ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Rainrider22]

LOL!  You make it sound like ours and Toronto's orders are the only ones Bombardier has ever done around the entire world.

They are doing just fine.  A little behind on our project, yes - but Kingston has handed a poorly-managed project from another plant and have turned it around incredibly rapidly.  Historically, Kingston has delivered on every single project in their entire history successfully.

Canard. Why are you laughing at my response. You are the first person on here to get upset if someone is even a little bit disrespectful in your view.  

May I remind you that New York city just shut bombardier out. Add Toronto et al.  You can laugh at me if you want but if this compnay docent get serious about how is manages itself, it's days are numbered . I truly hope I am wrong because I want a Canadian company to suceed. But right now. The reality is they are incompetent.  Put your bias a side and look at their unproven results.

Members of the public would be upset if they thought their tax dollars were being used to support "outside activities" by the cops.  Specifying "paid duty" puts, er ..., paid to that.

How many people do you think are listening in to the radio feed?

You are correct. Paid duty means the officer is being paid by the third party requesting the service. There is no direct impact on the police budget. The pay is shown on a separate T-4a for income. Tax which the officer must submitt for taxes.   The department will collect a separate amount of money for administration fees as well as a separate fee if a cruiser is utilized.

Again, you've missed my point - I'm not disputing this and fully understand that they are being paid by GrandLinq.

What I'm questioning is why they over, and over, and over say "Paid Duty Police Officer" on the radio - a (for all intents and purposes) closed, private radio channel.  It just seems so strange to me.

Anyway, let's move on...

Because that is the proper nomenclature for the position. It is really that simple.

[darts]

its probably to clarify that there is no incident or rush.

[jeffster]

Again, you've missed my point - I'm not disputing this and fully understand that they are being paid by GrandLinq.

What I'm questioning is why they over, and over, and over say "Paid Duty Police Officer" on the radio - a (for all intents and purposes) closed, private radio channel.  It just seems so strange to me.

Protocol, and it probably annoys them as much as it annoys you.

[Rainrider22]

Again, you've missed my point - I'm not disputing this and fully understand that they are being paid by GrandLinq.

What I'm questioning is why they over, and over, and over say "Paid Duty Police Officer" on the radio - a (for all intents and purposes) closed, private radio channel.  It just seems so strange to me.

Protocol, and it probably annoys them as much as it annoys you.

I explained it already,  it is the proper call sign for a Paid Duty officer.  It is a universally accepted term.   And it doesn't annoy them. We use that language all the time on the police radio too.  It is utilized by most agencies.

[KevinL]

506 is out today - spotted moving northbound on Charles past Cedar.

[ijmorlan]

Somebody on Twitter is claiming we will have all our vehicles in 12 days. That doesn’t seem likely to me — it would be one every 2 days for the rest of the month. Does anybody remember the latest advertised delivery schedule?

[trainspotter139]

Somebody on Twitter is claiming we will have all our vehicles in 12 days. That doesn’t seem likely to me — it would be one every 2 days for the rest of the month. Does anybody remember the latest advertised delivery schedule?

There is no advertised delivery schedule. Only a commitment that the vehicles will be all completed by the end of June. Not necessarily all delivered by the end of June. We find out more progress information tomorrow at the P&W Committee meeting.

[trainspotter139]

We have Grade Crossing Signal testing from Mill to Fairway happening today!!!

[drum118]

June 21
Luck out stopping off in Kitchener on my way to London to caught 506 in testing between Mills Station and Fairview Mall. If I have visited before 12 pm, I wouldn't have caught these videos. Testing was to start at 8:00 am, but started after 12 pm.

Every intersections had police officer on duty as well the contractor.

No idea what the plan is for communication, but the driver had a hand-held device that was moved from end to end and clip to the control panel.

Found the horn weak for crossing the road.

Car was slow arriving at Fairview Station, but it sure jack rabbit departing the station.

https://youtu.be/3nbFfKIDMnU
https://youtu.be/tj0xhnIwp-4
https://youtu.be/M7ej_4y9ewI
https://youtu.be/qcvQvJ1Ee98
https://youtu.be/ZiZthBARYxs
https://youtu.be/iLOmLf0Q3ns

[jamincan]

It seems needlessly disruptive to have those bells for the pedestrian gates. Is the situation the same in other places like Calgary or Edmonton? Surely there is a less disruptive sound signal that could be used in that context.

Also, the signals seem really slow to stop after the LRT has passed. I could have sworn that signals for train crossings normally stop almost immediately after they clear the crossing.

[Canard]

Jamincan - none of the crossing timing is complete yet. They spend weeks running trains back and forth, with people at every crossing calling out warning times, recovery times, etc.. then they make a tweak, then try again.

It’s baffling to me how 50+ year old standard crossing signals are taking so long to get right.

My point: don’t use the current status of the warning gates as an indicator of how they’ll be when they’re done.

[Rainrider22]

June 21
Luck out stopping off in Kitchener on my way to London to caught 506 in testing between Mills Station and Fairview Mall. If I have visited before 12 pm, I wouldn't have caught these videos. Testing was to start at 8:00 am, but started after 12 pm.

Every intersections had police officer on duty as well the contractor.

No idea what the plan is for communication, but the driver had a hand-held device that was moved from end to end and clip to the control panel.

Found the horn weak for crossing the road.

Car was slow arriving at Fairview Station, but it sure jack rabbit departing the station.

https://youtu.be/3nbFfKIDMnU
https://youtu.be/tj0xhnIwp-4
https://youtu.be/M7ej_4y9ewI
https://youtu.be/qcvQvJ1Ee98
https://youtu.be/ZiZthBARYxs
https://youtu.be/iLOmLf0Q3ns

Great video, thanks for taking the time to share them...

[Coke6pk]

Thanks!

Question: on the radio, they talk to WRPS and refer to them as “Paid-Duty Officers”. Why is that?

My guess was to discriminate between regular officers, and the ones that are specifically requested to help out with testing? ie so a bunch of regular police don’t show up to an intersection to protect it?

It’s just weird to me because... everyone is paid to do their job. I’m a “Paid-Duty Mechanical Designer” but that’s not what my business card says

The Paid-Duty Officers are typically called in for overtime and use whatever spare cruiser they have in the garage (like the Pride cruiser).

"Paid-Duty" has been correctly defined in this forum.  It is a position that is paid by a private entity.  They are offered to sworn officers on their time off.  Paid Duties include things like Rangers games, Parades, Oktoberfest Festhalls, Concerts and Large Outdoor events.

Back in the day, the officers were paid in cash or cheque at the end of their duty.  This was ripe for abuse and the negative perception of a grocery store manager paying cash to an officer who was standing at the front of the store all night [Not sure if it still happens, but Toronto Police used to have a paid duty at the Dominion Store on Wellesley St on Friday and Sat nights].  Today, when an event is being planned, rules are set on the number of paid duty officers required.  [ie. AGCO may say you need minimum of 4 police officers per festhall.... themuseum requires one officer for proms held there).  WRPS will pay the officer and it goes on their T4, and the client will be billed.

The reason for the call sign on the radio, each "zone" that officers are assigned to have a call sign.  It stays with the zone, not the officer working it.  When there is a paid duty they are identified by that call sign as they don't have individual numbers, and they zone officer working that area is separate and available to take calls.

As for the Pride cruiser, its assigned to the Traffic branch, and is normal rotation... not just "in the garage".

Coke

[jamincan]

I know the Pride Cruiser was used as one of the race vehicles for the KW Classic, so definitely not just traffic duty.

[KevinT]

June 21
Luck out stopping off in Kitchener on my way to London to caught 506 in testing between Mills Station and Fairview Mall. If I have visited before 12 pm, I wouldn't have caught these videos.

Thanks for sharing these, and glad you were able to catch some of the testing on your way through town.  I caught some last Thursday (mostly from the car, so no video) in the Wilson to Hayward stretch and none of the crossing signals were working at all, it was police escort only that day.  Nice to see the progress on that front!