ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[tomh009]

The elevation difference between the parking lot and the street was substantially smaller before the street was reprofiled for the LRT. As I recall, the old wall (which was neither very long nor very tall) used ordinary concrete blocks, certainly less stable than what they are building now.

I do hope they redo the stairs, too.

[isUsername]

This sort of wall, they mean. It looks like concrete was cured within stacked-up sacks.

That wall is on the south side. The wall in tomh009's photo is on the north side.

[KevinL]

This sort of wall, they mean. It looks like concrete was cured within stacked-up sacks.

That wall is on the south side. The wall in tomh009's photo is on the north side.

Yes, but it's an example I could easily present for the style of construction.

[Markster]

Yeah, streetview doesn't have a good look at the actual retaining wall we're talking about. It was much shorter, but it was made of the same stacked-sacks.

[BuildingScout]

Reports surrounding that photo yesterday: that first train had an end-of-August deadline to be ready for testing. As of that deadline, they are expecting it will be another 3-4 weeks to finish that one vehicle. So unless there's further compression in the schedule, where this first car doesn't affect later cars' deliveries, we could be talking about another month onto whatever date Bomb-ardier gave the region.

Gosh, under intense media pressure they can't deliver one train in time? Not good, not good at all. This means they are having major design problems with the vehicle and/or the production line. When are they going to come clean and tell us what the real problem is?

[tomh009]

Gosh, under intense media pressure they can't deliver one train in time? Not good, not good at all. This means they are having major design problems with the vehicle and/or the production line. When are they going to come clean and tell us what the real problem is?

A design problem would likely be far, far greater than 3-4 weeks.  At this level these are production issues, or potentially integration of different components.  (I don't know how much of the component production is outsourced though.)

[Viewfromthe42]

Considering how the original test vehicle was due 2.5 years ago, it could be that "production issues" were actually a mask for "severe design flaws"

[kps]

Considering how the original test vehicle was due 2.5 years ago, it could be that "production issues" were actually a mask for "severe design flaws"

There shouldn't be severe design flaws because the things have long since shipped in Europe, even under Bombardier ownership.

[tomh009]

Considering how the original test vehicle was due 2.5 years ago, it could be that "production issues" were actually a mask for "severe design flaws"

Admittedly possible.  But I do think the start of this project was pushed out by not a small amount by the TTC project delays. 

Now for the TTC one, I would more readily accept a design issue as a likely cause.  But Boeing's 787 program was also delayed three years, and it really wasn't design issues -- systems integration was the biggest culprit there.

[Canard]

I don't even know where to begin with these comments!

Yes, FLEXITY Freedom is a derived variant of the FLEXITY 2 platform from Europe. So the designers over here had some stuff to work with - but they've never designed or built an LFLRV before. Thunder Bay has lots of experience with heavy rail and Millhaven had lots of experience with Monorail, ICTS and others. But it's a totally new thing for the North American design/build teams.

Then it has to meet Transport Canada and FRA regs and yadda yadda yadda. So that takes time. They could be using totally different CAD platforms. Which is awful to deal with. Thunder Bay is an older plant which definitely wasn't designed from day 1 (unlike the European plants) to build these things. Then there was the issues with the frame fabs from Mexico. Then management changed something like 8 times.

It's not simple - it's not like "oh they just suck" or "oh it's just a design issue". Someone should write a book or an article on why this project failed to deliver on time. None of us knows, and only a very few of us even have any insight into how custom manufacturing and design actually works in the real works (like me - sorry, but it's what I do all day).

Please read this: http://globalprojectstrategy.com/lessons/case.php?id=23

[clasher]

This sort of wall, they mean. It looks like concrete was cured within stacked-up sacks.

Quikrete Rip Rap is designed exactly to be used like that.

[Canard]

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/bombardier-m...-1.3054718

More news here; unless CTV has made a mistake, now only 2 of our trains will come from Thunder Bay, with the remaining 12 being built in Millhaven (outside of Kingston). The previous plan was 5/9.

[isUsername]

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/bombardier-m...-1.3054718

More news here; unless CTV has made a mistake, now only 2 of our trains will come from Thunder Bay, with the remaining 12 being built in Millhaven (outside of Kingston).  The previous plan was 5/9.

Monorail at 1:50 in the CTV video 

[Canard]

Yes, and ICTS (ahem - "INNOVIA Metro 300")!  My favourites!

From this video:



Phase II to Cambridge!

[tomh009]

Then it has to meet Transport Canada and FRA regs and yadda yadda yadda. So that takes time. They could be using totally different CAD platforms. Which is awful to deal with. Thunder Bay is an older plant which definitely wasn't designed from day 1 (unlike the European plants) to build these things. Then there was the issues with the frame fabs from Mexico. Then management changed something like 8 times.

Sounds a lot like the 787 problems!