ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Canard]

Why the LRT testing start date is a mystery - CTV Kitchener

It seems my frustration is well known.

[drum118]

Next round of public consultations scheduled for Stage 2 ION
Posted on Friday November 03, 2017

Waterloo Region – The Region of Waterloo is continuing public consultation on Stage 2 ION, light rail transit (LRT) from Kitchener to Cambridge.

At the last round of Public Consultation Centres (PCCs), a preliminary preferred route was presented for public feedback. During and after the last PCC, the Region received many comments from the public, including a number of suggested alternative routes. The Region will be further considering localized route alternatives and refinements to the preliminary preferred route.

Two upcoming PCCs offer an opportunity for residents to provide feedback on refinement options to the preliminary preferred route:

Tuesday, November 21: 2 - 8 p.m., Cambridge City Hall – Bowman Room, 50 Dickson Street, Cambridge

Tuesday, November 28: 4 - 8 p.m., Preston Memorial Auditorium, 1458 Hamilton Street, Cambridge

Following this PCC, the project team will review all feedback received and any new information will be considered. Using input from the technical team, stakeholders and the public, the project team will evaluate the additional route alternatives and a preferred route will then be identified. The project team anticipates presenting the findings of this evaluation at the next round of public consultation in spring 2018.

ION bus rapid transit (BRT) service began in September 2015 and is the first step to providing LRT in Cambridge. Stage 2 ION will see the ION BRT service between Kitchener and Cambridge converted to LRT, creating a continuous LRT network across the region’s three urban centres.


For more information on Stage 2 ION, visit www.stage2ION.ca, or please contact:


Matthew O’Neil, Acting Project Manager, Rapid Transit, 519-575-4400 ext. 3462 or via email MONeil@regionofwaterloo.ca

[Canard]

Welcome back to our forum, Drum - we actually have a Phase 2 thread here, where this information is posted.

[Canard]

D’AMATO: The seven things you most want to know about light rail - The Record

[KevinL]

Not much there we didn't already know, I think.

[Pheidippides]

Region plans to test LRT but won't say when - CBC Kitchener

I wonder if the media are actually so stupid they don't realize it's their own damn fault.

Could someone explain this statement to me? I have obviously missed something along the way.

[Canard]

Not much there we didn't already know, I think.

That's true; but I thought it might be of interest.

Could someone explain this statement to me? I have obviously missed something along the way.

1. Rapid Transit team said "We're going to do a pull-through test on Thursday"

2. Thursday arrives, nothing happens

3. Media crucifies LRT

4. Politicians decide "That's it, we're not telling anything to anyone anymore"

[ijmorlan]

Not much there we didn't already know, I think.

That's true; but I thought it might be of interest.

Could someone explain this statement to me? I have obviously missed something along the way.

1. Rapid Transit team said "We're going to do a pull-through test on Thursday"

2. Thursday arrives, nothing happens

3. Media crucifies LRT

4. Politicians decide "That's it, we're not telling anything to anyone anymore"

They took the wrong lesson. Instead of “never say anything”, it should have been “say more”.

I think the problem is that they were never really forthcoming. Without digging through history, I’ll just take the above events as an example. When did they find out they weren’t going to do a pull-through test on Thursday? If they had said so at the time and explained briefly why, people wouldn’t have been surprised. Even now, I don’t think anybody expects the LRT team to know exactly when the testing will actually start — it would be fine for them to say, “right now we’re thinking Monday, but we need to … … … first so we’ll see.”

Part of the issue might be that they’re used to doing official news releases. But actually right now, nobody has an actual requirement to know what is going on — the only thing we actually need to know is when service will start, and that it has started. Everything else is internal to the LRT team and doesn’t affect the rest of us, except that crossing arms and LRT road signals will start being activated at some point. But we do have legitimate curiosity that for some people goes well beyond what is directly visible. So I think they should have (and should have had all along) an official blogger who would post a brief daily post on what is happening, with occasional longer articles going more in-depth on various aspects of the work that is going on. It would be a great educational resource, would pre-emptively answer most of the questions that we’ve had, and would show a commitment to transparency that we haven’t had with this project.

To summarize, the project should act more like a normal person and less like an official organization whose primary goal is to avoid embarrassment. This means sometimes issuing tentative information and being unafraid to modify it as things change.

I understand why some government organizations don’t do this: there may be security or negotiating implications from releasing excess information (in addition to the bogus embarrassment issue). But short of leaking an access token to one or more of the LRT systems, there is no significant security implication to any release of information about the LRT system, and there is no negotiation happening right now that could be negatively affected by being more open about their internal discussions about construction and operation.

[Pheidippides]

1. Rapid Transit team said "We're going to do a pull-through test on Thursday"

2. Thursday arrives, nothing happens

3. Media crucifies LRT

4. Politicians decide "That's it, we're not telling anything to anyone anymore"

Ok, thanks for explaining.

I guess I missed that media coverage. The coverage I saw (CBC, The Record, 570, CTV) was pretty fair (I think the Record article misspoke about construction delays) and along the lines of, "Bombardier forces LRT project to miss another deadline due to missing paperwork."

The media reporting actual facts does not constitute  a crucifixion.

But yes, the take away lesson of, "less information is better" was the incorrect conclusion to draw from the situation.

[Canard]

Their wording was all dramatic and over-the-top.

“ANOTHER delay from Bombardier.”

“YET ANOTHER delay to the ill-fated LRT.”

“AND THE FIRST ONE DOESNT EVEN WORK!!!!!

I literally can’t roll my eyes in my head far enough.

[SammyOES]

Are those not true? (I guess aside from "ill-fated")

[Canard]

Sure, absolutely. The project is a total disaster.

Lazy Saturday twitter photo update:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">People have already made a mess of the weeks-old concrete at R&amp;T Park. (Cc: <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@rideIONrt</a>) <a href="https://t.co/FV3x8QkVKo">pic.twitter.com/FV3x8QkVKo</a></p>&mdash; ? Iain Hendry ? (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/926870777282138112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 4, 2017</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Can’t quite sort out what this is for - first thought was driver exchange platform, but no break in the fence (yet?). Any clues, <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@rideIONrt</a>? <a href="https://t.co/hKVr5le2dw">pic.twitter.com/hKVr5le2dw</a></p>&mdash; ? Iain Hendry ? (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/926871139519008768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 4, 2017</a></blockquote>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Forgot to mention, <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@rideIONrt</a> - several of the platform signs have broken off at Allen. <a href="https://t.co/MWM8zGNSIp">pic.twitter.com/MWM8zGNSIp</a></p>&mdash; ? Iain Hendry ? (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/926875652711768066?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 4, 2017</a></blockquote>

[Bob_McBob]

D’AMATO: The seven things you most want to know about light rail - The Record

I wish she had gone into more detail about why the ambulance question was asked in the first place. A paramedic in the Facebook group measured the ground clearance of his ambulance's exhaust at only 135mm, which would require careful maneuvering even to clear the curb in front of my house during non-snow months.

[jamincan]

I think part of the problem is that the LRT team doesn't really stay ahead of the message. It's nice for us to hear about testing happening and so on, but, as ijmorlan pointed out, if that changes, they have to control the message and say that it isn't and why. They can't just hope that the day will pass and people won't notice, and by being slow to respond, the media and the public is left to speculate why, which is usually far less favourable to them.

[ijmorlan]

I think part of the problem is that the LRT team doesn't really stay ahead of the message. It's nice for us to hear about testing happening and so on, but, as ijmorlan pointed out, if that changes, they have to control the message and say that it isn't and why. They can't just hope that the day will pass and people won't notice, and by being slow to respond, the media and the public is left to speculate why, which is usually far less favourable to them.

Exactly. They say nothing, and nothing, and nothing, then eventually advertise one item. Then it changes and they go back to saying nothing. Then the media adds their bit and you have the mess that we see now.