ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Canard]

Confirmed we're fine:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain">@Canardiain</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Metrolinx">@Metrolinx</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a> I can confirm that Waterloo has a separate contract. This action doesn't affect that contract</p>&mdash; Anne Marie Aikins (@femwriter) <a href="https://twitter.com/femwriter/status/794316443127058432">November 3, 2016</a></blockquote>

[JoeKW]

We're fine but we still won't be able to piggyback on their wealth of knowledge and experience with these trains. There's a whole host of downsides if they end up cancelling.

[KevinL]

Interesting that our order is now a 'separate contract' when we were always told we were piggybacking on Metrolinx'.

[BuildingScout]

CBC is now running an article on it:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/pr...-1.3835608

Unclear how this affects us.  If they cancel the entire 182 LRV order, that includes us, because the 14 trains we ordered were part of the remaining trains that didn't have a home anymore after Rob Ford cancelled Transit City on his first day in office.  Will try to find out more...

They are now two years late with the delivery of the first vehicle. They have also moved the production completely from Mexico and Thunder Bay to Kingston. They ran into major issues, likely in all three of design, financial and labor and rather than come up clean and give an honest picture of what happened they keep on giving unrealistic dates for delivery that are unmet time and time again.

[Canard]

We're fine but we still won't be able to piggyback on their wealth of knowledge and experience with these trains.  There's a whole host of downsides if they end up cancelling.

We were always going to be the launch customer, so in fact it would have been Metrolinx that would have been benefiting from us being the "Guinea pigs"!

(Yes I fully appreciate that there are significant technical similarities to the TTC's FLEXITY Outlook LFLRV's which in fact would be more relevant for knowledge transfer, here)

They are now two years late with the delivery of the first vehicle. They have also moved the production completely from Mexico and Thunder Bay to Kingston. They ran into major issues, likely in all three of design, financial and labor and rather than come up clean and give an honest picture of what happened they keep on giving unrealistic dates for delivery that are unmet time and time again.

Bolded text... - Not quite. Frames were produced in Mexico, then shipped to Thunder Bay where the rest of assembly takes place. After struggling with quality issues, frame production was (is) being transferred to La Pocatiere, Quebec. To expedite the production of the FLEXITY Freedom order and free up resources in TB for FLEXITY Outlook (TTC), production of Freedom was (is being) moved to Millhaven (Kingston), which typically operates more as a test facility but has done some limited production runs for specialty vehicles (Monorail, ICTS/ALRT).

-La Pocatiere is ramping down from production of Toronto Rocket (MOVIA) frames at the end of the TTC's order. They're starting on FLEXITY Freedom frames, now.
-Millhaven is just about finished building the expansion on their main hall so that they can build the trains there. This happened fast. It was only this spring that they decided to pull the trigger and do this. It takes time to build an entire assembly facility.

I do, however, agree that Bombardier could have been far more transparent with this - but when everyone is bitching about how shitty you are, why on Earth would you talk to anyone willingly? This is why they've virtually completely shut down any form of communication beyond the bare minimum they have to.

I've got some more information and essentially what's happening here is just posturing - nothing's been cancelled.

[taylortbb]

I think the Metrolinx synergies were also supposed to be things like spare parts inventory, it would be easier if there was another stockpile an hour away we could borrow from in an emergency. Also, some talk of doing heavy refurbishment in the Metrolinx facility so we don't need our own facility. Not sure what final conclusion was, but if Metrolinx ends up using different vehicles it definitely gets in the way of those plans.

[tomh009]

In the end this may be just a negotiating tactic. In order to cancel, they need to secure a supply of train sets from somewhere else, and I doubt they could even match the BBD schedule from another supplier at this point (except possibly one of the Chinese manufacturers) as they all have their own backlogs.

[Canard]

100% negotiating.  They have 69 LRV's in the 182 order that don't have a home.  They need to cover all their bases to make sure they don't actually have to order them if they don't need to.

Local media have picked up on this, and I'm happy to say that 570 News has a very honest and informative piece about it (!):

http://www.570news.com/2016/11/04/metrol...ombardier/

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/bombardier-c...-1.3145590

Officials with the Region of Waterloo believe Metrolinx is trying to put pressure on Bombardier to see results.
They say the region has no intention of following suit.

[Section ThirtyOne]

Of note, I drove through the King/Union intersection last night on my way home from out of town. The new centrally mounted LED light standards are now installed in the area, and holy moley are they BRIGHT. It's like walking through that intersection in broad daylight now!

[KevinL]

I took quite a look at a large chunk of the southern part of the line on Friday - I finally have time to post it all!

Starting at Ottawa and Mill... they've taken a very curious approach to the southbound track at Ottawa. For the time being (presumably over the coming winter), the track is completely buried under the asphalt - no deck plates like the freight track gets.



Mill station platform work was busy. 



A bit up the line Borden-ward is a street called Grenville Avenue. It's always had a walking path down to the intersection; hopefully that is retained - there is a suitable gap between the fence blocking of the track and the property fences. 



Closer to Borden, the sleepered track will be transitioning to embedded - eventually. I've yet to see any of those transitions completed, but a lot of it is in place.

[KevinL]

The Borden side of the Schneiders property is getting decent use, as storage for catpoles...



...and crossing signals.



The right-of-way even gets used for storage, of the pole-base variety.

[KevinL]

Back on Ottawa, sidewalks were being prepared...



...and retaining walls...



...and the start of embedded rail.



That includes the intersection with Courtland.

[KevinL]

A bit further along Ottawa, embedding was in better shape. Tied and booted here...



...and a concrete pour simultaneous with welding here!



A bit farther back, and you can see the transition over the creek bridge.



Is this the oldest building in immediate proximity to the track? At least they make it easy to check the age of this one.



I'm surprised at the broad setback of the MTD building here. If this gets redeveloped, they can certainly get a bit closer to the road.

[jamincan]

I noticed yesterday on King Street heading north at River that they have one of the LED no right turn signs that lights up when a train is on the adjacent track. They aren't entirely new to Region and drivers ahead of me complied.

[KevinL]

And now a change of venue to further south, starting at Courtland and Battler. Courtland remains two lanes through here.



The view towards Fairview through the cutting. Plenty of complex suspension wiring for the eventual overhead power.



The crossing is embedded (as all curved crossings will be), but that will be transitoning...



...to sleepered, as evidenced a bit further up.



Quite a few sleepers have been laid in the area, in fact.