ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Acitta]

A few months ago, I was riding the #7 bus and saw an ION train leaving Central Station. As the bus arrived at Waterloo Public Square, the same train was just leaving that station. Since the train makes fewer stops than the bus, I would expect it to be faster.

[danbrotherston]

A few months ago, I was riding the #7 bus and saw an ION train leaving Central Station. As the bus arrived at Waterloo Public Square, the same train was just leaving that station. Since the train makes fewer stops than the bus, I would expect it to be faster.

That segment has so many traffic signals, they probably act to syncronize the vehicles. But I'm sure if the 7 was making every stop and dwelling a long time, it would probably fall behind, but that's hopefully not typical.

[ac3r]

A YouTuber called PinkyThumb did a 30 minute video on the LRT from the perspective of someone who doesn't live here. It's always interesting to hear the opinion of the LRT from people who aren't residents or who haven't used it much. Especially because at the local level, most people think it could definitely have been built better and run faster, whereas outsiders are consistently impressed by how decent it works and how cheap it was to build.

[KevinL]

He compares it very favourably to the new LRT lines in Toronto, which speaks as much to their failings as our success.

[danbrotherston]

He compares it very favourably to the new LRT lines in Toronto, which speaks as much to their failings as our success.

I mean, low bar, but nice to clear it.

I think the Waterloo ION is a pretty good project, there's some room for improvement. Some of those spaces for improvement are annoying obvious...but it's not the white elephant that a lot of people seem to want to believe, nor is it the white elephant that some other projects actually are.

But I think the same is true of the new LRT lines in Toronto....although their failings (which again, are easily corrected) are more dire...the idea that they wouldn't be corrected...well it's something that's hard to believe, and yet it's equally hard to believe they were ever built that way in the first place.

[Rainrider22]

A YouTuber called PinkyThumb did a 30 minute video on the LRT from the perspective of someone who doesn't live here. It's always interesting to hear the opinion of the LRT from people who aren't residents or who haven't used it much. Especially because at the local level, most people think it could definitely have been built better and run faster, whereas outsiders are consistently impressed by how decent it works and how cheap it was to build.

I actually just watched this this afternoon with my wife. We both commented on all the positive comments he made and we both thought that it had more.value as an outsider.  We are definitely to self critical of ourselves.  Different lense, different view. I thought it was interesting he said Metorlinks could learn something from us.