ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[danbrotherston]

Original date was Fall 2017.

People claiming today “OHHH ITS 1.5 YEARS LATE BLARRRRG” are being sensationalist for the sake of stiring the pot.

Isn't it though?  Fall 2017 is 1.5 years (minimum) from Spring 2019, if it is indeed confirmed that's the new date--does anyone have an official source for this?


I had thought a 2019 launch was pretty unlikely, I'm very disappointed to be wrong. I know some were hoping for a spring launch, but many otherws were hoping to depend on this transportation system. I'm very seriously considering buying a car this winter anyway, not having LRT only makes me more likely.

[trainspotter139]

Original date was Fall 2017.

People claiming today “OHHH ITS 1.5 YEARS LATE BLARRRRG” are being sensationalist for the sake of stiring the pot.

Isn't it though?  Fall 2017 is 1.5 years (minimum) from Spring 2019, if it is indeed confirmed that's the new date--does anyone have an official source for this?


I had thought a 2019 launch was pretty unlikely, I'm very disappointed to be wrong. I know some were hoping for a spring launch, but many otherws were hoping to depend on this transportation system. I'm very seriously considering buying a car this winter anyway, not having LRT only makes me more likely.

No official source for it despite one user's claim. There is a decent amount of progress on the equipment both here and in Kingston that suggests otherwise. The first installs of the equipment will take the longest then after that it's like dominoes. So I absolutely expect the testing to rapidly accelerate over the next few weeks as they test the last few things before the equipment tests take over.

[embe]

There is no blank cheque. There is no cost increase because you had to wait a little longer to ride. Fixed price contract. P3. Boom. Such an impatient world we live in.

Lots of crews out on Charles; about 5 guys at Kitchener Market ripping a hole out out of the NB left turn lane, and another (bigger) crew in the Rapidway at Stirling.

I was thinking about this comment earlier today. 

Whether it's a fixed price P3 contract or not, for a project with this type of visibility, to be 1+ years behind and the amount of re-work (and frankly, waste) occurring, there are probably a lot of the general tax-paying public feeling like they were misled (on the schedule) or or not getting their money's worth (from a working LRT system).    

I want to see this thing up and running as much as anyone.  A lot of the major routes through town have been modified to the point there's no going back now, but there would surely be less critics (or less fuel for the critics) if it were closer to being on schedule than further away.

[Rainrider22]

Original date was Fall 2017.

People claiming today “OHHH ITS 1.5 YEARS LATE BLARRRRG” are being sensationalist for the sake of stiring the pot.

Isn't it though?  Fall 2017 is 1.5 years (minimum) from Spring 2019, if it is indeed confirmed that's the new date--does anyone have an official source for this?


I had thought a 2019 launch was pretty unlikely, I'm very disappointed to be wrong. I know some were hoping for a spring launch, but many otherws were hoping to depend on this transportation system. I'm very seriously considering buying a car this winter anyway, not having LRT only makes me more likely.

No Dan, I don't always agree with you...  but please, don't give in and get a car.  I want to live vicarious through you without a car and providing feed back about how important the lrt is !!

[JoeKW]

Heads should roll if someone dropped the ball but you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs.

[Pheidippides]

Apparently we haven't yet hit peak signage around the Ion stations:
   

There are so many signs now that I think people just tune all of them out. The ugliest one has to be that route 5 purple and gold one on the Willis Station platform.

The west side of this crossing at Caroline and FDB, which is misplaced to begin with, got a curb cut and concrete probably a month ago and is still closed:
   



I would agree with the comment about the break-down in communication being the issue, not the actual delay itself. Delays, especially in big projects, happen, especially when things like the corduroy road happen; project managers can only plan for so much of the unexpected in to a buffer, but once it is clear that there is going to be a delay then own it and move on to solving the problem. Don't hide the problem and hope that it will magically right itself.

The fact that we are on the same order of magnitude of delay as Ottawa's project despite the fact that Ottawa's was much, much, more complex is a bit demoralizing.

I've said before that I don't expect any further delays will be purposely announced until after the election, but it should be clear to anyone not wearing rose-coloured glasses that the December launch is not going to happen.

(very happy to be proven wrong though!)

[panamaniac]

I don't understand that sign in the first pic, above. What is the black box pushing the figure into the black rectangle? What moving parts are they warning about?

[timio]

I don't understand that sign in the first pic, above. What is the black box pushing the figure into the black rectangle? What moving parts are they warning about?

My guess is this is at a crossing and the black box is symbolizing a crossing arm hitting the person into the post? Or flying rectangles exist in Uptown Waterloo, always moving on a horizontal plane ready to strike the next person who gets in their way.

[panamaniac]

Well, it would be scary to be knocked backward into a rectangular black hole, not to mention being caused serious injury or death, so I will be extra careful when I'm Uptown.

[Canard]

It’s there for the counterweight for the crossing arm. Standard industry signage for machinery.

[jamincan]

I can't help but wonder if there is some better barrier for pedestrians than the standard crossing arm. The standard crossing arm/bells make sense for warning drivers, but don't really seem well-suited to pedestrians and cyclists.

• the loud warning bells are tuned to warn drivers in cars and are likely louder than needed for pedestrians and cyclists. This isn't a safety issue, but it does provide a disincentive for pedestrian crossings as they are disruptive to neighbours
  
• there is some possibility of injury from the barrier itself, though people would have to disregard the warning bells above. I think the risk is minimal, but I can think of several other designs that would present less of a hazard.
  
• the barrier is trivial to bypass. It is a barrier designed for cars, not people. A barrier should not be trivial to get around. That said, you don't want to confine someone on the guideway, so there has to be some way for them to leave it, but once again, I can think of several options for dealing with this.
  

I wonder if the nature of regulations in the railroad industry might stifle safety innovations. If regulations precisely outline what a barrier must be, there is no way for a company to innovate outside that box. Do people more knowledge about railways have any examples of how safety measures have evolved and improved over the last 50 years or so?

[jgsz]

I like that the sign is interactive.  You can share it on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.  

   

[Spokes]

Well, it would be scary to be knocked backward into a rectangular black hole, not to mention being caused serious injury or death, so I will be extra careful when I'm Uptown.

Do you get knocked into the black hole and fall into a different world/dimension?

[panamaniac]

Well, it would be scary to be knocked backward into a rectangular black hole, not to mention being caused serious injury or death, so I will be extra careful when I'm Uptown.

Do you get knocked into the black hole and fall into a different world/dimension?

I'm not sure.  I sort of think of Uptown that way already! 

[danbrotherston]

I can't help but wonder if there is some better barrier for pedestrians than the standard crossing arm. The standard crossing arm/bells make sense for warning drivers, but don't really seem well-suited to pedestrians and cyclists.

• the loud warning bells are tuned to warn drivers in cars and are likely louder than needed for pedestrians and cyclists. This isn't a safety issue, but it does provide a disincentive for pedestrian crossings as they are disruptive to neighbours
  
• there is some possibility of injury from the barrier itself, though people would have to disregard the warning bells above. I think the risk is minimal, but I can think of several other designs that would present less of a hazard.
  
• the barrier is trivial to bypass. It is a barrier designed for cars, not people. A barrier should not be trivial to get around. That said, you don't want to confine someone on the guideway, so there has to be some way for them to leave it, but once again, I can think of several options for dealing with this.
  

These are some great points, and it's probably worth looking at other jurisdictions, what they do. As far as I've seen though, the only difference in other countries is the use of less ridiculously oversized equipment for pedestrian crossings.

As for the "barrier blocks cars" point, well, not that much, on a two way roads, cars can trivially and do navigate around the barrier in the other lane. This leads to many collisions. Which is why in certain other countries, where things are arguably more modern, the gates block both directions of the road.

I wonder if the nature of regulations in the railroad industry might stifle safety innovations. If regulations precisely outline what a barrier must be, there is no way for a company to innovate outside that box. Do people more knowledge about railways have any examples of how safety measures have evolved and improved over the last 50 years or so?

Yeah, I think it might be understating it to say that regulations stifle safety innovations.

The best example is the very rail cars themselves. Our crash standards are very different from European standards, as I understand it, ours require no deformation to avoid telescoping of cars in a crash with a freight train. Not only does this make little sense on passenger railways (and this type of collision is far less common on modern railways anyway), it leads to heavier, less efficient, more expensive, and more dangerous cars, compared with modern trains in Europe, which again, in my amateur understanding use something more similar to a crumple zone in a car in order to dissipate energy in a crash.

Edit: To bring this back into the realm of ION, I believe this is one of the region for the strong segregation between freight trains and LRT on our route, because the LRT vehicles would not normally be rated to operate mixed with freight traffic.