ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[chutten]

IIRC, the numbers cited on rideion.ca show an evolution over the 200 iXpress, not a revolution... Here we go:

What will rapid transit travel times be?

Approximately 39 minutes from Conestoga Mall to Fairview Park Mall for light rail transit and approximately 33 minutes from Fairview Park mall to Ainslie Street terminal with adapted bus rapid transit.

Current construction-addled runtimes for 200 from Conestoga Mall to Fairview Park Mall are in the 54min range. I forget what the pre-construction times were.

So, it's 15 minutes better. (Contrast to driving which takes 14min (!) via the parkway.)

But not many travel the entire length of the system, so those stop-to-stop timings are more important than an overal speed improvement.

[Canard]

Haha, cute: facebook reminded me that 1 year ago today, August 21, was the groundbreaking ceremony!

[zanate]

IIRC, the numbers cited on rideion.ca show an evolution over the 200 iXpress, not a revolution... Here we go:

What will rapid transit travel times be?

Approximately 39 minutes from Conestoga Mall to Fairview Park Mall for light rail transit and approximately 33 minutes from Fairview Park mall to Ainslie Street terminal with adapted bus rapid transit.

Current construction-addled runtimes for 200 from Conestoga Mall to Fairview Park Mall are in the 54min range. I forget what the pre-construction times were.

So, it's 15 minutes better. (Contrast to driving which takes 14min (!) via the parkway.)

But not many travel the entire length of the system, so those stop-to-stop timings are more important than an overal speed improvement.

Agreed, it's an evolution and the entire trip length isn't so helpful anyway. BTW, if you look closely at the schedule snippet I posted, it shows mostly 46 minute times. The 39 minute time was before the addition of a couple of stops.

My observation was that the rush hour preconstruction times were approaching 1 hour for CM to FPM. The degradation of performance was mostly in the section I was talking about, the CM to Uptown area. Having to weave through Ring Road must cost a couple of minutes. Detouring out along University to King, and then crawling down King through Uptown also adds time especially when traffic is heavy. And when ridership is heavy, it feels like you can get a 1 minute or more dwell time at the UW and Laurier stops.

Because of this, I'm expecting most of the high-50's to mid-40's time savings on ION's route, particularly during rush hour, to come between CM and Uptown. There's not as much opportunity for time savings (that I can see) along the rest of the line.

Thoughts?

[Viewfromthe42]

The near-universal dwell time at Charles, with non-terminal split stops in Downtown, will be reduced, but partly gobbled up by increased stops relative to iXpress.

The biggest gains would come from an approach of using the signal timing to keep consistent and ideally uninterrupted ION timing, rather than the "we'll help it along if it's way behind schedule" approach we're currently seeing being bandied about.

[GtwoK]

Walked along the route from the Huron Spur to King / Victoria yesterday. Took some photos and made a few obvservations;

It appears that the original plan for NB left-turn / straight and right-turn lanes on Borden at Courtland were scrapped? Here's the plans and the final intersection.




There's only one lane both directions here. This poor corner house's lawn was decimated though
It also occurred to me that they will most likely have to complete the Mill / Ottawa road crossings before laying the track fro Borden. There seems to be a significant grade difference between the CN tracks / Borden atm—the tracks are up on a ridge. Wondering how/when they will fix that.

The remainder of Borden is still in serious disrepair, nothing really has changed here. Anyone know when they plan to work on this further / what still needs to be done?



The Huron Spur doesn't look like it's been touched. Saw the bridge for the first time though, and it's quite impressive. I just noticed that the bridge they've built is actually for the CN tracks, and once those are moved they will construct a SECOND bridge for the Ion tracks — is there a time frame for that? I suppose they'll need to complete all the grade work here first since the bridge is significantly higher than the grade right now. Not sure why they didn't just build it lower.

Charles at Borden / Stirling looking very gross, but you can tell how the road will be realigned at least now. Stirling has been destroyed and the turn segment finally removed. They were in the middle of building the Substation next to Grand River Rocks while I was walking there last night. I imagine more will be done here once that is finished.



(Side note: what the hell are these blocks they've built? The substation is on the opposite side, and I don't see these on the plans.)

Charles up til Benton is looking the same as it ever was, nothing to see here. The work on Eby has left a giant hole in the ground in the middle of this intersection though.

Charles Ontario is ripped apart. The Ion blog indicates this was supposed to be completely finished over a month ago. Wonder what could have caused such a delay. They retorn this up multiple times now, have they not?



Also, at the Manulife Building, this strange concrete form as been poured underground. No idea what that would be for.

[timio]

Curbs have been poured on Caroline between William and Allen. North of William through Willis Way looks like they are getting close to this stage as well.

[timio]

Also, at the Manulife Building, this strange concrete form as been poured underground. No idea what that would be for.

Likely duct banks.  There's a bunch of those running perpendicular across Caroline.  A bunch of PVC pipes encased in concrete.  Not neatly done, but still protected enough for these purposes.

[Pheidippides]

Curbs have been poured on Caroline between William and Allen.  North of William through Willis Way looks like they are getting close to this stage as well.

[Canard]

Great to see the curbing going in on Caroline!  Thanks for your photos too, GtwoK.  Really gives a good overview of where things are at.

Here are some shots from along the spur line in Waterloo from this morning.

   
Looking North from behind Albert McCormic Arena.

   
Looking South from behind Albert McCormic Arena.

   
Close up of a Pandrol E-Clip and how it affixes the tie to the rail.

   
Looking North from Quiet Place.

[Canard]

   
The tracks on the spur now end at the Bearanger Road crossing.

   
Some of the work on Caroline.

[rangersfan]

It's amazing to see all of the progress that is being made.

[tomh009]

Those tracks on Bearinger look much more straight now!

[Canard]

Just a coincidence; they haven't yet been tamped/aligned.

[KevinL]

Benton and Charles is thoroughly closed.





With Ontario still torn up and Water also shut, this leaves only Gaukel and Queen as viable crossing points for much of downtown.

[GtwoK]

Unless things have changed, gaukel isn't even a crossing point atm. There's no access to Charles from the Joseph St side of gaukel.

Side note: I know they're adding another track to Park and moving the existing one slightly; are they building concrete road crossings here like they are for Ion? What's with the crossings anyway (ie, why are they necessary / why aren't they upgrading all rail crossings in the region to use them / etc)