ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Canard]

50 km of distance? Yay?

...or is that a misquote of km/h?

[Square]

50 km of distance? Yay?

...or is that a misquote of km/h?

Ya sorry, meant 50 km/h.  They were testing the braking at that speed, until someone stopped testing by trespassing right beside the train

[Square]

Whoo hoo, I heard on the radio the testing hit 50km just now!

was that today? there were no updates on the fb group

however... i heard testing would happen all of this week

I just heard it on the scanner about 4pm, don't know where, I think from Northfield to Conestoga?

[Canard]

What! That’s insane, I must have just missed it. From 3:30 on I biked from Waterloo Park to Conestoga, and didn’t see anything.

50 km/h is great, that’s a big jump from 15 km/h. What’s not so great is to hear that, yet again, people trespassing is causing problems.

Why is following the rules and the law so hard for some people? Honestly, it is quite frustrating.

[ijmorlan]

50 km of distance? Yay?

...or is that a misquote of km/h?

Ya sorry, meant 50 km/h.  They were testing the braking at that speed, until someone stopped testing by trespassing right beside the train

Do you happen to know where this was? I would have guessed they would do this on the main line near the OMSF. I’m always interested in why someone is near the tracks: is there a bona fide gap in the walking network that should be corrected, or are they just hanging out on the tracks, which they should know now have traffic on them (and if they don’t know for sure, assume traffic!), for fun, or is it something else?

Although what’s this “stopped testing” stuff? Unless they were showing signs of jumping in front of the train, in which case mental health assistance should be called, they should just call the cops and continue on. Do we stop bus service or close streets every time somebody crosses against a red pedestrian signal? Will one person be able to stop transit service by hanging out just inside the fence? It’s absurd.

[Pheidippides]

It is amazing what the media latches on to; it is so hit and miss.

112 days or 78 work days until the end of "late spring" with jackhammers up and down the line, fresh concrete pouring, testing moving at a glacial pace, trains being held in Kingston, and yet the region is sticking to its story.

I wonder how much the provincial government is pressuring them to keep committed to the late spring narrative to avoid any provincial bad press about infrastructure mismanagement (however unwarranted in this case) in the lead up to the June 7 election.

I also wonder if the last minute rescheduling of the GRT PCCs had to do with last minute re-jigging of routes and implementation timelines due to the Ion delays.

[Square]

Sorry, I did not hear where the testing was exactly. 504 radioed to control that a trespasser was on the tracks, then control asked if the train was stopped, the operator said it was. Then I heard that the supervisor on the train did talk to the trespasser.

[KevinT]

Any chance you can plug that scanner into a sound card and shoutcast it for all to enjoy?

[Pheidippides]

Random question, do LRVs have to stop for school busses when the bus' red lights are flashing, or stop to give priority to emergency vehicles (ambulance/fire/police) - obviously they can't pull over to the right)?

I know that on a road WITHOUT a median drivers and streetcar operators in both directions must stop and on a road WITH a median only drivers or streetcar operators from the opposite direction is not required to stop, but what about vehicles (LRVs) IN the median or next to a road?

[urbd]

I heard from a little birdie that the 'official' ION service start date will be announced in March... as official as it can be at least.

[bpoland]

They were doing signal testing at Erb/Caroline this morning around 8:50. Lights flashing, arms going up and down but not in sync with each other.

[Canard]

[KevinT]

Due to some unfortunate mechanical troubles with my bike, I didn't make it out to the line until about 1:15 today.  I encountered a Keolis crew at the R&T Park stop, who helpfully informed me that they were doing brake tests again today and that the best place to watch them from was either the Weber St overpass or Old Albert pedestrian crossing.  I split the difference and went to the park off Glenelm Cres, where I caught 503 as it proceeded through the crossover to the OMSF to bed down for the night.  (This "testing wraps at 2:00 p.m." policy is wearing thin on me!)

I'm pretty sure it was doing more than the 15 km/h test limit they've been travelling at so far:



(Sorry for the shaky video, I was playing with a new DSLR which clearly needs a tripod to do videos while zoomed.     )

[KevinL]

(Why the heck was Andrea there, though?!)

She does aspire to be Premier - a firsthand knowledge of the province's transit infrastructure is key for that.

[Canard]

Oh, yeah... election. Right.

Awesome catch on the high(er) speed testing, KevinT!