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Waterloo Region Transit Developments (ION LRT, new terminal, GRT buses)

robmausser said:
Nice, but I thought the max speed with ATC was 70.

I WANT MY 5 km/h!!!
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From link.

...the surface of the earth at the equator moves at a speed of 460 meters per second...
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...earth is moving about our sun in a very nearly circular orbit. It covers this route at a speed of nearly 30 kilometers per second...
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...our solar system--Earth and all--whirls around the center of our galaxy at some 220 kilometers per second...
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Then there's time dilation. See link.

Special relativity indicates that, for an observer in an inertial frame of reference, a clock that is moving relative to them will be measured to tick slower than a clock that is at rest in their frame of reference. This case is sometimes called special relativistic time dilation. The faster the relative velocity, the greater the time dilation between one another, with the rate of time reaching zero as one approaches the speed of light (299,792,458 m/s). This causes massless particles that travel at the speed of light to be unaffected by the passage of time.

Theoretically, time dilation would make it possible for passengers in a fast-moving vehicle to advance further into the future in a short period of their own time. For sufficiently high speeds, the effect is dramatic. For example, one year of travel might correspond to ten years on Earth. Indeed, a constant 1 g acceleration would permit humans to travel through the entire known Universe in one human lifetime.
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  • Haha
Reactions: anb
Why csnt this hub already be underway what is the hold up for not proceeding forward if anyone knows? I’m tired of walking 10 mins or bringing my bike everytime to get from the go train to the lrt when i visit kitchener
 
bgb_ca said:
kitchener.ctvnews.ca

Region of Waterloo to get $2.2 million, plus another ION train, for LRT delivery delays

Bombardier has reached a settlement with the Region of Waterloo for failing to deliver its LRT trains on time.
kitchener.ctvnews.ca

2.2 million in compesentation + a new LRV (probably the loaner they were going to use while fixing the welds) due to the delivery delays.
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Bombardier is like the Oprah of railcar manufacturers

oprah-you-get-a-car-gif-7.gif
 
I haven't heard much about Phase 2 lately. I assume all the studies are done and it's shovel ready/ready for funding, and then a procurement would need to start? Or is the likelihood diminished because of covid-19?
 
Allandale25 said:
I haven't heard much about Phase 2 lately. I assume all the studies are done and it's shovel ready/ready for funding, and then a procurement would need to start? Or is the likelihood diminished because of covid-19?
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I'm not perfectly current, but my understanding is that the plan is finalized with the Region and just needs to be funded. However the Region seems mostly focused lately on funding for other projects.

The Northfield bus garage was a big one for them because that will let GRT finally get artics to serve some of the (pre-covid) overcrowded routes, like the 110 college express (a direct point to point shuttle between Fairway station and Conestoga Doon campus), as well as some of the crosstown iXpress routes whose ridership I believe increased with reorganization of service after ION, as transfers are now easier and tend to naturally happen at stations rather than random bus stops in the middle of nowhere.

It should also help improve operations generally since there will now be a garage in Waterloo, and Northfield will become a pretty major transit operations centre with both the garage and the ION OMSF. The garage is also incorporating EV charging/servicing facilities to help transition to an electric fleet, which they've tentatively roadmapped to the mid 2020s, so it will save them having to retrofit it later.

Unofficially, a lot of this is clearly a response to some criticism and negatives - that the ION didn't deliver value proportional to its cost (I'd strongly disagree), that it's operated by a private, (I think) non union company which indirectly undermines Unifor (this is something I am critical of), that it serves as a wedge for union busting and strikebreaking by letting the Region continue to operate transit vehicles in some capacity during strikes, which came up during the GRT strike back in the winter, and basically that focus on ION translated to a neglect of the bus fleet. Drivers I've spoken to, especially in the months leading up to the strike, talked about there being a high attrition rate on the job.

The Region seems to have been taking steps to try to stabilize the situation by talking about expansion of bus routes (guaranteeing more work for drivers) and facilities, but that was pre-COVID. So far during COVID there's been a huge emphasis on partnering with municipalities around cycling and the push for bike lanes on regional roads like Coronation Blvd, but this was killed off by odious Cambridge suburbanite backlash, just like the Westmount lanes were effectively killed off by Waterloo suburbanites. So they're a bit stumped.

What I suspect is that once rebound from COVID is complete, the Region will start talking about the ION more as a way of building momentum for Phase 2. Local pols have also alluded to the Ford government's cancellation of the Hamilton line as a reason why they haven't put it forward. From a provincial perspective, even if the Ford government wasn't already inclined to cancel projects it hasn't come up with itself, Phase 2 could easily be seen as a "second line" when Hamilton hasn't yet seen its first, even though it's really just a line extension. So my guess is they're waiting to see who will be in office after the next election and will make their decision then.
 
tmlittle said:
I'm not perfectly current, but my understanding is that the plan is finalized with the Region and just needs to be funded. However the Region seems mostly focused lately on funding for other projects.

The Northfield bus garage was a big one for them because that will let GRT finally get artics to serve some of the (pre-covid) overcrowded routes, like the 110 college express (a direct point to point shuttle between Fairway station and Conestoga Doon campus), as well as some of the crosstown iXpress routes whose ridership I believe increased with reorganization of service after ION, as transfers are now easier and tend to naturally happen at stations rather than random bus stops in the middle of nowhere.

It should also help improve operations generally since there will now be a garage in Waterloo, and Northfield will become a pretty major transit operations centre with both the garage and the ION OMSF. The garage is also incorporating EV charging/servicing facilities to help transition to an electric fleet, which they've tentatively roadmapped to the mid 2020s, so it will save them having to retrofit it later.

Unofficially, a lot of this is clearly a response to some criticism and negatives - that the ION didn't deliver value proportional to its cost (I'd strongly disagree), that it's operated by a private, (I think) non union company which indirectly undermines Unifor (this is something I am critical of), that it serves as a wedge for union busting and strikebreaking by letting the Region continue to operate transit vehicles in some capacity during strikes, which came up during the GRT strike back in the winter, and basically that focus on ION translated to a neglect of the bus fleet. Drivers I've spoken to, especially in the months leading up to the strike, talked about there being a high attrition rate on the job.

The Region seems to have been taking steps to try to stabilize the situation by talking about expansion of bus routes (guaranteeing more work for drivers) and facilities, but that was pre-COVID. So far during COVID there's been a huge emphasis on partnering with municipalities around cycling and the push for bike lanes on regional roads like Coronation Blvd, but this was killed off by odious Cambridge suburbanite backlash, just like the Westmount lanes were effectively killed off by Waterloo suburbanites. So they're a bit stumped.

What I suspect is that once rebound from COVID is complete, the Region will start talking about the ION more as a way of building momentum for Phase 2. Local pols have also alluded to the Ford government's cancellation of the Hamilton line as a reason why they haven't put it forward. From a provincial perspective, even if the Ford government wasn't already inclined to cancel projects it hasn't come up with itself, Phase 2 could easily be seen as a "second line" when Hamilton hasn't yet seen its first, even though it's really just a line extension. So my guess is they're waiting to see who will be in office after the next election and will make their decision then.
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They are/were building new bus terminals where none exist before because of the LRT. The Centre Hub is going to eat some money for the next few years.

With COVID-19, a number of things have been pushed back and this also applies to other systems with phase 2 could be one of them.
 
Allandale25 said:
I haven't heard much about Phase 2 lately. I assume all the studies are done and it's shovel ready/ready for funding, and then a procurement would need to start? Or is the likelihood diminished because of covid-19?
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Last I heard the project was proceeding to the Environmental Assessment stage.
 
^ Interesting, from @tmlittle's post above and this line (" I'm not perfectly current, but my understanding is that the plan is finalized with the Region and just needs to be funded.") I had interpreted that to mean it was already done the EA stage.
 
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