ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[jeffster]

Anyone know when the rest of the trains are coming? I think we're still six short with one coming this month.

[Canard]

Your assessment of the situation is correct!

[KevinL]

More sidewalk decals being spotted at intersections reminding crosswalkers to look both ways for trains - now at King/Frederick.

[Square]

I heard on the scanner something major happened at Colby and Northfield this afternoon, the police had to be called. Wonder what that was all about?

[Canard]

Very nice, Kevin! Maybe moving slowly because of student drivers?

That was my thought too, but I didn't want to insult anyone directly by saying it in my captions.

The speed limit in a lot of places with sharp curves is only 10 km/h, which is a brisk walk.

[rangersfan]

Should we start a poll for whether Ion service starts in December?

[Bob_McBob]

2018 or 2019?

[Canard]

I feel like we have enough technically competent web people here that it would be awfully simple to make a calendar with all of our guesses.

[boatracer]

The Region has an EOI out for "GRT Digital Displays for ION Light Rail Transit" in which they will develop an RFP to provide 45-50 displays to be mounted at the ION stops for real time departure information for nearby bus stops.

https://regionofwaterloo.bidsandtenders....117d8f0b65

[Canard]

Oh no. They’d better do this right! Fonts, design language, aesthetics of the mounts absolutely must be considered.

I’ll be devistated if this just ends up being a hack job on my beautiful platforms.

[tomh009]

Oh no. They’d better do this right! Fonts, design language, aesthetics of the mounts absolutely must be considered.

I’ll be devistated if this just ends up being a hack job on my beautiful platforms.

The EOI is just for the display hardware. The region will implement the software solution. The mounts -- yes, they are part of the process, but it's quite hard to specify "beautiful mount" in the spec documents.

[timc]

Speaking of hack jobs on platforms, am I the only one who has noticed a broken panel at the UW station? I think it has looked like crazed glass for months.

[Canard]

Tom, there needs to be a spec and oversight. The same people who did the station design should do the hardware design, that’s all I’m saying.

If you have two parties that don’t talk and don’t care and don’t look at what each other are doing, you get a hideous mishmash of shit that looks awful, which is 99% the case in life and I can’t stand it. Everything should look the same and feel consistent and wonderful.

[ijmorlan]

Tom, there needs to be a spec and oversight. The same people who did the station design should do the hardware design, that’s all I’m saying.

If you have two parties that don’t talk and don’t care and don’t look at what each other are doing, you get a hideous mishmash of shit that looks awful, which is 99% the case in life and I can’t stand it. Everything should look the same and feel consistent and wonderful.

Absolutely. The stations already have displays and other visual components. The new ones need to look like part of the same design, not a poorly-considered add-on.

[tomh009]

Tom, there needs to be a spec and oversight. The same people who did the station design should do the hardware design, that’s all I’m saying.

If you have two parties that don’t talk and don’t care and don’t look at what each other are doing, you get a hideous mishmash of shit that looks awful, which is 99% the case in life and I can’t stand it. Everything should look the same and feel consistent and wonderful.

Absolutely. The stations already have displays and other visual components. The new ones need to look like part of the same design, not a poorly-considered add-on.

But it's just an RfEOI at this point, so the spec will (hopefully) come later.

I assume the region has someone else selected for the software already.