ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[BrianT]

Borden Station area looking down Charles toward Ottawa Street


Borden Station area looking north along Charles Street. The future area for a central platform makes it extra wide.

[Canard]

Track on the North side of Northfield is now connected to the Southbound alignment - still a temporary setup.
   

   

Conduit and equipment box behind Albert McCormic Arena.
   

Future R&T Park Station.
   

   

[Canard]

At University of Waterloo, some kind of paved road is being put down on the other side of the fences that the University just put up.  Is this a maintenance access road or something for the track?

   

Work in Uptown Waterloo on Caroline continues.  Here's the Willis Way platform.

   

   

   

   

[Canard]

Trackwork also continues South on Caroline.

   

   

Crossing at Borden/Courtland:

   

   

The bridge on Borden, filled back in now.  When I talked to the folks at the PCC they said there was a lot of soil contamination found around MTD.  So maybe that's why this section is taking so long.

   

[Canard]

One last shot of Borden.

   

Two shots of Charles.  It's open now in both directions, with a turnaround loop at Borden (you have to turn around, no connection to Borden, except through the Tim Horton's lot).

   

   

That's it for today. It's a beautiful morning!

[jwilliamson]

Can anyone explain what the track layout seen in Canard's "Future R&T Park Station" picture is for? Is it somehow related to the station, or is it just a coincidence they occur together here?

[Canard]

Hi jwilliamson, it's called gauntlet track.  It permits the freight trains that use this line to bump out a little bit, so they don't clip the canopy or platform edge.  All of the stations on the spur lines will have this feature, on the Southbound track.

[ijmorlan]

At University of Waterloo, some kind of paved road is being put down on the other side of the fences that the University just put up.  Is this a maintenance access road or something for the track?

It is the multi-use trail, now re-instated north of University. It was there for many years before LRT construction began. Actually I have been wondering when the section from Seagram to University will be re-instated. It has been closed for several months, which I can’t see happening to a road unless it truly needed to be closed for that length of time.

Thanks for more great photos. I live near the Caroline St. trackage and have been very pleased to see that go in. I’ve now driven across the tracks to get on to Father David Bauer Drive a couple of times.

[jwilliamson]

Hi jwilliamson, it's called gauntlet track.  It permits the freight trains that use this line to bump out a little bit, so they don't clip the canopy or platform edge.  All of the stations on the spur lines will have this feature, on the Southbound track.

Good to know. Thanks for the great photos.

[MacBerry]

Is there any doubt but that the ion door chime should be the first seven notes of the "Chicken Dance" song?  

I vote for  http://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/a...hp?aid=586

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ][/url]

Like the Rick Astley click bait!  

[jgsz]

A bit of fun:

Everyone probably knows this map of the ION route:

   

But how many 'naked' metro maps of major cities can you identify on the following page?

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/n...metro-maps

I got 10 out of 11 correct.  I only screwed up on map number 9.   Can anyone get all 11 correct?

[panamaniac]

A bit of fun:

Everyone probably knows this map of the ION route:



But how many 'naked' metro maps of major cities can you identify on the following page?

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/n...metro-maps

I got 10 out of 11 correct.  I only screwed up on map number 9.   Can anyone get all 11 correct?

I also got 10.  Missed #5.

[tomh009]

8/11 ... but number 9 was easy for me, by process of elimination. I messed up on some of the others though.

[jamincan]

I missed 5 too.

[Markster]

7/11

A few fairly random guesses there.
I'm surprised that so many people get the BART wrong; that's one of the ones I got no problem.