ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[jason897]

So I'm on the UW campus today and tomorrow for work.  Any chance I see some testing??

Well I flipped on the radio for a few minutes and heard from both 511 and 512, so probably a good chance

[plam]

I was thinking, whilst on an express bus from Fairview mall to Charles Terminal - there is no way the LRT will be able to do that run any faster or even equal to that run, with the stops in between and the speed at which it travels (seemingly based on testing)...am I wrong?

I misread this as terminal to terminal. I'm not sure what the actual schedule will be, but there's a good chance the LRT can go faster from the Fairway stop to the Victoria Park stop than a bus because for much of the stretch along Fairview and Courtland the LRT is off the streets and will be going 70km/h. Once it gets back on the streets it might be able to travel a bit faster than the 200 because it will get priority signalling at intersection. In general though the LRT is not going to be much faster than a bus, but nor is it supposed to be. Its timing will be more consistent since it will be slightly less impacted by other traffic on the roads, and there's a lot more room so its capacity will be greater.

The off-street part should be faster. Just to add to robdrimmie's points, LRT is also good because it doesn't add to traffic congestion as much as cars or buses would. So it's more comfortable but not faster today, but the no-LRT alternative would be way slower in 20 years.

[Spokes]

So I'm on the UW campus today and tomorrow for work.  Any chance I see some testing??

Well I flipped on the radio for a few minutes and heard from both 511 and 512, so probably a good chance

Today's gonna be my day!!!!

[KevinT]

Disconnected the third spacer car for the trip up the spur, or didn't have one on the end this time?

The third spacer car stays in Lancaster Yard when they bring it up. It's not needed for the nightly train as they shunt the LRVs to the last cars of the train. The CN Freights from Kingston to Mac Yard and from Mac Yard to Kitchener however may have them in the middle so they use an extra spacer for the end.

The majority of single LRV deliveries took the rear spacer flat up the spur as well, while the only other double LRV delivery also left it in Lancaster.

[KevinT]

I was thinking, whilst on an express bus from Fairview mall to Charles Terminal - there is no way the LRT will be able to do that run any faster or even equal to that run, with the stops in between and the speed at which it travels (seemingly based on testing)...am I wrong?

I'm certain it will be somewhat faster going from Fairway to downtown Kitchener (it doesn't go directly to the Charles terminal since the northbound track is on Duke) for the reasons @robdrimmie listed, and I guarantee it will be A LOT faster getting from downtown Kitchener to the University / R&T Park area.  I take the 200 iXpress for that trip whenever my car's in the shop for service and it's always a nightmarish milk run despite the word 'express' in its name.

[KevinT]

Well I flipped on the radio for a few minutes and heard from both 511 and 512, so probably a good chance

Just heard from 513 as well. First time? Man I wish I'd been keeping better notes...

[KevinL]

Yes, the biggest time savings from 200 to Ion will be from Uptown to Conestoga. No twisting and turning on the UW ring road, and avoiding University Ave traffic.

[jason897]

My video from last night - 

[Spokes]

It happened!!!!!

I saw an ION train tonight!! 511 was at Conestoga right after we got Santa pictures. And the driver was super nice too, gave my son a huge wave.

[bgb_ca]

Yay!!!

[jason897]

The third spacer car stays in Lancaster Yard when they bring it up. It's not needed for the nightly train as they shunt the LRVs to the last cars of the train. The CN Freights from Kingston to Mac Yard and from Mac Yard to Kitchener however may have them in the middle so they use an extra spacer for the end.

The majority of single LRV deliveries took the rear spacer flat up the spur as well, while the only other double LRV delivery also left it in Lancaster.

It seems to me for the double LRV deliveries they have to leave the rear spacer behind or they won’t fit in the siding. It’s pretty tight with the two. Single delivery I guess could go either way depending on what the crew feels like

[KevinT]

It seems to me for the double LRV deliveries they have to leave the rear spacer behind or they won’t fit in the siding. It’s pretty tight with the two. Single delivery I guess could go either way depending on what the crew feels like

Agreed. The delivery flatcars generally travel in triplets (two spacers plus one custom carrier), so it's less work to take all three up to Waterloo so they don't have to reassemble the set at Lancaster when the empties come back. For the double deliveries though, yeah, I doubt that five would fit in that siding that they use in Waterloo.

[jason897]

Ok I just looked through all of mabudden’s delivery videos and looks like all of the single deliveries kept the rear spacer. Which makes sense as per above.
Do find it interesting looking back at 504 and 505 where there were the odd freight cars tailing behind the LRV. Those got dropped into the siding too?

[trainspotter139]

Ok I just looked through all of mabudden’s delivery videos and looks like all of the single deliveries kept the rear spacer. Which makes sense as per above.
Do find it interesting looking back at 504 and 505 where there were the odd freight cars tailing behind the LRV. Those got dropped into the siding too?

They got cut out of the consist before the train backed into the siding then hooked up again.

[jason897]

All 14 LRVs are now delivered!!!

The offload --> https://twitter.com/mrjasonli/status/107...1383067649