ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[ac3r]

Somebody mentioned cheaping out on ION, but I’m not sure if everybody understands that going underground is almost certainly not feasible.

IDK why everyone keeps saying this. I have a PhD in architecture so I know a lot about engineering. It would have been entirely feasible to do cut and cover underground sections where necessary and without spending a too much money. It would have cost more than what we paid, but it would have paid for itself very quickly. There are no engineering challenges that could not have been overcome. I know everyone points to the water table but there are cities next to oceans that can build underground or run train tunnels under rivers and lakes. It's not hard.

The region was simply adamant to get it built ASAP, meaning that was not in the budget they decided to allocate though we could have easily reallocated money to it in order to tunnel or elevate it where needed. But we didn't, so as a result we have a "rapid" transit system that in many places travels slower than one can walk, that vehicles often drive into - with a cement truck derailing the entire thing, having to stop at red lights, to a wee bit of ice shutting the entire system down.

So really...what would have made more sense? An LRT that perhaps would have cost more but could have run underground or elevated downtown, moving much faster and wouldn't have to worry about driving into cars or people? Or one that plays bumper cars with traffic and falls apart due to a little bit of ice?

It's stuff like this that makes people, in the long run, not want to invest in transit. When you build a system that is very slow, gets into accidents, has the entire system shut down due to the weather - then people wonder why we spend the money in the first place. But if you invest a little more and be a little more bold and daring, you can end up with a proper transit system that can actually get more people out of their cars.

Of course it's too late to do anything, but that won't stop me from ranting on about how the region handicapped itself by designing the LRT the way they did... :'P And indeed, it was the cement truck at fault here. But it wouldn't have crashed into it if the LRT ran underground here. Ideally, I would have began tunneling it at perhaps Borden Station...then have back above ground at Grand River Hospital Station (just to save money - and because cut and cover makes that easy) then tunnel it again before Allen and bring it back up after Waterloo Public Square where it runs along the Laurel Trail. And then bam, you've got a light-metro that doesn't have to worry about traffic or signals or pedestrians and which can run much faster. And sure, it would have cost an extra couple hundred millions of dollars but that efficiency would have paid for itself.