ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[ijmorlan]

CTV tells a different story, so now we have conflicting info:

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1156859

(CTV says all 14 trains here by the end of the year)

And they have Tom Galloway on camera saying that all 14 should be here this year, so it’s hard to see how CTV could be misunderstanding. I sure hope 570 just got confused somehow and he’s right!

[danbrotherston]

The record is also reporting that all vehicles will arrive by December.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/739...destrians/

Also, King St. is officially open to pedestrians. Ironically, this may add almost 1 km to my walk home, as I will now detour to see it .

[jeremyroman]

Yeah, it's open to pedestrians (down the middle of the road -- it doesn't look like the sidewalks are close to completion). Very surreal just how low King St is compared to where it used to be.

...and here's the southbound Central Station stop, complete with another backwards sign. (Well, it's right in some sense.)

   

[tomh009]

Hmmm, the image is not visible, at least not to me.

[Lens]

The Evolving City by Matt, on Flickr

Changes by Matt, on Flickr

[Canard]

Awesome photos as always, Matt!

How did we all miss this big meeting at Regional Council last night? 570 is playing clips of delegates which suggest it was announced publicly. Would have loved to attend.

[MidTowner]

People on foot are supposed to use the street? Really?

I've been waiting so long for King to reopen to foot traffic (because of where I live, and the Waterloo closure, my walk downtown is a fair bit longer right now), I was expecting some sort of ribbon-cutting when the sidewalk was accessible again. Of course, I should have known that the sidewalks would probably not be finished even when car traffic was allowed. It took weeks for the last pernicious gaps in the sidewalk elsewhere on King to be closed.

Bottom line, though: people on foot are legally allowed down King, and can safely do it? Even if they have to use the street?

[ijmorlan]

The record is also reporting that all vehicles will arrive by December.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/739...destrians/

Also, King St. is officially open to pedestrians.  Ironically, this may add almost 1 km to my walk home, as I will now detour to see it .

The Record story may be some indication of where the vehicle completion confusion comes from. It quotes Thomas Schmidt saying that “progress is being made” on vehicles 3-9, and that “the remaining vehicles” should arrive by the end of the year. The “remaining” vehicles could be all the remaining vehicles, or it could be, of the ones just discussed on which progress is being made, those that have not yet arrived. So based on this either 570 could be confused or Tom Galloway could be confused.

My inclination is that “remaining” means all the vehicles, including the ones whose construction has not yet started, meaning 570 is confused.

I was going to say “without a clear statement from Bombardier, we won’t know”, but in fact given the history we won’t know the situation until the vehicles are in service. Although if I start to see regular deliveries taking place I’ll start to become pretty optimistic that the project will actually complete.

[ijmorlan]

People on foot are supposed to use the street? Really?

I've been waiting so long for King to reopen to foot traffic (because of where I live, and the Waterloo closure, my walk downtown is a fair bit longer right now), I was expecting some sort of ribbon-cutting when the sidewalk was accessible again. Of course, I should have known that the sidewalks would probably not be finished even when car traffic was allowed. It took weeks for the last pernicious gaps in the sidewalk elsewhere on King to be closed.

Bottom line, though: people on foot are legally allowed down King, and can safely do it? Even if they have to use the street?

So it seems, although I haven’t seen a photo showing it clearly open. Based on my last visit there, when I walked through without passing any sort of barrier or sign, but concluded upon close inspection that it was most likely not meant to be open, opening it to pedestrian traffic was a simple matter of picking a lane and putting in a line of bollards. So I think the project team realized this and wisely decided to make official what everybody was already doing. Kudos for realizing that it is more important to open to pedestrians than to motor vehicles.

[danbrotherston]

People on foot are supposed to use the street? Really?

I've been waiting so long for King to reopen to foot traffic (because of where I live, and the Waterloo closure, my walk downtown is a fair bit longer right now), I was expecting some sort of ribbon-cutting when the sidewalk was accessible again. Of course, I should have known that the sidewalks would probably not be finished even when car traffic was allowed. It took weeks for the last pernicious gaps in the sidewalk elsewhere on King to be closed.

Bottom line, though: people on foot are legally allowed down King, and can safely do it? Even if they have to use the street?

So it seems, although I haven’t seen a photo showing it clearly open. Based on my last visit there, when I walked through without passing any sort of barrier or sign, but concluded upon close inspection that it was most likely not meant to be open, opening it to pedestrian traffic was a simple matter of picking a lane and putting in a line of bollards. So I think the project team realized this and wisely decided to make official what everybody was already doing. Kudos for realizing that it is more important to open to pedestrians than to motor vehicles.

This is my impression as well, although I will be walking past this morning so will provide an update.

[jamincan]

The Evolving City by Matt, on Flickr

Changes by Matt, on Flickr

It's sometimes easy to forget just how much has changed over the past few years. Once the transit centre is built, this corner will have quite the urban feel. I hope there will be some sort of cafe or restaurant patio overlooking King Street here to animate the space a bit more in the future. Once this is done, I guess the next major hole in the urban fabric on King Street would be the Sunlife and GRH parking lots?

[Canard]

Are we really complaining that there is a clear, marked path through here that happens to be on asphalt instead of the sidewalk?

Wow.

[MidTowner]

Who complained about that? ijmorlan actually gave "kudos."

[Canard]

You did.

People on foot are supposed to use the street? Really

Would you like some red carpet perhaps?

[MidTowner]

Don't be rude. That was a question. I haven't been there yet, and was asking if this was really the case.