ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[taylortbb]

ION will be traditional catenary, and the main reason is there's no standard for under ground power supply. If you put in Bombardier underground power you're forever locked into buying Bombardier vehicles, because no one else makes vehicles compatible with it. Pretty risky proposition for infrastructure that's supposed to last 100 years. There isn't even a guarantee that Bombardier will make compatible vehicles in 20 years, given underground power hasn't really taken off.

[tomh009]

Page 200! While the naysayers may dominate The Record's comment section, ION is definitely a hot topic here. And we're still a long way away from operations.

[rangersfan]

Thanks taylortbb for the explanation.

[timc]

I saw this shed when I was driving down Seagram today. What is it?

[Canard]

Some more photos just before the TPSS was installed, on our way out of town this morning.

Getting ready for the big lift.
   

Long way up.
   

Checking in on our way back, here's the installed TPSS:
   

The tie dragon was at work today, too, installing more concrete sleepers into and out of the very first permanent track switch.  This switch is where freight trains will branch off to Elmira off of the Southbound LRT track. The switch is just off to the right.
   

[Smore]

Grandlinq should probably have Canard on the payroll...

[Square]

I saw this shed when I was driving down Seagram today. What is it?

I think these are power for the crossing gates.

[Canard]

I believe it's a signalling control box - more for the ATP and in-cab signalling system for the trains than the crossing gates, but the two are somewhat related.

I can't believe how huge the TPSS is; I wonder what people will think when these start showing up downtown. I suspect there will be a lot of "...oh." 's.

[panamaniac]

A whole set of new canvases for the graffiti set.

[insider]

I wonder, could the renders in the Victoria Park diagram be related to the mystery development Insider was alluding to, or are they placeholders?

These renders are 100% conceptual and are not based on any real development applications, they are part of the Station Area Planning exercise simply to explore the potential of each station and show some 'out of the box' ideas.

[KevinL]

I can't believe how huge the TPSS is; I wonder what people will think when these start showing up downtown. I suspect there will be a lot of "...oh." 's.

The TPSS locations don't put them directly in either of the downtowns. The one closest to Uptown is between Perimeter and Waterloo park, accessed from Fr. David Bauer; then in Kitchener, there's the one that had been set to go behind UW Pharmacy but is now set for Waterloo Street, and the other is next to Charles by Cedar.

[Canard]

Where is the Charles/Cedar one going? That old used car parking spot? Aren't there houses all right there opposite the embankment wall?

[KevinL]

The used-car parking was the Madison-Cameron block. This will be in the Cedar-Madison block; there was a small office buiding in that spot, up until pre-construction demolition a couple years ago.

[Canard]

Ahh, I'll have to go check it out. There must be a pad poured where it's going - hadn't noticed it (but wasn't specifically looking for one there).

It'd be neat to have a semi-opaque fence around it or a wall covered in public art.

[Markster]

The Cedar location is fairly controversial. It's a really prominent location that would be much more suited to active uses. Directly on the path between the station and the Market. But it's only really known in our transit-geeky circles.