ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[ijmorlan]

Finch just had it's tender put out - 2.5 bn for 11 km of LRT.  4.8x the cost of ion for what they're getting.

I have always said that the team here did an excellent job of absolutely maximizing the size of the system for as little money as possible.

Are you sure you’re not including operations and maintenance in that number? If that is the contract value, I think it compares more closely to our $1.9G Grandlinq contract than to our $880M capital expenditure.

Still, it does seem we’re getting pretty good value.

[Canard]

Looks like you're right:

The $2.5 billion contract includes $1.2 billion of construction costs.

Still, that's like, 2x the cost of ours if you divide out the length.  Our folks did a really, really good thing here - let's never forget that.

[Bob_McBob]

Yep, that was exactly their logic. I'm surprised they didn't go back to 2009 when the estimated cost for Stage 1 was only $790m. $178m over budget and counting!

Who is "they"?  I haven't been able to find anything in the local media.  Or did I miss something that appeared some time ago?

Sorry, just a comment today in the Waterloo subreddit I found particularly amusing.

[jeffster]

Looks like you're right:

The $2.5 billion contract includes $1.2 billion of construction costs.

Still, that's like, 2x the cost of ours if you divide out the length.  Our folks did a really, really good thing here - let's never forget that.

Not going to argue if they did a good job; just something to keep in mind - part of the Finch LRT goes underground, this add millions to the cost. Also Finch goes through a much more heavily populated areas, and not as much 'green' space as our LRT, this also adds millions in costs.

Anyway, looking forward to when this ION starts running....

[Canard]

OMG, so Mike Farwell started a thing today and is going on about how our trains should have ads. I can't even, I'm just livid.

I like him and his personality on the radio, but now he's doing that thing where he just ignores everyone, and only keeps re-iterating his stance.

[ijmorlan]

OMG, so Mike Farwell started a thing today and is going on about how our trains should have ads.  I can't even, I'm just livid.

I like him and his personality on the radio, but now he's doing that thing where he just ignores everyone, and only keeps re-iterating his stance.

For such a small amount of money, too. It’s not like we could cover the Region’s capital contribution by selling ads.

To be fair, his article refers to wraps and suggests that “I can understand an argument against full wraparound ads that cover our shiny new train cars, or anything at all that would interfere with the ION branding.” In other words, he is at least open to leaving the windows untouched. To which somebody on Twitter replied that he was ignoring the ability of people on the trains to see out. So on this particular point some people aren’t reading him carefully.

Overall though, yeah, there are a lot of ways to improve the regional budget balance by $500k per year, some of which would actually make the city more pleasant, not less.

[tomh009]

Page 600!

• First 100 pages: 12 months
  
• Second 100 pages: 5.5 months
  
• Third 100 pages: 4 months
  
• Fourth 100 pages: 3 months
  
• Fifth 100 pages: 4.5 months
  
• Sixth 100 pages: 5 months
  

As the construction is tapering off, so is the pace of posting.  We might be entering a quiet period now, until we start seeing the first (test) trains on track!

Page 700!

• First 100 pages: 12 months
  
• Second 100 pages: 5.5 months
  
• Third 100 pages: 4 months
  
• Fourth 100 pages: 3 months
  
• Fifth 100 pages: 4.5 months
  
• Seventh 100 pages: 5 months
  

We are off the peak traffic on this thread, but still 20 pages per month. I suspect we'll hit page 800 before the end of April, as the testing activity ramps up.

Page 800!

• First 100 pages: 12 months
  
• Second 100 pages: 5.5 months
  
• Third 100 pages: 4 months
  
• Fourth 100 pages: 3 months
  
• Fifth 100 pages: 4.5 months
  
• Seventh 100 pages: 5 months
  
• Eighth 100 pages: 5 months
  

Not so much activity recently -- either on track or in this thread.

[Canard]

Not true! Testing is happening daily now. This week also saw the first time TWO LRV’s were out at once!

[tomh009]

Yes, the last week or so has now seen a resurgence of testing activity. But the last five months overall have been fairly quiet.

[timio]

At 50 posts per page, it's only page 237.

[JJTL]

Page 700!

• First 100 pages: 12 months
  
• Second 100 pages: 5.5 months
  
• Third 100 pages: 4 months
  
• Fourth 100 pages: 3 months
  
• Fifth 100 pages: 4.5 months
  
• Seventh 100 pages: 5 months
  

We are off the peak traffic on this thread, but still 20 pages per month. I suspect we'll hit page 800 before the end of April, as the testing activity ramps up.

Page 800!

• First 100 pages: 12 months
  
• Second 100 pages: 5.5 months
  
• Third 100 pages: 4 months
  
• Fourth 100 pages: 3 months
  
• Fifth 100 pages: 4.5 months
  
• Seventh 100 pages: 5 months
  
• Eighth 100 pages: 5 months
  

Not so much activity recently -- either on track or in this thread.

Appears we are only on page 789, no? 

[Viewfromthe42]

I hope that we soon see the testing where I can be walking around Downtown and I'll randomly come across an LRV. If I have to plan where and when to be in order to see a train, that's one phase. The next phase, where people start seeing trains popping up all over, that'll be when it's more widely exciting again.

[Coke6pk]

Appears we are only on page 789, no? 

THIS!

(Also, in the tracker the 6th batch of 100 set is missing)

Coke

[Canard]

Video of my ride up alongside 506.

[Canard]

Kiewit video from Winter 2016 with a full ride of the line.



I actually remember spotting them the day they filmed this with the little Kubota with a GoPro on it.