ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Canard]

Frederick/Duke fully re-open, all movements?

[KevinL]

Presumably will be, yes. It's the spot that needs the most polish; there's some clumps of sand/snow that looked problematic. But the signals are functional and remaining construction zones cordoned off.

[boatracer]

Oopsie

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Just a friendly reminder that there is No pickup window at this pizza place. Please park on the street and get your nails done. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/uptownopen?src=hash">#uptownopen</a> <a href="https://t.co/Qb1Bwuh0L3">pic.twitter.com/Qb1Bwuh0L3</a></p>&mdash; All My Nails Salon (@AllMyNailsSalon) <a href="https://twitter.com/AllMyNailsSalon/status/809190958634041348">December 15, 2016</a></blockquote>

Saw another person stuck on the spur line during the lunch hour today.  Police were on scene, looked like they were just waiting for a tow.  They didn't get nearly as far at the car in the above photo.

[Viewfromthe42]

First time I saw that photo, I thought that the tow truck was the focus, could barely make out the guy who had gone waaaay back.

[Section ThirtyOne]

Since the changes, I almost pulled in there myself before realizing there is no roadway there any more!

[Canard]

They did it!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">King Wellington open. YES YES <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> <a href="https://t.co/XzQwAJWHd5">pic.twitter.com/XzQwAJWHd5</a></p>&mdash; Tom Galloway (@tomjgalloway14) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomjgalloway14/status/812066364621987843">December 22, 2016</a></blockquote>

[KevinL]

In other news, I have it on good authority that the project's Wikipedia presence has significantly increased - every station now has its own article. The list is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_rapid_...t#Stations

[tomh009]

Nice work!

[MidTowner]

In other news, I have it on good authority that the project's Wikipedia presence has significantly increased - every station now has its own article. The list is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ion_rapid_...t#Stations

In the list of stations, Northfield is identified as a "Park and Ride station." I'd forgotten about that. Does anyone know if that's accurate and, if so, how exactly parking will work there?

[D40LF]

It won't.

[MidTowner]

hahaha Good answer! That's my suspicion, too. So is it a park-and-ride, or what? Does Grand River Transit think it's a good idea to identify a station as a "park-and-ride" when the only parking around is private? Or is it a defunct idea...?

[KevinL]

Can confirm that Benton/Frederick/King/Duke are all set to open. Signals are active, roads are clear, they just need to do a small bit of tidying and move some barriers and signs.

Et voila.

[MidTowner]

hahaha Good answer! That's my suspicion, too. So is it a park-and-ride, or what? Does Grand River Transit think it's a good idea to identify a station as a "park-and-ride" when the only parking around is private? Or is it a defunct idea...?

Rideion.ca does say about Northfield that "A Park n’ Ride facility will be located here." I agree that it's a logical station to host one, location-wise. I have no sense of how they will accomplish it.

[Viewfromthe42]

The proposed Park'n'Ride would be on the North side of Northfield, closest to the freight rail there. I already know coworkers in Downtown who use Conestoga as a P'n'R to iXpress/7 to work.

[Canard]

I love Park'n'Ride lots - we use them whenever we visit cities in our travels. We always get a hotel on the outskirts with good access to transit, then either drive or walk over to the station and take transit in for activities downtown. I'm glad it's at least on the radar, here, that there's a need for it - otherwise, you're missing hundreds of thousands of people who live in the Region but won't be able to use the system.

No surprises here for anyone who was at the OMSF tour, but the Media finally got wind of it:

Region won’t get light rail train for Christmas

At this point I kind of hope it gets delayed until April - trying to follow the first train in along the Spur Line trail is going to be a royal PITA in the middle of winter.