ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[DHLawrence]

Can they reroute it to Bramalea station instead?

[Section ThirtyOne]

Unbelievably, they voted 6-5 against. So it will still be built, but it will only run from Port Credit GO up to Steeles, missing the connection at the Brampton GO station by about 3 kilometres, and the money (~400 Million) goes back to the province. Nice job, Brampton. What a useless endeavour. This CBC article sums it up pretty well:

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/toron...-1.3291894

This reminds me of the Buffalo LRT which was condemned to fail from the get go by virtue of being left a couple of kilometers short of its natural destination, namely the University at Buffalo.

You can conveniently hop in downtown Buffalo on the LRT and take a ride to nowhere you'd like to go.

p.s. Since the money is being returned to the province perhaps someone can suggest to Premier Wynne that certain LRT is ready to go to phase II.

My wife and I use the Buffalo LRT after hockey games to get from First Niagara Centre to the lot where our car is parked. So not completely useless.

[KevinL]

p.s. Since the money is being returned to the province perhaps someone can suggest to Premier Wynne that certain LRT is ready to go to phase II.

Metrolinx has two infrastructure funding pools, one for the GTA and another for beyond it. Brampton is in the former while we are in the latter.

[Canard]

Anyone been by Benton/Charles today? Hopefully all that hard work doing the temporary precision alignment of the track hasn't been washed away with the torrential downpour.

[DKsan]

Can they reroute it to Bramalea station instead?

There's a long term Big Move Steeles line between Halton and Toronto/York. It's likely to be be BRT because of length and that most of that area is not slated to be intensified since it's mostly healthy industrial land in Halton/Peel/West Toronto.

Also, you'd need to do the entire TPAP process all over again for Main to Bramalea.

[DHLawrence]

Public meetings for Cambridge LRT coming in November!

LRT to Cambridge? Public meetings planned for extension south from Kitchener

egion of Waterloo staff have been toiling away on an environmental assessment study to complete the light rail route from Kitchener to Cambridge.

In November, two public consultation meetings are planned to get feedback on proposed route options and initial plans.

Coun. Tom Galloway, who chairs the rapid transit committee, said the region wants to complete the study in case new provincial and federal funding becomes available.

"We're fulfilling that commitment to try to advance and get things in order," Galloway said. "If another infrastructure (fund) comes along from the federal government, provincial government, maybe we'll be in a place to take advantage of it."

A business case will be completed once the design and alignment are finalized....

[Mayor] Craig is hoping the route will be altered from Cambridge to Kitchener that was contemplated in 2011 and currently hosts express buses.

He said putting trains on the section of the route travelling down Water Street, past Galt Collegiate Institute and under the bridge, will cause traffic management problems.

"There's some concerns there," he said. "I think we have to look at a new route and the public consultation may help map that out in a better way."

[tomh009]

Anyone been by Benton/Charles today?  Hopefully all that hard work doing the temporary precision alignment of the track hasn't been washed away with the torrential downpour.

It looks fine.  Rebar being welded today.

[Canard]

Great shots, thanks Tom! Those metal plates on the sides are the concrete forms.

[Markster]

Public meetings for Cambridge LRT coming in November!

LRT to Cambridge? Public meetings planned for extension south from Kitchener

[Mayor]  Craig is hoping the route will be altered from Cambridge to Kitchener that was contemplated in 2011 and currently hosts express buses.

He said putting trains on the section of the route travelling down Water Street, past Galt Collegiate Institute and under the bridge, will cause traffic management problems.

"There's some concerns there," he said. "I think we have to look at a new route and the public consultation may help map that out in a better way."

Wait a second.
Where the heck is Craig suggesting the LRT run instead? There are no obvious alternate routes down there. I imagine his concern is to maintain 4 general purpose traffic lanes through there.

[gomesjustin]

Craig is out to lunch. Has been for years. I am hoping this is his last term. Also hoping we don't make the same mistake Brampton just historically made.

[Canard]

LOL, can you imagine. It stops at the Delta or something. Amazeballs. I wouldn't put it past him.

I personally have always thought a route through downtown Preston and then continuing along Coronation with a stop at the hospital would connect more people and be a better route - if only because it "feels" more like the kind of route to me that Light Rail is suited for. 24 just seems like a mistake to me.

[DHLawrence]

LRT through the Delta is going to be a big adjustment for drivers. They could follow the heavy rail corridor to Samuelson (and dare I hope a new GO station one day?), but then they'd have to run down the former Grand River Railway right of way to get to Ainslie. Moving or altering the path that's taken its place is going to be a hard sell.

[belmont]

One concrete form looks ready to pour at Charles+Benton, plus bonus shots of more rebar and Charles street:

[jamincan]

Does anyone have any idea when the first street running section will be open to traffic, and which section that will be?

[GtwoK]

Heh, Belmont, you posted the exact pictures I took earlier and was just about to post!

You can see from the last one though what I was referring to a day or two ago — The one side of Charles is dug down to a much lower grade. Almost 4 feet, I'd say! Still wondering what the reason for this is.

Does anyone have any idea when the first street running section will be open to traffic, and which section that will be?

It should be the intersection at Benton Charles, which was scheduled to open next week, but will most likely be the week after. I suppose from the way you've worded it that the track on Borden so far doesn't count.