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ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit
#16
(10-02-2014, 10:20 AM)kwliving Wrote: Is it to late to change the rail cars to these cool ones? 

Russia's new tram is a Batmobile on the outside, tech hub on the inside

I'll check if it's to late with Mr. Aissa and Mr. MacDonald.  Big Grin

That's amazing!  Get it here now!
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#17
(10-02-2014, 10:20 AM)kwliving Wrote: Is it to late to change the rail cars to these cool ones? 

Russia's new tram is a Batmobile on the outside, tech hub on the inside

I'll check if it's to late with Mr. Aissa and Mr. MacDonald.  Big Grin

Wow! *blinks* 
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#18
Not sure if it's still the case during the day, but the signage in the area that indicated that Caroline was closed from William to Allen should have said, "Caroline closed from Alexandra to Allen" to reflect the big hole in the Caroline/William intersection. How have/were the buses that turn on the Erb/King/William/Caroline block rerouted?
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#19
Where do you think the first new RAILS and TIES will be placed for the LRT?  Maintenance building, CN rail line Waterloo, Caroline, Borden, or else where?
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#20
(10-07-2014, 01:15 PM)HAL8950 Wrote: Where do you think the first new RAILS and TIES will be placed for the LRT?  Maintenance building, CN rail line Waterloo, Caroline, Borden, or else where?

Hard to say.  There is an incredible amount of ground work to do before the tracks can be laid down.  They have been compacting and recompacting the land for the maintenance building for a couple of weeks now.  They have also been testing the soil at the Maintenance site to make sure that it is not contaminated.  Between the existing soil that was there and the fill that was brought in, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few surprises there.

Technically, the first (though not new) tracks will be along the CN spur as any tracks temporarily moved for underground work have to be put back in place immediately to keep the GEXR happy. 

My bet is that tracks will not be laid until next spring.
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#21
I found this neat map showing the estimated start dates for ION construction. Can be found on page 22 of this document: http://rapidtransit.regionofwaterloo.ca/...NStory.pdf

[Image: Capture_zpscdaeef90.png]
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#22
Very exciting!
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#23
(10-07-2014, 01:15 PM)HAL8950 Wrote: Where do you think the first new RAILS and TIES will be placed for the LRT?  Maintenance building, CN rail line Waterloo, Caroline, Borden, or else where?

Of course, if the rails are down too early before service starts, you run a different kind of risk.

I'm not saying anyone should do this. So don't do it. You hear me? Don't.

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#24
There will be a few nice sloping sections of Ion that nobody would ever use like that.....
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#25
I'm anxious to see any updates on the King/Victoria station. Next year is gonna be crazy with the grade separation though, what a change that'll be.
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#26
(10-10-2014, 04:34 PM)clasher Wrote: I'm anxious to see any updates on the King/Victoria station. Next year is gonna be crazy with the grade separation though, what a change that'll be.

Is the plan to start it in the spring?
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#27
LRT cancellation costs becoming more clear
October 10, 2014 | Paige Desmond | Waterloo Region Record | Link

Quote:WATERLOO REGION — Nearly half the $250 million expected to be spent on light rail by year's end wouldn't be included in cancellation costs owed to construction consortium GrandLinq if a new council cancelled the project.

About $86 million for items, including land purchases, early works and infrastructure and consulting costs, is not part of a project agreement with the consortium.

"All these other costs, in my view at least, are legitimately LRT, basically throwaway costs if the project were to be cancelled, which doesn't look like it's a likelihood," said Coun. Tom Galloway.

An additional $27 million has been spent on Bombardier light rail vehicles as of Aug. 31, also not part of the contract, which would bring the estimate of money owing to GrandLinq for work completed down to about $137 million.

About $818 million has been budgeted for light rail construction. With design, finance, operations and maintenance tied in for 30 years, the total project is estimated to cost at least $1.9 billion.

There are provisions built into a massive project agreement between the region and GrandLinq that detail how costs would be settled if the region cancelled the project or if either party defaulted. There are no set values but rather rules guiding how the process would play out.

According to the project agreement, if the region chose to cancel light rail, the main cost would be a termination sum calculated based on several factors.

It would include subcontractor losses, reasonable costs to GrandLinq to wind up its operations and employee termination payments. There could also be legal and financial consulting costs to the region if the two sides disagreed on the final sum.

The region is entitled to terminate the contract for any reason at any time with 180 days' notice to GrandLinq.

Some candidates in the Oct. 27 municipal election suggest scrapping light rail in favour of buses.

The provincial and federal governments could take away their funding and may not be willing to instead put it toward an expanded bus system, Galloway said, though that isn't certain.

"There would be a fairly large likelihood they would do their bit on the funding, but I'm not sure that can be taken as a given," he said.

The province has committed up to $300 million to help build the project and the federal government committed up to $265 million.

Regional staff said at a committee meeting in September that if that happened, buses would likely run the same route planned for light rail from Conestoga Mall in Waterloo to Fairview Park mall in Kitchener.
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#28
At this point, I couldn't see the project being canceled... It would be such a waste of money and doesn't make any sense. I'm pretty sure 6 of the candidates are still anti-LRT so even if all of them got elected there still wouldn't be enough votes to stop it. And besides that Jay guy and Dave McDonald, I don't think anyone would be stupid enough to go ahead with canceling it once elected.
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#29
(10-11-2014, 05:50 PM)Waterlooer Wrote: At this point, I couldn't see the project being canceled... It would be such a waste of money and doesn't make any sense. I'm pretty sure 6 of the candidates are still anti-LRT so even if all of them got elected there still wouldn't be enough votes to stop it. And besides that Jay guy and Dave McDonald, I don't think anyone would be stupid enough to go ahead with canceling it once elected.

And yet, it would be very damaging to elect leaders on an ineffective platform of doing just that. They would make for terrible leadership, on LRT and every other issue (about which they apparently know nothing).
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#30
From listening to the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce videos, I have confirmed that no candidate for Cambridge Regional Council likes LRT. So that is two seats likely to cancel if the opportunity comes up. If Doug Craig gets re-elected (which seems likely?) that makes three.

I think it is likely that Telegdi and Wettlaufer both get regional council seats. Because of the way the block voting system works, this is not guaranteed, but these two have name recognition and lots of support in the community. So that is five votes against that are fairly likely, and several of them are good candidates.

I feel there is a good chance Aissa wins his race. If Macdonald also wins his race (which seems less likely to me, but who knows?) then we are up to seven votes against.

If things really go south then we get one of Oberholtzer or (maybe? I can't tell his position for certain) Korschewitz for the other Waterloo regional council seat. I think this is unlikely, but let's play along. If that was to happen then we would have eight votes against.

The question mark for me is the townships. Certainly I do not like the idea of the townships holding the balance of power in this debate. Even with six or seven votes against the situation looks bad.

I agree with Waterlooer that some of the candidates above might change their tunes once they see the numbers and costs of cancellation, so the situation might not be totally grim even if we get my worst case scenario. But it will be dicey.

The statement that jumped out at me from the Record article is that the region is allowed to cancel the contract after giving 180 days notice. That gives a lot of ammunition to those claiming LRT is a done deal that is irreversible.
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