ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[timc]

Rain is such that the "roadway" on King in front of Kaufman Lofts is currently a river.

I imagine it's a pretty muddy river too.

[Canard]

First pics of FLEXITY Freedom going together in Thunder Bay.

One more; cab shot:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">And from <a href="https://twitter.com/Metrolinx">@Metrolinx</a> Rapid Transit, Capital Projects Group 2015-16 Q3 report, LRV pilot interior shot <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/onpoli?src=hash">#onpoli</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> <a href="https://t.co/GukowsMA5O">pic.twitter.com/GukowsMA5O</a></p>&mdash; Chris Drew (@chrisjamesdrew) <a href="https://twitter.com/chrisjamesdrew/status/765579068125302785">August 16, 2016</a></blockquote>

[GtwoK]

Lots of lovely tree planting going on along the line downtown today! They tend planting trees along Duke at Francis and it looks quite nice

Noticed something strange being installed at King / Francis. Across King, on the east side, where the crosswalk will be, they had dug an 18" trench. Along that trench, there were ~8 metal poles, standing vertically on the bottom of the trench, not buried at all. The top of the poles was level with where the pavement will eventually be. What would those be for? All I could think was maybe some sort of barrier could be inserted into them for when they need to close King for events?

[Canard]

What did the poles look like? What diameter? Was there a mounting flange on top?

[danbrotherston]

Lots of lovely tree planting going on along the line downtown today! They tend planting trees along Duke at Francis and it looks quite nice

Noticed something strange being installed at King / Francis. Across King, on the east side, where the crosswalk will be, they had dug an 18" trench. Along that trench, there were ~8 metal poles, standing vertically on the bottom of the trench, not buried at all. The top of the poles was level with where the pavement will eventually be. What would those be for? All I could think was maybe some sort of barrier could be inserted into them for when they need to close King for events?

If it was, that would be a very useful addition, I am kind of surprised the city didn't have that before.  Closing the road with orange construction signs always seemed to be a bit unfortunate.

[danbrotherston]

   

That moment where concrete ties become wooden.  I mean, I guess it had to happen somewhere.  I still find it strange they end up using both.



   

This is looking across King towards the passage that lets trains continue down the spur line.  I recall at the Spur Line Trail meeting, the city indicating their hopes that the rail line would be shifted slightly north (left in this picture) to allow the trail to continue through here.  The picture shows that there is indeed space (just barely), and you can see the tracks shift to the north side at the end of the passage, but are towards the middle in the foreground where they enter the passage.  Seems unnecessary to have them positioned there, I suppose they could still move, but it doesn't look like they will.  I am not surprised about this, given that the city is twice removed from those actually doing the work.

I did express my frustration at the idea in the original meeting.  I felt that even if the rails could be moved, the trail would be tight through there.  I felt that the "temporary" (now looking less temporary) "routing" of the trail down Regina and onto Willis Way should be considered permanent and room in the budget should be made to implement a proper trail connection that people would actually feel safe using.  I didn't think they should count on being able to actually move the freight alignment, although I suppose we still have some time to go on this.

[zanate]

I did express my frustration at the idea in the original meeting.  I felt that even if the rails could be moved, the trail would be tight through there.  I felt that the "temporary" (now looking less temporary) "routing" of the trail down Regina and onto Willis Way should be considered permanent and room in the budget should be made to implement a proper trail connection that people would actually feel safe using.  I didn't think they should count on being able to actually move the freight alignment, although I suppose we still have some time to go on this.

My recollection of spur trail planning is different. ISTR finding out from staff that the gap between those buildings was rail only and the spur trail would never officially use it, that it would route down to Willis Way officially, but (nudge nudge wink wink) of course they couldn't stop people from filtering through the more direct way even if it's technically trespassing. I don't remember hearing anything about shifting rails and the idea surprises me, because rail cars are often quite a bit wider than the rails on which they sit, so clearance is an issue.

So, I'm not expecting much here.

Also, isn't there a footpath along the parking garage next to the button factory? Surprised that this hasn't become the official trail route, but I guess it's a challenge to cross King.

[danbrotherston]

My recollection of spur trail planning is different. ISTR finding out from staff that the gap between those buildings was rail only and the spur trail would never officially use it, that it would route down to Willis Way officially, but (nudge nudge wink wink) of course they couldn't stop people from filtering through the more direct way even if it's technically trespassing. I don't remember hearing anything about shifting rails and the idea surprises me, because rail cars are often quite a bit wider than the rails on which they sit, so clearance is an issue.

So, I'm not expecting much here.

Also, isn't there a footpath along the parking garage next to the button factory? Surprised that this hasn't become the official trail route, but I guess it's a challenge to cross King.

*shrugs*...I wouldn't be surprised if staff didn't all have their stories straight.

Remember also "staff" is an ambiguous term.  At the meeting, I heard this from city staff directly, not region staff.

As for space, I realize that rail cars are wider, but look at the positioning of the trail at the far end of the passage.  It is clearly closer to the north building than the south.  If you take a closer look (in person), if you give an equal buffer on the south side of the track as the north side has from the building, there is still about 2 meters of space between that and the next building.  Narrow to be sure, but something staff would probably consider feasible.  However, at the entrance, since the rail is in the middle between the two buildings, there is not sufficient space for a trail.  The adjustment staff stated specifically they wanted was for the rail to be moved closer to the north building, as it is at the other end.

There is a gap at the parking garage, but it is also quite narrow, one end is in the middle of a bus stop, the other end is in the middle of a parking lot, not exactly the best place for a bike/ped path.  Although crossing King and Regina there are no more difficult than crossing at the rail line.

Quite frankly, the Willis Way route is not a bad compromise, especially given that it has lights at King.  But it needed to be built properly.  The access at the City Hall is decent, but the crossing of Regina is wanting.  The bigger problem is, that there is a very large percentage of the population who are uncomfortable riding on a road, even a quieter one like Willis Way.  The lack of connections between our pieces of infrastructure I think is one of the biggest obstacles our bike network faces.

But I realize this is getting off topic...so just to bring it back...I hope that connections between buses and LRT work better than connections between the Spur Line and Iron Horse Trail.

[Bureaucromancer]

It seems like the proper solution would be to consider that section equivalent to street running, sign the hell out of it and acknowledge that the risk is quite manageable for a pedestrian path with the level of use the spur actually gets.

[danbrotherston]

It seems like the proper solution would be to consider that section equivalent to street running, sign the hell out of it and acknowledge that the risk is quite manageable for a pedestrian path with the level of use the spur actually gets.

This would be my suggestion except that I don't think it will work for bikes, because riding along the tracks, even embedded in asphalt is really risky, especially in a confined corridor.  You could possibly split bikes from peds at the intersection further back, but there still must be accommodation for people on bikes who aren't comfortable riding on the road.

Also, there's railway rules and all that jazz, quite frankly, I'm already impressed they managed to get the spur line trail within the rules without a big fence.

[Canard]

It seems like the proper solution would be to consider that section equivalent to street running, sign the hell out of it and acknowledge that the risk is quite manageable for a pedestrian path with the level of use the spur actually gets.

Two words: Transport Canada.

Street running heavy rail will never be a thing again, anywhere.

[GtwoK]

What did the poles look like? What diameter? Was there a mounting flange on top?

Only got a brief glance at them while walking past.
 Looked to be maybe 8" across. The inner diameter was much smaller, maybe 3 or 4". Don't remember if there was  flange on top, but looked like they may have been connecting them , possibly with pipe or wire of some sort?

Here's a crude drawing

[Viewfromthe42]

I would say those are surely for bollards. Look in the background of your image, the intersection side of the crosswalk: every light stripe has a spot for a bollard, and this would envelop the last of the brick crosswalks in downtown.

[GtwoK]

Doh, how did I not notice that when making the image? That being said, why have we never seen them used?

[Viewfromthe42]

There's never been much in the way of events large enough to need to close off *THAT* much of King Street, aside from perhaps an expanded version of the two weeks (?) they had it closed 1 or 2 summers back for event-a-day car-free-ness.