ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Smore]

So for those that were there...is the 501B in the flesh as crooked as it looks in every photo?

[timio]

Here's a bit of a puzzler - the only traffic signal that hasn't been reactivated (in the entire system, to my knowledge) is King and Green streets. The GRH lights are working, the Central Fresh lights... but this one is still temporary-posted as a 4-way stop.

The lights at Courtland/Siebert aren't activated yet, but these are lights that didn't exist prior to construction.

[drum118]

The line ran 3/4 to the main gate at 2 pm with about 90 minute wait. When I left, 1,000 had past through the car and exceeding the expectation for the turn out that some of the handout material was gone.

The people who were handing out the photo of the car where from Thunder Bay over seeing TTC order. They were in Kingston Friday and having a look at the work underway there. Take this with salt as it change some what talking to BBD staff, but 502 due in July, 503 & 4 in construction phase and 505 frames being assembly. 

Looking at the driver controls, a number of LED screens missing with blank material in them for display.

I will say King St underpass should be open by June since there is only a small section of track work waiting concrete and should be pour this week. A few other locations missing small section of concrete. They were removing all the support material for the enclosure for the track work when I was there and could be completed by the end of the day or Monday.

None of the platforms are completed that I saw, but Northfield is the first station with working clock and screen for next train arrival.

Parts of Charles and King St missing overhead with the rest in place.

From what I saw at Northfield station raise a question and this is base on the 2 walkway to cross the track at each end. What is to go on top of the platforms? If one looks closely at the walkway, its about 6 to 8 inches higher than the ramp on the platform. I have a photo's showing this, but going a few day before I can get around to deal with the photos to get them on line.

I knew before hand that trying to get a good video and shots was going to be mostly miss based on the turn out before going and a few 100's in line before 1 pm.

I wonder how long will it be before the locals for Ottawa and Mills St start complaint about the number of cars making u-turns in their driveway so the can go the opposite direction, since thy can't make left turns off Mills. May see no u-tuns go up as well. Best thing is to close the right turn lane at Ottawa with a few locals opposing it.

[jerryhung]

Got there around 4:30, not much crowd and still got the LRT mini-paper-model (I got GO Trains one at home too)

My first reaction seeing the crowd/parking lot was "wow, Waterloo is boring/Waterloo people are bored"
I've taken streetcars in Europe (Istanbul,Prague,Lisbon,Athens, etc...) every year basically and it's not that exciting anymore, heck one can take TTC Streetcar too

but great to see the big turnout, just glad I didn't have to wait at all, whew

[SammyOES2]

We got there when there was a little bit of a line outside, but not too long. Honestly, we didn't find the wait bad at all. It moved reasonably well and they had interesting things available to make it easier. We have a small kid and he enjoyed it too.

I especially liked that the train was first, and then the booths were after. I was worried before I left that it would just be chaos and kind of a miserable time as everyone fought to see things and get on the train. But it wasn't!

They just did an amazing job overall.

[Coke6pk]

Here's a bit of a puzzler - the only traffic signal that hasn't been reactivated (in the entire system, to my knowledge) is King and Green streets. The GRH lights are working, the Central Fresh lights... but this one is still temporary-posted as a 4-way stop.

The sooner this is fixed, the better!  Twice now I've almost been whacked as the southbound King driver(s) blow thru since there is no light.  [When every intersection had a temporary stop sign, people looked for them... now that there are a hundred lights on that stretch, the solo stop sign is lost!]

Now when I am leaving Green, I won't go until King St traffic is stopped and I am sure they won't T-Bone me...

Coke

[plam]

Got there around 4:30, not much crowd and still got the LRT mini-paper-model (I got GO Trains one at home too)

My first reaction seeing the crowd/parking lot was "wow, Waterloo is boring/Waterloo people are bored"
I've taken streetcars in Europe (Istanbul,Prague,Lisbon,Athens, etc...) every year basically and it's not that exciting anymore, heck one can take TTC Streetcar too

but great to see the big turnout, just glad I didn't have to wait at all, whew

I think people always show up for new civic infrastructure and it was a nice day to leave the house. For instance there was a huge crowd when it was possible to visit the Big Dig on foot in Boston.

I had a 30 minute wait at 2:30.

[Canard]

We got there when there was a little bit of a line outside, but not too long.  Honestly, we didn't find the wait bad at all.  It moved reasonably well and they had interesting things available to make it easier.  We have a small kid and he enjoyed it too.

I especially liked that the train was first, and then the booths were after.  I was worried before I left that it would just be chaos and kind of a miserable time as everyone fought to see things and get on the train.  But it wasn't!

They just did an amazing job overall.

So well said, and couldn't agree more! As a seasoned themepark goer, I'm hyperaware of crowd management and queuing, and absolutely they really did a great job. Even having the queue set up in the main hall in such a way so the vehicle was "presented" while waiting was brilliant. The only thing I would have preferred is if the exit were out into the yard and then along the other wall of the main hall (out the door used in November's open house), or to have people funnel out the South end bay door by having it open. The narrow hallway from the offices into the main hall was a bit awkward for 2-way traffic.

[KevinL]

  The narrow hallway from the offices into the main hall was a bit awkward for 2-way traffic.

Though it can help for making new acquaintances.

[JJTL]

Quick update on the Cedar/Market stop, driving by this morning looked like about half the tiles were up on the wall. Love the bright colours here!

[KevinL]

Ooh! I 'll have to swing by later if the rain doesn't get too bad.

[Markster]

[Canard]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Cedar and Borden stop Anchor Wall tiles are up and they look
absolutely spectacular! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/wrLRT?src=hash">#wrLRT</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/kwAwesome?src=hash">#kwAwesome</a> Cc: <a href="https://twitter.com/tomjgalloway14">@tomjgalloway14</a>
<a href="https://twitter.com/WRConnected">@WRConnected</a> <a
href="https://t.co/Its4Kv8OOh">pic.twitter.com/Its4Kv8OOh</a></p>&mdash;
iain (@Canardiain) <a href="https://twitter.com/Canardiain/status/851561089326342144">April
10, 2017</a></blockquote>

(This is soooooo painful to do on mobile!

[timio]

Terry Pender didn't pay attention to the other end of the LRV before writing his article in the Record. Painfully refers to it as 501B the entire time. http://www.therecord.com/news-story/7233...thousands/

[KevinL]

Curiously, the pattern at Kitchener Market has changed since the council approval.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">.<a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a> This was the concept approved by Council in 2015 for the Kitchener Market stop. <a href="https://t.co/USSYsobGzQ">pic.twitter.com/USSYsobGzQ</a></p>&mdash; Mike Boos (@mikeboos) <a href="https://twitter.com/mikeboos/status/851578518232342530">April 10, 2017</a></blockquote>

The new one evokes a 'shopping basket' more, I think, but I do wonder about the process behind the change.