open this month, so will Charles be open for traffic as well?

[Canard]

It's open (mostly) Southbound already - certainly by bike. I ride that almost every day. It would stop for cars at Stirling.

[Viewfromthe42]

It still goes both ways, too. My girlfriend was out near a construction site walking home and got harassed by the construction workers there. We should all try to be better people.

[panamaniac]

It still goes both ways, too. My girlfriend was out near a construction site walking home and got harassed by the construction workers there. We should all try to be better people.

I was surprised to see that at Duke and Ontario today.   I thought those days were long past.

[clasher]

It still goes both ways, too. My girlfriend was out near a construction site walking home and got harassed by the construction workers there. We should all try to be better people.

I was surprised to see that at Duke and Ontario today.   I thought those days were long past.

Get the times and phone Grand Linq, those guys should get canned for that. I was working at a build at the University of Guelph and at safety orientation they would fire anyone reported of cat-calling or other b-s along those lines.

The lights at Charles and Queen are working now and cars could drive through though I didn't see anyone when I zipped by on my bike.

[tomh009]

Pretty light traffic so far, but then you can only take Queen as far as King. Then maybe College? Water? to get across to Weber? Or are all the intersections on Duke closed?

[KevinL]

I've been doing one of my favourite time-wasting activities, namely checking out other light rail systems in Street View, when I spotted something at a CTrain station in Calgary that seemed really cool - a food truck parked on its forecourt: https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.9976709,-...312!8i6656

I wonder what the potential for that will be once Ion opens?

[GtwoK]

Ontario is still open (for the next few days). Seems Young opened today too!



Sidewalks in on the corners here too



I guess this also answers the question of if the hydro poles along Charles will be coming down!

[Canard]

I wonder what the potential for that will be once Ion opens?

I hate to say it, but probably not much of a potential. None of the stops really have a courtyard like that - our stops are much, much smaller.

[Markster]

I wonder what the potential for that will be once Ion opens?

I hate to say it, but probably not much of a potential.  None of the stops really have a courtyard like that - our stops are much, much smaller.

We have a few that will be able to do something kinda like that:

• R&T Park, I believe is the one that most definitely has something that could be called a "forecourt".  It's a little recessed from the road, and there's a wide path planned to connect.
  
• Uptown Square certainly will have food trucks from time to time.
  
• Victoria Park station is right next to Charles St Terminal, which has a very spacious sidewalk; even more so after ION has been put in.
  
• Block Line might have something that could be like that, but I can't remember the station layout off the top of my head.
  

In any case, none of them will be exactly the same. We don't have many that will serve as bus hubs and park-and-rides.  Just the mall stations.  Though.... Fairview Mall station might be a good candidate too.

[JoeKW]

The restaurants would be upset if food trucks started parking in the mall lot outside... though I know that Cadillac Fairview has had food truck festivals in their parkings lots before.

[Canard]

Ottawa's first Alstom CITADIS Spirit LFLRV is ready to go:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="fr" dir="ltr">Our 1st LRT vehicle ready to hit the tracks for testing this fall! / 1er véhicule TLR prêt à s’enrailler cet automne <a href="https://t.co/SH18hM0EsQ">pic.twitter.com/SH18hM0EsQ</a></p>&mdash; Jim Watson (@JimWatsonOttawa) <a href="https://twitter.com/JimWatsonOttawa/status/751407746990366725">July 8, 2016</a></blockquote>

[GtwoK]

Noticed lots of that "black" concrete pouring going on downtown today, filling in what's left around some intersections.

Also noticed: a driver turning left from Water onto Charles (towards Victoria), despite the signs all saying "wrong way" and "do not enter". Of course, there was a line of multiple cars going the CORRECT way down this street, so the driver had no where to turn into (traffic cones blocked the "wrong" lane, specifically for this reason). Instead the driver chose to sit in / block the intersection until the cars impeding his way continued through, so that he would be able to continue on his wrong way journey.

Honking at him from all sides of the intersection ensued.

He still did it anyway.

[Canard]

Lots of work along Charles! Bit by bit, more concrete is showing up. The grounding wires have been encased in a couple of areas. Still just rails roughed in at Cameron Heights. Wonder what the deal is there.

Up at Columbia, the OCS is connected to the thick, high amperage supply wire now. The control box at R&T Park is getting wired as I type this.