ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[tomh009]

All right … so why have they not started testing? Are we missing something other than trains (we do have four, so some testing should be possible)? Do we need the "specialized equipment" to start testing? Are the track repairs the gating factor? Something else?

[ijmorlan]

As much as I would like to see the Ion up and running I think starting it at anything but the intended service level would be a mistake. You want every user's first experience to be a good (and lasting one). If it isn't even as good as existing bus service that will just fuel the nay-sayers and dampen momentum toward phase 2 (and 3).

The only analogy I can think of at the moment is a Broadway show opening without the full cast with the NYT theatre critic in the audience and needing a good review and word-of-mouth recommendations to be successful enough to convince investors to fund the next big show in development.

Thanks for the details, and I think you make a lot of good points.

However, I would suggest that opening with always-every-15-minute service would be OK. This only requires about 7 vehicles. This is planned to be the best normal off-peak service, and I think people would understand if we said “we’re waiting for enough vehicles to run better service during peak hours”. Opening with every 10 minute service would definitely be OK because the iXpress hardly ever exceeds that frequency, and the capacity of the LRT at every 10 minutes is way higher than an iXpress every 10 minutes. This requires about 10 vehicles.

My suggestion to open with 12 vehicles is even safer: brand new vehicles which have just completed a successful burn-in don’t need spares. By the time of the first (likely) failure, the remaining 2 vehicles will have arrived and completed their per-vehicle testing. And even if there was a failure, you could just revert peak hours to every 10 minute service until the vehicle is repaired.

I agree that opening with really poor service is a bad idea (say, every 30 minutes, unless a vehicle happens to be having trouble).

But all of these assume that the vehicle delivery is just going slowly. Right now it looks like testing of the overall system is going slowly, and since they have been stunningly uncommunicative about what is actually happening, we are left to speculate about causes, everything from sheer laziness to aliens.

[KevinL]

All excellent questions, which we don't seem to have answers for. My guess is that they've been using the data gleaned from the test runs so far to inform how to program and implement the more specialized installations, and that's been the focus of recent work (hence no broader tests). But that is purely a guess.

[rangersfan]

Very disappointing but not unexpected.

The original opening was supposed to be fall 2017 right?

[JoeKW]

So, is this really mostly Bombardiers fault? Didn't the region ask them to hold trains back until a few weeks ago?

[Coke6pk]

In happy news, my VIA train just passed an iON train all loaded up, sitting on a yard off the mainline just west of Kingston....

[bgb_ca]

Yay that means it's on the way. Anyone know which one that is?

[Canard]

It'll be the next one (506), which was loaded more than a week ago... that's very disappointing that the freight operator still has it sitting there.

[jeffster]

This is a 100+ year project. Remember that.

Sure seems like it.

I remember telling my daughter before she started grade 9 that she'd take the ION to HS. With the latest delay, that won't happen.

[trainspotter139]

It'll be the next one (506), which was loaded more than a week ago... that's very disappointing that the freight operator still has it sitting there.

They won't pick it up from Bombardier if it's not on their manifest. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[sevenman]

So, is this really mostly Bombardiers fault?  Didn't the region ask them to hold trains back until a few weeks ago?

  Actually, pretty much all their fault.

  Bombardier being a less than fully competent corporation is common knowledge.  They are also well know for missing delivery deadlines  The thing that adds insult to injury is the amount of corporate welfare they have received from federal governments over the years.  All the while being a public company with shareholders.  Just over a year ago they received just shy of $400 million from the federal government "to create new jobs".  Apparently those new jobs haven't resulted in vehicles being manufactured and shipped to our region as promised. Ironically, just a few months after receiving the funds from the government, Bombardier execs voted themselves $32 million in bonuses.
 
  In Toronto's LRT project, Metrolinx became increasingly frustrated with Bombardiers incompetency and asked a court for the right to cancel a contract with Bombardier as they doubted their ability to complete vehicle orders.  Metrolinx managed to reduce the size of their order from 182 vehicles to 76 and awarded a second company called Alstom to build vehicles instead.      
  Fortunately, the Region's LRT project started ahead of the proposed Hamilton and Mississauga projects.  Can you imagine where we would be at if all four projects were under construction/production during the same time period and there was an even larger demand for vehicles?.  Yikes.

[tomh009]

All aerospace companies -- regardless of the country -- receive subsidies, tax breaks and/or other government support. But that's irrelevant to the question of the root causes of the delay. Which we really don't know yet.

[sevenman]

All aerospace companies -- regardless of the country -- receive subsidies, tax breaks and/or other government support. But that's irrelevant to the question of the root causes of the delay. Which we really don't know yet.

You're probably right but wouldn't it be nice if those "subsidies" resulted in better production instead of unreasonable delays and cancelled contracts.

[Pheidippides]

The original opening was supposed to be fall 2017 right?

It is amazing how the timeline has shifted over the years.

When council first picked LRT over BRT in June 2009 the expected start was "Late 2014: Opening day for electric trains."
When the original LRT route was approved in June 2011 the expected start was "2017".
When they awarded the contract to GrandLinq the expected start was "mid-2017"
To where we are today, late 2018 at the earliest.

Based on how the region seems to be going out of the way to avoid criticizing GrandLinq, it appears to be convinced that their best hope of recouping costs is from Bombardier.

[tomh009]

I have to stay off social media for a couple days, the level of gloating about this is truly revolting.

I almost went and read the FB group comments. Stopped myself just as I was about to tap the link.