ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[KevinL]

1/1 - Thursday, April 12, 2018

Ticket Vending Machines (TVM's) have started popping up all along the line.

These seem to be going in south -> north, as they are in at Mill, Borden (seen above), Kit Market, and Queen (but not Frederick or Vic Park) as of tonight.

[JJTL]

1/1 - Thursday, April 12, 2018

Ticket Vending Machines (TVM's) have started popping up all along the line.

These seem to be going in south -> north, as they are in at Mill, Borden (seen above), Kit Market, and Queen (but not Frederick or Vic Park) as of tonight.

TVM was being installed at Frederick this morning when I passed by on my commute. My first thought was actually "oh here we go again with a delivery truck parked on the tracks...". But they were unloading the TVM, so all good .

[danbrotherston]

Council report is out.

And it's very disappointing:

https://calendar.regionofwaterloo.ca/Cou...202018.pdf

Target launch date is December 2018. Yet another 6 month delay. If they launch in December it will be just a few months over one year late.

I'm sure this will not be popular with a certain group of people who are trying to get re-elected in October.

[Canard]

Thanks for finding that and sharing, Dan.

Wow, that's... that's bad. Reading through it now...

[KevinL]

Ugh. I am very disappointed in how slowly things have been allowed to proceed and the dearth of testing seen so far, and it seems now that's well founded. Hopefully this lights a fire under the right people and we find a way to shrink these timelines.

Curious: "The original project schedule included 8 months of testing and commissioning activities following the delivery of the last vehicle." Was this always public knowledge?

[Canard]

I think that's the first I've seen of a concrete number.

We also finally have dates for the art installations:

• Spinal Column at the Hospital (June)
• Tall Tales of Mill St. at Mill St. (June)
• Because Cats Can’t Fly at Kitchener Market (June)
• Three Sisters at Block Line (June)
• Shaping Residency at Fairway (June)
• Continuum at Conestoga (June)
• Fabric of Place at Old Albert St. (June)
• Arras at Fairway (July)
• The Passenger at Research and Technology (September)
• The Network at Research and Technology (October)

[KevinL]

Incidentally, Canard, did you see pages 46-55? Something's up with the Courtland/Siebert area but I can't penetrate the legalese.

[Pheidippides]

Final expropriations/easements along Courtland near Siebert and Shelley are listed in the package as well.

I don't think the 8 months of testing has been mentioned publically before, but I always assumed it would be at least that based on other similar sized systems. The fact that much of it has to happen after the 14th vehicle is delivered was surprising as well.

[Bob_McBob]

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/839...-december/

[Bob_McBob]

Ridiculous.

[bgb_ca]

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/839...-december/

TLDR: Region is blaming Bombardier for late deliveries. I don't buy it this time.

[Canard]

Incidentally, Canard, did you see pages 46-55? Something's up with the Courtland/Siebert area but I can't penetrate the legalese.

No, I'd just jumped ahead to page 60 - wow, good find. So it is now moving to expropriation. Wow, I'm amazed that dragged out so long! I feel bad every time I'm by there and see the residents on Siebert waiting to pull out, and can't.

I really, really, really hope this slips to Spring 2019. I cannot stand the thought of opening day in the dead of winter. It's so gross.

[Canard]

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/839...-december/

However, he added, "Bombardier has made significant strides in the last few months."

"Ultimately, it is a good vehicle," Schmidt said. "There's no point of trying to cut corners at this point."

[KevinL]

Ah, so they wanted to pay the dealership fair value for the larger space needed, but couldn't strike a deal? Now I get it.

[Canard]

Where did you see that Kevin?