ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Bob_McBob]

I like the promotional idea I saw elsewhere of running a special train decked out with lights to pick up Christmas food and gift donations at stations.

[ijmorlan]

The Region has consistently said they’re not doing that - they want a full system launch for the best impact for ridership. I think it’s a good idea, but severely wish they’d just have a “demo train” on weekends running between a few stations for fun.

Adding a few demo trains, clearly advertised as being such, and in addition to the existing bus service (not cancelling any buses), could not possibly have a bad effect. Nobody would have their image of LRT ruined because a few trains ran on a Sunday for free in a party atmosphere before the real launch.

[ijmorlan]

If they wanted to do that, they might consider doing a Christmas shopping train that goes between UpTown and Queen, to help people park once and check out all their uptown/downtown chopping needs. Of course, I don't know where crossovers are, so...

As to crossovers, this is feasible. There is one just north of Erb/Caroline, and one south of Downtown at Cameron Heights.

[Viewfromthe42]

If they wanted to do that, they might consider doing a Christmas shopping train that goes between UpTown and Queen, to help people park once and check out all their uptown/downtown chopping needs. Of course, I don't know where crossovers are, so...

There hasn't been any Christmas shopping in downtown Kitchener since the King Centre was turned into offices and the shops closed in Market Square.

Combine it with Christkindl, and promote it to anyone working in DTK who is parked there for work, wants to shop UpTown, but would consider going/returning by ION so that they don't have to rearrange their car.

[jason897]

I like the promotional idea I saw elsewhere of running a special train decked out with lights to pick up Christmas food and gift donations at stations.

So like Stuff-a-Bus but with a train?

[plam]

I think running demo trains is great. One possible complication is that we don't own the trains yet. Bombardier still does. I wonder what the contract says as to the closing date for the deal.

[trainspotter139]

I think running demo trains is great. One possible complication is that we don't own the trains yet. Bombardier still does. I wonder what the contract says as to the closing date for the deal.

The closing date is whenever the Region decides it is.

[plam]

Interesting. I guess that setting a too-early closing date means accepting a bunch of risk, but there is PR value in running demo trains.

Train-car interactions may also be more common during testing than regular production (I hope!) so that delaying as long as possible is probably a good idea in that sense.

[trainspotter139]

[Canard]

[ijmorlan]

umm...... 512 or 513?

EDIT: I'm also pretty sure that image was take here too.

Do we know for sure that the most recent delivery was 512? Maybe it was 513…or maybe it’s just an off-by-one typo.

[KevinT]

[KevinT]

umm...... 512 or 513?

EDIT: I'm also pretty sure that image was take here too.

Do we know for sure that the most recent delivery was 512? Maybe it was 513…or maybe it’s just an off-by-one typo.

I tried to zoom in on the paperwork, but my phone doesn't have an optical zoom so the results were inconclusive:



I think that said Metrolinx 14, but zooming in on the already grainy zoomed in photo doesn't help. The photo of the front paperwork was even worse:

]

I liked it when 511 had a big blue duct tape '13' on the front corner.

[Bob_McBob]

I have a relative who works for OTIP and it's neat seeing all the trains powered up out in the yard at night. She told me the other day they were running some sort of track cleaning equipment up the line and backed up traffic on Northfield pretty badly.

[Pheidippides]