ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[ijmorlan]

The Holland Mobile Welder is now back at the OMSF, and there's another big shipment of rails on flatbed cars there!

I wonder if it arrived in the last couple of days. I heard a train go by, and keep going by longer than usual. I live about 50m from the track so I’m somewhat aware of just about everything that happens, depending on how deeply I’m sleeping. I hope to witness LRVs on their way to being delivered next summer.

[Canard]

I hope to witness LRVs on their way to being delivered next summer.

I hope you will, too, and let me (us!) know right away so we can come up and have a look!

[KevinL]

Charles/Benton work has reached the point of catpole base installation, including one smack dab in the middle of Benton:

[GtwoK]

Some observations from walking around today

It appears that the hydro poles in front of GRH are NOT being buried like I initially thought. They're replacing the poles with taller, nicer looking ones. It looks cleaner though, so I'm all for it.

The retaining walls in front of KCI and the church are now complete

Ground was broken on the King St underpass today. Tracks finished being moved aside /relocated and ground was being dug up.

Construction has been slow-moving on Charles between water and Francis. Still completely dug up 30 ft underground. Seems like it's been like this for a while.

The station at Gaukel is almost ready to be poured! The framework is in with rebar filling it. Could be any day now. I suspect they'll do it with the curbs here.



There are catpoles from Gaukel basically all the way up Charles now. Saw them installing a few more at Benton today. Getting closer to this being repaved!

They were tampering / steam rolling freshly filled in dirt between Benton / Eby today. Catpoles will come soon.

Cedar was completely filled in with no one working there all of today. Not sure why the intersection is still closed until next week.

Catpoles begin again at Cedar with conduit running between each and piles of track laying next to them. Track could be laid any day now, the station as well. 

In front of Cameron looks like trash, with piles of discarded pipes and other material all over. Probably still a long way off

The intersection of Stirling / Charles itself is very nice and essentially ready to be paved, but the portions of Stirling on either side are still slightly dug up. Scheduled to reopen next week, possibly paved by then?

Charles from Borden to Stirling is being rolled and flattened. Catpoles are in for the station here, but not along the rest of the stretch.

Underground work on Borden is just shy of Charles now. Piles of top level dirt / gravel are here for when it's done.

Curbs are now on Borden from Courtland to Nyberg!! Big news. They look great!

[Canard]

Thanks for the fantastic photos and synopsis, GtwoK! My other half was just passing through the Charles St. terminal and sent me a message that concrete pouring has begun on the platform there!

It really is amazing just how suddenly the progress looks when curbs come along, eh? It's like dirt for months... then suddenly, it seems like a major leap forward in progress is made once the surface construction begins. I guess it says more about how invisible all the underground work really is!

[Square]

Sorry, the photos are not working for me. I get a circle with a dash in the middle.

[taylortbb]

Some observations from walking around today...

GtwoK, the photos you uploaded aren't working for me, I just get a permission denied icon. I think you linked them from Google (maybe an email or Drive?) using a URL that wasn't public, so it expired and now no one else can see them.

[GtwoK]

Apologies, didn't realize Google Photo links expire. Rehosted on imgur

[Canard]

A few shots from Downtown Kitchener:

   

   

   

   

Also of note, the Tie Dragon is parked at Seagram tonight.

One more: McDonalds on King is closing.  http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=718238

[jgsz]

I love the first pic. It says so much...

[Drake]

One more:  McDonalds on King is closing.  http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=718238

It will be missed. I really liked that their building had the Alpine / Bavarian facade. It was a nice compliment to the community. I would imagine their land will be worth quite a bit post ION.

[BuildingScout]

It will be missed. I really liked that their building had the Alpine / Bavarian facade. It was a nice compliment to the community. I would imagine their land will be worth quite a bit post ION.

I seem to remember similar alpine style joints from my childhood in California all from around the same era. The Atrium was built around the same time right?

Trite and kitsch.

[Canard]

Eeh, Alpine/Bavarian façade? That's a bit of a stretch, no?

I always kind of thought that location was a bit sketchy. While it's unfortunate to see any closure, I'm not really mourning it. Once the service starts, it'll be a prime location for something better.

[Canard]

A lot of people seem really confused on facebook about how fare control will work, so I'll post this link here as well, for those not familiar with how Proof-of-Payment works: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof-of-payment

[Waterlooer]

Final track is down from University to Seagram (southbound track)