ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[ijmorlan]

Having a privilege is not evil nor elitist.

[....]

Thanks, that was a great expansion/explanation of what I was trying to say. There is actually an interesting discussion to be had — my words are not inerrant, and don’t say even a small fraction of what could be said — but it can’t be had if people jump on a participant for pointing out the fact that car ownership is an element of privilege.

[tomh009]

Having a privilege is not evil nor elitist.

Owning a car is a privilege, but it doesn't make you bad or good, it's what you choose to do with that privilege that matters.  If you refuse to acknowledge it as an advantage, and act as though others who don't have that advantage don't exist, or are bad because of their actions that result from not having a car, that's not a good thing.
(…)
When people get all defensive about their privileges being pointed out, it's an indicator that they feel guilty about them, which just isn't right...I feel no guilt about the many privileges I enjoy being a straight white male in North America, but it does open my eyes to the fact that other's don't have those advantages, and that I should seek to enable others who lack them to succeed as I am able to, partly through my own abilities, but also through the advantages I was born with.

I'm somewhat uncomfortable about all the "privilege" discussion recently. Apparently I have the privilege of being a male (although not everyone would view that as a privilege). I have the privilege of owning a car, although I don't use it often. I have the privilege of a home. I have the privilege of undivorced parents I have the privilege of a bicycle. I have the privilege of a paid non-minimum wage job. I have the privilege of eyeglasses. I have the privilege of government-paid health care (although my taxes certainly do contribute to that). I have the privilege of speaking fluent English (though not the privilege of speaking it as a first language). I have the privilege of literacy. I have the privilege of having been born in a first-world country. I have the privilege of living near an LRT stop. I have the privilege of a mobile phone. I have the privilege of being able to vote at free elections. And so on ...

What's my point with this list? Basically anything good that someone else does not have can be a "privilege". But that word has a an overloaded meaning, and often people imply that you should be sorry for your privilege and/or compensate in some way for having it. 

Of course this is now way off topic for the LRT thread, and I regret having taken away everyone's privilege of focusing on LRT discussions in this thread.

[Canard]

Any testing today?

[timio]

I was hoping for testing today as I was working in a good vantage point along Charles, but alas, I was left disappointed.

[trainspotter139]

I was hoping for testing today as I was working in a good vantage point along Charles, but alas, I was left disappointed.

They've been testing on the spur lately

[KevinL]

Charles was busy today with other maintenance - lots of work vehicles in the ROW.

[trainspotter139]

They're busy commissioning the track lubricators I think.

[KevinT]

504 was out this morning, I had to wait for the gates at Northfield as it headed across the overpass and turned onto the spur. Chatter around 9:30 am was that it had just completed a dynamic brake test, but then I had to dial into a work meeting and didn't get a chance to listen for the rest of the day. It looked like they were doing lubricator work at the Conestoga S curve this morning too.

[Canard]

A behind-the-scenes look at "Spinal Column", to be installed near the Grand River Hospital station.

[Rainrider22]

A behind-the-scenes look at "Spinal Column", to be installed near the Grand River Hospital station.

That is a very col video, thank you for sharing.

[panamaniac]

Very cool. I think Two Smiths are also responsible for the Don Quijote statues in the garden at Hacienda Sarria - it's worth a visit if you've not seen them.

Ottawa installed one of the artworks for it's new LRT this past week (a stainless steel representation of an eel at Pimisi station - they are spending something like $7.3million for 13 works of art, compared to the $835G that the Region is spending on the 7 Ion works.

[Canard]

Back and forth between the OMSF and Colby Drive today with 507. Lots of different operators on the radio today in the cab - while it sounds like they're doing signal timing, I suspect they've also got a few new trainees at the helm.

[JCnb]

Saw 507 + Friend get put away yesterday evening coupled together, have they been seen in the wild in this configuration yet?

[Canard]

Great spotting! There are plans in the near future to have four LRV’s (two trains of two) going at full acceleration in opposite directions on the Fairway Hydro Corridor to tax the TPSS’ to their limits.

[Viewfromthe42]

Hopefully fully sandbagged, AC or heater on max (depending on draw), wipers and defrosters going, grab every last ounce of load demand for the TPSS.