ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[isUsername]

It seems like the proper solution would be to consider that section equivalent to street running, sign the hell out of it and acknowledge that the risk is quite manageable for a pedestrian path with the level of use the spur actually gets.

Two words: Transport Canada.

Street running heavy rail will never be a thing again, anywhere.

I can't believe this is still a thing in the U.S.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFk-yeGHn-o

[ijmorlan]

It seems like the proper solution would be to consider that section equivalent to street running, sign the hell out of it and acknowledge that the risk is quite manageable for a pedestrian path with the level of use the spur actually gets.

This would be my suggestion except that I don't think it will work for bikes, because riding along the tracks, even embedded in asphalt is really risky, especially in a confined corridor.  You could possibly split bikes from peds at the intersection further back, but there still must be accommodation for people on bikes who aren't comfortable riding on the road.

Also, there's railway rules and all that jazz, quite frankly, I'm already impressed they managed to get the spur line trail within the rules without a big fence.

Put the pedestrian path in the middle, between the rails and extending out to approximately the ends of the ties. Put bicycle lanes outside of that. Mark clearly. Done.

And/or use gap fillers to fill in the flange space.

This is a problem that can be solved technically fairly easily, with some creativity.

In the event bureaucrats (Transport Canada) get in the way, officially have the trail detour to the path immediately north of the parking garage from King to the laneway. In any case, install an excellent crossing of King St. right at the tracks.

Also, leave space in the design for the path to run immediately north of the tracks from King to Erb/Caroline. Oops, they screwed that up! Oh well.

If somebody had been really interested in excellent bicycle infrastructure, the tracks could have been shifted slightly south from King to the bridge crossing the creek. Then the path could have been on the north side of the tracks from Seagram all the way down to Breithaupt St., with no places where crossing the track was necessary (unless you count the squeeze between King and Regina).

One more comment: the Laurel Trail officially runs/ran next to the tracks between King and Regina. It was cleared of snow right up to and including last Winter and was shown as a trail on the City's map. I don’t see why the slight route adjustment being done now needs to interfere with the routing of the trail. I assume this was done in the 80s or early 90s and was apparently fine at the time so it should be allowed to continue, especially now that the spur line will be getting precisely no traffic at all except in the early morning hours. I find it hard to believe that even the paranoids at Transport Canada would have a problem with this.

[Canard]

This is a problem that can be solved technically fairly easily, with some creativity.

I don't think anyone doubts that.  From an infrastructure standpoint, it's dead easy.  The point I'm making is that what seems easy to us, isn't, because of all the red tape and rules and regulations on the "other side" that forbids things like this for reasons that are not apparent to us, as armchair civil engineers and city planners.

In the event bureaucrats (Transport Canada) get in the way, officially have the trail detour to the path immediately north of the parking garage from King to the laneway. In any case, install an excellent crossing of King St. right at the tracks.

I can't imagine that the Region would actually undertake any form of construction or upgrading of the path here to turn it into a "non-official trail" and somehow try to lie to Transport Canada that "No no, it's not really a trail!  Honest!".

One more comment: the Laurel Trail officially runs/ran next to the tracks between King and Regina. It was cleared of snow right up to and including last Winter and was shown as a trail on the City's map. I don’t see why the slight route adjustment being done now needs to interfere with the routing of the trail. I assume this was done in the 80s or early 90s and was apparently fine at the time so it should be allowed to continue, especially now that the spur line will be getting precisely no traffic at all except in the early morning hours. I find it hard to believe that even the paranoids at Transport Canada would have a problem with this.

That's really interesting that it was officially through that gap until recently.  I think that's pretty telling of what's happened here - that this path flew under TC's radar for many years, and only with the Rapid Transit project coming along bringing it to light.

With regard to the second bolded statement - I absolutely do believe that they will have a problem with it.  My guess (since we're all only guessing, right now) is that the rules and laws probably work in such a way that "if you touch it, it's now going to have to follow the new rules".  "If you leave it alone, it can stay as it was, grandfathered in."  Because there was work on the tracks around there, it's possible that TC rained down on them and said "This whole trail situation can't happen anymore."

Think of it this way:  Look at all the fencing along the Waterloo Spur.  It's there because of the same one freight train at night that goes through that gap in the buildings between Regina and King.  So, if it was ok to have people walking along the tracks there, why on Earth would TC require all these fences along the spur?  It doesn't add up.

[timc]

The impression I get from previous discussion is that things are "ok" with Transport Canada until you go and make any changes to the track. So all the new spur line track being put in for ION has all the bells and whistles (literally!), but the spur line trail is allowed to co-exist with the track with no fences at all. Am I wrong about this? And if the spur line were to be reconstructed, would it need fencing to separate it from the trail? If this is so, would it even be possible to have an informal trail running between King and Regina if the track were moved, or would additional safeguards need to be installed?

[tomh009]

There's never been much in the way of events large enough to need to close off *THAT* much of King Street, aside from perhaps an expanded version of the two weeks (?) they had it closed 1 or 2 summers back for event-a-day car-free-ness.

Assuming that's King & Francis (and I do think it is), King St has been closed that far at least twice this summer.  Once was some kind of food truck festival (?) early in the summer, the second might have the multicultural festival. 

The Blues Festival is further east on King, closing from Frederick/Benton up to City Hall, probably because that makes sense with the locations of the YNC (at City Hall) and BIA (between Queen and Frederick) stages book-ending the stretch of King St that's closed.

[Canard]

You've hit it right on the head. Notice how all the Spur Line trail signs say something to the effect of "Trail is closed between the hours of X and X, until 2018" or something like that? I seem to recall reading somewhere that there were fences coming to the entire spur line after that date. So, it's "officially closed" during the hours in the evening when that one freight train moves through there, because the current setup with the trail so close to the tracks isn't kosher.

I guess with that argument, though, you could just put up a sign at the gap between Regina and King. Huh. I dunno anymore.

I really wish we had an "in" at Transport Canada who read WRConnected!

[darts]

What did the poles look like? What diameter? Was there a mounting flange on top?

Only got a brief glance at them while walking past.
 Looked to be maybe 8" across. The inner diameter was much smaller, maybe 3 or 4". Don't remember if there was  flange on top, but looked like they may have been connecting them , possibly with pipe or wire of some sort?

Here's a crude drawing

Cambridge put some in last year by their city hall. They haven't used them in August for the event they had down there, just had pylons in the same area on the cross walk.

[darts]

I'm also a bit surprised that Doug Craig seems to think that we'll have a hard time convincing senior levels of government to fund expansion. They're practically throwing money at transit expansion right now.

Maybe the province hasn't expressed any interest after they funded the transit hub. I can't imagine people in Cambridge will be too impressed since they are paying for the LRT with promises of it being extended to Cambridge.

[Canard]

Fences/Walls are going up around the various Traction Power Substations. So far, all of the ones I've seen just have big black poles around them - no actual fencing or walking-in material yet.

[kitborn]

These bollards keep vehicles other than transit buses out. Are the bollards at Frances Street there to keep traffic out during festivals?

[Viewfromthe42]

There's never been much in the way of events large enough to need to close off *THAT* much of King Street, aside from perhaps an expanded version of the two weeks (?) they had it closed 1 or 2 summers back for event-a-day car-free-ness.

Assuming that's King & Francis (and I do think it is), King St has been closed that far at least twice this summer.  Once was some kind of food truck festival (?) early in the summer, the second might have the multicultural festival. 

The Blues Festival is further east on King, closing from Frederick/Benton up to City Hall, probably because that makes sense with the locations of the YNC (at City Hall) and BIA (between Queen and Frederick) stages book-ending the stretch of King St that's closed.

The closure you refer to was at King and Water for the food truck festival that I attended, which is a very common closure point. King and Francis hasn't had much closure because construction has seen that area of King fenced off as far south as the end of McCabe's. If I recall, there may have been an event in the parking lot bound by 305 King and the TD building, but I was out of town for that.

[Pheidippides]

Removal of a strip of the Waterloo public square along the tracks is currently underway.

[nms]

The impression I get from previous discussion is that things are "ok" with Transport Canada until you go and make any changes to the track. So all the new spur line track being put in for ION has all the bells and whistles (literally!), but the spur line trail is allowed to co-exist with the track with no fences at all. Am I wrong about this? And if the spur line were to be reconstructed, would it need fencing to separate it from the trail? If this is so, would it even be possible to have an informal trail running between King and Regina if the track were moved, or would additional safeguards need to be installed?

Speed and frequency was also an issue. As far as I know, there is standing go-slow order for the track south of King Street due to the track condition and the types of crossings involved. Since the track north of King Street to Northfield is being built to allow much faster and more frequent movement, the fences and other safeguards were needed.

[jamincan]

Won't they still have to go fairly slow to negotiate the gauntlet tracks at the LRT stations?

[ijmorlan]

Won't they still have to go fairly slow to negotiate the gauntlet tracks at the LRT stations?

I don’t know the actual speeds involved, but switches can be taken at a variety of speeds depending on their design. My guess would be that the maximum speed for the gauntlet track switches is higher than the former maximum speed along this particular line, because the track was in such terrible shape.

Having said that, this in no way justifies the fences in the park. Two trains a night at moderate speeds (60km/h? I don’t know exactly) don’t need fences, and it’s already established from all the street-running sections that the LRT doesn’t need fences. Note, I’m not saying the Region had a choice; if Transport Canada is going to be unreasonable, there isn’t much we can do. But as a matter of safety, the fences are not needed.