ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Pheidippides]

[ijmorlan]

If there is any consolation about the Frederick St platform problem it is that regional staff will be one of the groups most inconvenienced by it when getting to work (assuming they take Ion from the south).

Regional staff won’t be inconvenienced — they’ll just ignore and walk past the signs like everybody else!

[Spokes]

That's what I'm thinking too

[KevinT]

Out of curiosity, can anyone who knows more about trains than I tell me why it was necessary to bend the LRT tracks away from the freight alignment, towards the buildings right in front of Coras before the merge back together?  It seems like it achieves nothing, it uses more space, but also decreases the radii of the track curve.

Part of it was likely wanting to use a standard switch as others have stated, but also that they'd want ION trains to get the straight path through it to minimize wear, since there will be far more ION transits through it than freight. It also increases passenger comfort not to be banging through the curved to straight transition part of the switch at speed. This is unavoidable at the end crossovers, but the speeds are lower there due to proximity to the platforms. Here the LRV is already a significant distance from the platform and accelerating into Waterloo Park.

[Spokes]

Final two Ion trains on their way to region

The final two Ion trains were loaded on trains Wednesday morning at Bombardier's Kingston plant for delivery to Waterloo Region.

Bombardier says the vehicles are expected to arrive in the region next week.

The manufacturer also said it's confident that the specialized on-board equipment will be installed in all 14 vehicles by the end of the year, as promised.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/905...to-region/

[chutten]

Earlier this week I happened upon an LRV returning up King St making the left into Waterloo Public Square Stn. As it passed I noticed that the interior had been festively decorated: decals on the windows, garlands on the overhead handrails... It was nice to see, but a bit bittersweet that they'd all be removed before service begins next year.

I presume it's decorated for the scheduled public viewings.

[danbrotherston]

Earlier this week I happened upon an LRV returning up King St making the left into Waterloo Public Square Stn. As it passed I noticed that the interior had been festively decorated: decals on the windows, garlands on the overhead handrails... It was nice to see, but a bit bittersweet that they'd all be removed before service begins next year.

I presume it's decorated for the scheduled public viewings.

Yes, the LRT that was used for the public viewings last weekend was decorated.

[Viewfromthe42]

I believe it's also parked near City Hall for Christkindl next week?

[KevinL]

Got to see signal priority in action, firsthand - I was on a bus coming up Charles Street into downtown, and 507 came up next to us as we approached Benton. My bus had a red and the Ion had a horizontal bar so we stopped right next to each other - but our light stayed red while they got a vertical bar and moved through.

[Canard]

[danbrotherston]

[KevinT]

As for operators getting spooked, these are transit stations, operators had better get used to seeing people there.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's certain equipment validation tests that require them to do things they would never do in normal operation. Maybe there's tests coming up that require them to blow through stations at speed without stopping, and having pedestrians milling about would force them to abort those tests and re-run them, delaying completion. I see comments and questions on Facebook all the time where people equate what they see now to how things will be when the system is up and running, but one does not equate with the other. They bend airplane wings until they snap during testing to find out what the limits are, even though they will never hit a quarter of those load forces in revenue flight.

[tomh009]

It's kind of a shame how clear they were given that our sidewalks are a disaster...ironic even, I'm not sure they can stop maintaining them though, they're required to by contract, unless they have an agreement with the city to decrease costs.

Not a disaster in DTK, though, thanks to the BIA.

[danbrotherston]

It's kind of a shame how clear they were given that our sidewalks are a disaster...ironic even, I'm not sure they can stop maintaining them though, they're required to by contract, unless they have an agreement with the city to decrease costs.

Not a disaster in DTK, though, thanks to the BIA.

Yes!  Absolutely.  City clearing downtown is quite good.

[danbrotherston]

As for operators getting spooked, these are transit stations, operators had better get used to seeing people there.

I wouldn't be surprised if there's certain equipment validation tests that require them to do things they would never do in normal operation.  Maybe there's tests coming up that require them to blow through stations at speed without stopping, and having pedestrians milling about would force them to abort those tests and re-run them, delaying completion.  I see comments and questions on Facebook all the time where people equate what they see now to how things will be when the system is up and running, but one does not equate with the other.  They bend airplane wings until they snap during testing to find out what the limits are, even though they will never hit a quarter of those load forces in revenue flight.

If that's the case then they would need to clear the platform specifically to achieve that.  Putting up a sign is clearly not sufficient.