ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[ijmorlan]

From my house I can see the train stop whenever it is reasonably long. In the past it stopped at Regina, then slowly edged through the gap between the buildings, then stopped again at King. Based on the sounds it makes and what I can see from my house I think it still does that.

Thank you, was just wondering if the traffic lights on King turn red, and if the train has to completely stop and someone stops traffic like before or does it slowly inch forward?

Good question. When it’s a bit warmer maybe I’ll race the train over to King and see what happens. It appears that they installed detector loops between the rails so I assume the signals are activated by the train. If so, then flagging should no longer be required, any more than it is required in order for a transport truck to cross the street, but I suspect that it will still be required by the rules.

Anyway, I always thought the flagger should be permitted to stand on the “porch” at the front of the locomotive. The trains are sufficiently visible that I don’t think they should be required to risk their life by walking out onto the street in case some drunk doesn’t see the train inching its way across the street.

[tomh009]

As for the scanners, I don’t know how it all works - I remember my dad’s would scroll fast through numbers 1-20, about once a second, and if any activity was detected it would stop. I’m guessing that it had 20 pre-programmed frequencies you had to figure out and enter?

Any idea what those frequencies would be for the GEXR train?

That's exactly how a modern scanner works.  Older ones (from the 1970s) had fixed frequencies for each channel: you needed to buy the correct frequency crystal for each channel.  Later (in 1980s maybe?) most scanners became digital and programmable.

If you only want to monitor GEXR (Square provided the link for the SWO train frequencies) you wouldn't even necessarily have to have a scanner: a (digital) shortwave radio tuned to the GEXR frequency would work well, too.

[Canard]

Ahh, okay. My dad tells me GEXR is 161.310, and I can use the scanner any time. I’ll get it from him next time we get together and will give it a shot!

[Coke6pk]

I was really hoping someone would jump on the tracker idea... since they seem to be using the same flat car every time, we could have consistent updates from Millhaven to the yards for the next 10 deliveries!

Coke

[KevinL]

Any idea of when 503 actually gets unloaded?

[Canard]

Tuesday, most likely, when everyone is back to work.

It’s still up at Randall Drive.

   

[Canard]

Does anyone know why the lights at Courtland & Siebert are still not operational?

[timio]

Does anyone know why the lights at Courtland & Siebert are still not operational?

Seems likely it is related to the expropriation of part of the dealership property that was happening recently.

[Pheidippides]

What is the shortest amount of time between the start of testing and the opening day of a new, modern LRT line of comparable length and complexity to ours?



I found that:
Gold Coast stage 1 (20km) was 293 days (testing started 01-Oct-2013 and it opened 20-Jul-2014) which has many of the same partners as our line.

Gold Coast stage 2 was an impressive 96 days (testing started 13-Sep-2017 and it opened 17-Dec-2017), but that was an extension of an existing line, not a new line.

Kansas City was 183 days (testing began 06-Nov-2015 and it opened 06-May-2016), but it is only 3.5km (and apparently they started testing 4 days after the arrival of a functional vehicle).

Charlotte (15.45km) was 467 days (testing began in August 2006 and it opened 24-Nov-2007)

Norfolk (11.9km) was 217 days (testing began January 2011 and it opened 19-Aug-2011).

[Canard]

Thanks for the summary! In my head I always had 6-9 months or so from casually watching other projects, which is close to what you’ve also found.

The average of tbe above dates (minus the GCLR Stage 2 extension) is 290 days, which puts opening for ion about October 2018.

Ottawa has been testing their LRV’s for over a year now, and they haven’t even finished laying track!

[tomh009]

Without Charlotte, the average would be only 231 days, putting it on track for summer.

Does anyone know why Charlotte's testing took 15 months, double the average of the other three projects? What kind of problems did they run into? I couldn't find any discussion of this in my admittedly brief search.

[mpd618]

I'm guessing in a lot of other cases, the presence of light rail vehicles allowed for testing to start even though other works weren't complete - and the testing wasn't the bottleneck. Hopefully the testing here will be quicker.

[tomh009]

I'd prefer not to guess, it doesn't really help us determine whether those cases would be applicable to us.

Gold Coast claims to have been on schedule. However, they talk about the "unique challenge of working on and around a live light rail system during the testing and commissioning (T&C) phase" -- wouldn't a system always be live at this point?
http://www.acaa.net.au/wp-content/upload...t-Rail.pdf

One factor that might have extended the testing phase is the development and testing of the traffic signal system: "McConnell Dowell recruited an internationally renowned traffic coder to develop and implement a traffic control system which would integrate the new tram system, with the State Governments higher order signalling control system into the existing traffic network."

Norfolk's system opening was more than 18 months behind schedule; apparently "cost overruns and extended testing of trains and electronic signage required three delays." How this is reflected in the length of the testing period is anyone's guess.

[KevinL]

The CBC year-in-review article on Ion includes a tweet from someone we all know...

[drum118]

2018: Regional Chair Ken Seiling talks LRT, opioids and affordable housing