ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[GtwoK]

Just wait until Victoria closes next week

Right.  It'll be a few weeks of really bad construction.  By the end of June a lot of the streets will reopen (Queen at both Charles and Duke!) and the situation will improve, but that overlap period will not be pleasant.  Good thing I'm walking to work!

My concern is that, even with intersections at Duke reopening now, they will still need to close again for the installation of track. Here's hoping that's no more than 2 adjacent intersections at a time!

[clasher]

Thanks for digging that up! I think Alternative A, the chosen one, makes the most sense. It maintains all possible movements. I don't see any advantage at all with B; only disadvantages, since it prohibits certain movements off Mill.

The southbound left turns from Mill onto Ottawa probably don't have a high volume compared to all the other movements in that intersections so that's why they made an option without them. It also moves the bus stop on the island away from the freight rail a bit. Even without the additional traffic detouring off Courtland making that turn is always slow since there isn't an advanced green at that light. Using Mill as a northbound alternative to Courtland is pretty much done with either option it but I'm sure people will still make northbound left turns off Mill street for a while. Drivers getting off the highway at Courtland and heading to the west side of Kitchener use Mill to Spadina to Highland it seems from my casual observations and driving out of downtown on Mill Street in the evenings or coming from H-W & Ottawa at this time but I've since decided that H-W to Stirling and up Highland gets me downtown just as quick. Either way they go I'm going to avoid this area from now on.

[Waterlooer]

I really hope the Region just waits to get all 14 trains before they start service. 30 minute frequency doesn't sound very rapid to me and would be a huge step backwards considering the 200 runs every 10 minutes during Fall/Winter. Maybe, if construction on ION is done by September 2017, they'll run buses along the ION corridor and make all the stops ION will make. This way GRT could still have their network redesign of bus routes that integrate with ION stations for the Fall.

[tomh009]

BRT on the LRT route! But I think they'll be needing the LRT tracks for testing and training so that's probably not a practical option.

[timc]

BRT on the LRT route!  But I think they'll be needing the LRT tracks for testing and training so that's probably not a practical option.

Not to mention that the riding the spur line would be *awfully* bumpy in a bus.

[Markster]

A question though, with the Bombardier delay, is there a chance we get SOME of the vehicles and start rolling them out a bit at a time, or is that pointless?

The response from Tom Galloway on that:

Q: Is there a backup plan in the event Bombardier misses the December 2016 deadline?

A: "No. There really is no Plan B for a couple of reasons," Galloway said.

The region says there is no other manufacturer with extra low-floor vehicles sitting around. If the region opted to contract someone new, that would only increase the delay and the region would likely still have to pay Bombardier for work completed so far.

The region could investigate starting service with fewer than the 14 vehicles currently planned. To provide 15-minute service, frequency requires 12 trains plus two spares. With fewer trains, the region could probably launch 30-minute service initially, with the downside being that may not attract the ridership officials want to see.

Which is a little disconcerting, because I thought that we were hoping to get 10 minute peak frequency with the 14 LRVs.

[rangersfan]

Peak Frequency is supposed to be 10 min?

[Waterlooer]

Peak frequency was supposed to be every 7-8 minutes I thought with 10 minute frequency through the midday. Hopefully Galloway or The Record made an error with that.

[tomh009]

Peak frequency was supposed to be every 7-8 minutes I thought with 10 minute frequency through the midday. Hopefully Galloway or The Record made an error with that.

How often will I be able to catch ION?
Exact schedules will be established before ION service begins, but generally speaking ION LRT trains will run every eight minutes during rush hours and every 10 to 15 minutes during the rest of the day.

http://rapidtransit.regionofwaterloo.ca/...stions.asp

I assume Galloway is talking about the baseline frequency, not peak.

[panamaniac]

Will they be doing the big corner section of Charles / Ontario in the black concrete? The section that was previously occupied by the turn segment from Charles onto Ontario.

It doesn't look like they're planning to do that ...

Good spot for a parkette, pending redevelopment of the block.

[ijmorlan]

BRT on the LRT route!  But I think they'll be needing the LRT tracks for testing and training so that's probably not a practical option.

Not to mention that the riding the spur line would be *awfully* bumpy in a bus.

That depends entirely on the skill of the driver at steering.

[The85]

That looks really nice to me. I'll be curious to see how it wears and ages.

I assume this strip will turn grey as it dries?

Correct - it is a different colour for visually impaired.

For more background, see similar post I did here - http://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/s...2#pid21362

[Canard]

Well, that didn't take long.

Car Crashes into Kansas City's Streetcar

Kansas City's system opened less than 3 weeks ago.

[panamaniac]

I feel sure that K-W will be able to beat that!

[Canard]

I hope so, but I'm not optimistic, given history. It's one of the inevitabilities with the technology, since it interfaces at road level with all other modes of transport, instead of traveling above or below grade. Houston has had a particularly bad time with this.

I still say a safety campaign should be started sooner, rather than later, to get the word out about safety and behavior around tracks.