ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[tomh009]

The Ottawa St / Mill and Hayward closures have been extended by 3 months - now reopening Nov 30th

Not a huge surprise given that there is only rough grading there at the moment, lots of work remaining to be done.

[Canard]

Weber, Dutton to Albert is closed for the next 3 weeks - presumably for utility work related to the OSMF.

I am guessing the Hayward and Mill/Ottawa delay is CN related - they only just recently brought in their equipment and are working on the new freight line.

[KevinL]

I am guessing the Hayward and Mill/Ottawa delay is CN related

This does not surprise me. 

[Square]

Hayward is only delayed 1 month, was suppose to open Nov 7th. This from City of Kitchener Road closures, HAYWARD AVE HANSON AVE TO COURTLAND AVE E ION Construction Work
Tentative: Nov 7, 2016
LENNOX LEWIS WAY TO BLOCK LINE RD

[timio]

Friday's update gives the official notice for the Frederick construction start. Late July through October for Frederick/King (labelled as Duke/King in the update) and late July through November for Frederick/Duke.

[panamaniac]

Friday's update gives the official notice for the Frederick construction start.  Late July through October for Frederick/King (labelled as Duke/King in the update) and late July through November for Frederick/Duke.

Do we know when Queen at Duke is supposed to re-open?  It will not be pretty of Queen and Frederick are closed at the same time.

[Square]

Friday's update gives the official notice for the Frederick construction start.  Late July through October for Frederick/King (labelled as Duke/King in the update) and late July through November for Frederick/Duke.

Do we know when Queen at Duke is supposed to re-open?  It will not be pretty of Queen and Frederick are closed at the same time.

July 29th is the date right now.

[panamaniac]

Do we know when Queen at Duke is supposed to re-open?  It will not be pretty of Queen and Frederick are closed at the same time.

July 29th is the date right now.

OK.  So re-opening of Queen and closing of Frederick will be coordinated.  That's good.

[panamaniac]

I was just reading in the Ottawa news that OC Transpo hopes to cut up to 600 positions when Ottawa's LRT comes on line. Very different transit situation in the Region, but have there been any estimates of Ion's impact on GRT employment?

[KevinL]

Duke is looking quite good past Queen just now. I can see that date being met.

[tomh009]

I was just reading in the Ottawa news that OC Transpo hopes to cut up to 600 positions when Ottawa's LRT comes on line.  Very different transit situation in the Region, but have there been any estimates of Ion's impact on GRT employment?

Based on the GRT plans that I recall, I don't see any cuts to the bus routes.  That being the case, there really should be no significant impact.

Some day in the distant future, when we have LRT criss-crossing the city it might be different, but then there should hopefully be new opportunities for GRT employees with Grandlinq as well.  It's really too far in the future to speculate.

[mpd618]

I was just reading in the Ottawa news that OC Transpo hopes to cut up to 600 positions when Ottawa's LRT comes on line.  Very different transit situation in the Region, but have there been any estimates of Ion's impact on GRT employment?

The GRT / Regional Transportation Master Plan goal was to reallocate the buses and service to the rest of the network, it's not supposed to cut bus service or funding.

[rangersfan]

600 positions seems like a lot of positions to be lost.

[plam]

600 positions seems like a lot of positions to be lost.

It is, however, what we would have been paying for if we had built BRT and not LRT, 30 years later. There's a reason that operating costs are so much higher with BRT.

[Canard]

This is it: Ottawa's system is replacing a very congested BRT Transitway. Here, that's not the case.

(Just FYI: Hiring for ion's staff is done through Keolis - one of the system partners of GrandLinq.)