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ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit
(09-03-2016, 11:01 PM)Markster Wrote:
(09-03-2016, 09:50 PM)JoeKW Wrote: You forgot about the approval process  Undecided

Spend day flying drone around
Download video
Send video to GrandLinq
GrandLink sends video to their video team
Video team cuts video
Video team sends finished video to GrandLinq
approvals
Video scheduled for posting
Video gets posted

Of course for true aficionados, we'd really like something closer to the raw footage, not the highly edited product that is actually released. I tend to find that just as I am orienting myself the shot changes to another view. And I frequently want to see everything, not just snapshots here and there. Nothing prevents uploading both of course because I certainly see the existence of a larger group of people who are more interested in a brief video.
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(09-03-2016, 08:53 PM)Pheidippides Wrote:
(09-02-2016, 02:02 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: "day" being the operative word there.  Even the family pointed out the most problematic part of this was that it was overnight.

The baseline service schedule shows trains from 5am to midnight, which young family or not, is a large portion of the 24-hour day with disruption. That's not including the overnight freight to and from Elmira.

The original functional design plans called for a noise barrier to be built between Quiet Pl and Bearinger based on noise studies that were done. The new plans also call for noise barriers to be constructed in the text, but not shown in the drawings.

OMG  YES!!, if ION actually starts at 620am on Sundays I am going to be super happy.  Currently I bike home from work on Sundays because it either that, or sit at work for an extra hour, walk 20 min to catch first 8 and get home a full TWO hours after my shift ended.
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The Baseline Service Plan schedule reminded me. They name the trains T-1, T-2 etc. which is likely just something temporary for their document. But what kind of numbering will our trains actually have? I realize this is maybe a little foamer to even wonder this. Smile But I'm mildly curious. I think our buses have 5-digit numbers, but there are lots of them. Is there any pattern or logic to the numbering of the buses? Like are the first three digits a contract number and the last two are the buses within that contract or something like that?

I just don't want to see "1", "2" etc on the side. We would look so Podunk for that. Unless it was gigantic and Helvetica and like was larger than the LRV itself...

Too much coffee - time for a ride along the line!
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(09-04-2016, 08:21 AM)Canard Wrote: The Baseline Service Plan schedule reminded me. They name the trains T-1, T-2 etc. which is likely just something temporary for their document. But what kind of numbering will our trains actually have? I realize this is maybe a little foamer to even wonder this. Smile But I'm mildly curious. I think our buses have 5-digit numbers, but there are lots of them. Is there any pattern or logic to the numbering of the buses? Like are the first three digits a contract number and the last two are the buses within that contract or something like that?

I just don't want to see "1", "2" etc on the side. We would look so Podunk for that. Unless it was gigantic and Helvetica and like was larger than the LRV itself...

Too much coffee - time for a ride along the line!

I think the T-1, T-2 etc. are trip or run numbers, similar to the flight number for an airline. Buses have them also, but they aren't the four- or five-digit numbers permanently painted on the buses, which identify the vehicle. I believe the four digit numbers in the windshield are the run number.

When we start running two-car trains, I would expect each two-car train that appears at a location on the line to have a single T- number and consist of two vehicles each with their own vehicle number. Furthermore, in the event a vehicle broke down, the T- numbers would not change but some T- number would actually consist of a different vehicle or vehicles than if the vehicle weren't out of service.

I do like the idea of the vehicle numbers being giant.
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(09-04-2016, 08:21 AM)Canard Wrote: I think our buses have 5-digit numbers, but there are lots of them. Is there any pattern or logic to the numbering of the buses? Like are the first three digits a contract number and the last two are the buses within that contract or something like that?

GRT bus numbers reflect the year and a sequential number.

Pre-2000 Kitchener Transit numbers were a two-digit year and a two-digit sequence (e.g. 9201 was the first bus of 1992).

From 2000-2007, year numbers were 2X (e.g. 2409 was the ninth bus of 2004).

This system conflicted with other Regional vehicle numbers in 2008, so bus numbers that year started with 80 (e.g. 8010).

After that, the year became a three-digit number starting with 2 (e.g. 21319 was the 19th bus of 2013).

Cambridge Transit buses used a different numbering system. They were retroactively numbered into something resembling GRT numbers. I don't know if any of them are still in service.

See here for more information about the fleet: https://cptdb.ca/wiki/index.php/Grand_River_Transit
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(09-04-2016, 10:53 AM)timc Wrote:
(09-04-2016, 08:21 AM)Canard Wrote: I think our buses have 5-digit numbers, but there are lots of them. Is there any pattern or logic to the numbering of the buses? Like are the first three digits a contract number and the last two are the buses within that contract or something like that?

GRT bus numbers reflect the year and a sequential number.

Pre-2000 Kitchener Transit numbers were a two-digit year and a two-digit sequence (e.g. 9201 was the first bus of 1992).
If I recall correctly (it's been a long time ...) in the 1970s and early 1980s the buses were numbered consecutively, with no year coding.  These were the "old-look" GM buses in green and pale yellow (I think), and the first of the "new-look" buses in silver and orange (were those the colours?).
But I can't find any references or photos online.
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...that is such a terrible numbering system. How not-forward-thinking can you get?! Part numbering systems are something I hold very close to my heart and now I wish I hadn't asked!
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(09-04-2016, 11:10 AM)tomh009 Wrote:
(09-04-2016, 10:53 AM)timc Wrote: GRT bus numbers reflect the year and a sequential number.

Pre-2000 Kitchener Transit numbers were a two-digit year and a two-digit sequence (e.g. 9201 was the first bus of 1992).
If I recall correctly (it's been a long time ...) in the 1970s and early 1980s the buses were numbered consecutively, with no year coding.  These were the "old-look" GM buses in green and pale yellow (I think), and the first of the "new-look" buses in silver and orange (were those the colours?).
But I can't find any references or photos online.

According to the Kitchener Transit wiki page, the year coding began in 1985.

You can also find some photos here. There weren't any Old Look buses made in the 1970s; the GM buses from that era were New Look. Kitchener Transit buses from the 1970s were silver, red/orange, and white. The silver colour was dropped in the 1980s. I think if you go back to the 1960s and early 1970s you will find a sort of aqua and white colour. Although I did find this beauty (bus #28?) which seems to be a special Centennial red-and-white edition.

Anyway, this probably belongs in the GRT discussion, not ION.

I wonder if the numbering of ION trains will somehow be similar to GRT buses, or use a different system completely. Based on the way that buses have been identified, I don't think that you will find letters as part of the code, unless the data is going to be tracked in a separate system.
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Given that GrandLinq will be maintaining the vehicles in a system separate from GRT, I don't imagine there's any need to coordinate number systems unless the Region insists on it.
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(09-04-2016, 11:56 AM)Canard Wrote: ...that is such a terrible numbering system. How not-forward-thinking can you get?! Part numbering systems are something I hold very close to my heart and now I wish I hadn't asked!

One word: Y2K.
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(09-04-2016, 12:35 PM)timc Wrote: You can also find some photos here. There weren't any Old Look buses made in the 1970s; the GM buses from that era were New Look. Kitchener Transit buses from the 1970s were silver, red/orange, and white. The silver colour was dropped in the 1980s. I think if you go back to the 1960s and early 1970s you will find a sort of aqua and white colour. Although I did find this beauty (bus #28?) which seems to be a special Centennial red-and-white edition.

Thanks for the link!  Looks like I was wrong with the pale yellow, it was white and (blueish) green.  Those buses were indeed built in the 1960s or earlier, but Kitchener Transit was still using them (in their original colours) in the late 1970s.

Now back to the regularly-scheduled ION discussion! Big Grin
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(09-04-2016, 02:20 PM)tomh009 Wrote: Now back to the regularly-scheduled ION discussion! Big Grin

Sounds like a plan!  I have ::gulp:: over 200 photos from today to sort through...  Blush
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1/6 - Sunday, August 4, 2016

   
Trackwork along Duke.

   
Victoria/Charles.

   
Queen platform gets ready for another pour.

   
Anchor bolts.

   
Looking down Charles, from Cedar
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2/6 - Sunday, August 4, 2016

   
Looking up Charles.

   
Very disappointed to see this newly-laid sod completely torn up.

   
This is a bit like putting carpet in the house that is under construction when the landscapers still have their muddy workbooks on.

   
Borden station area.

   
An almost-fully paved Ottawa.
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3/6 - Sunday, August 4, 2016

   
Looking down the Huron Spur, from Ottawa/Mill.

   
Still no sign of trackwork at the bottom end of Borden.

   
Façade work along King at Union, in front of Sun Life Financial.

   
Very happy to see the streetlights integrated into the catenary poles, here - hopefully those wooden ones will come down afterward!

   
Aha!  The first of our little trackside lubricator pumps has shown up.  I wondered when we'd get to see these.
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