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

[P0per]

The first public consultation centre for Phase II to Cambridge is happening on Wednesday and Thursday next week.

Thanks for the link. Very interesting material. Sounds like the region is heavily reconsidering the original routing through the CP Rail Corridor, which would require crossing CP Rail twice.

1. ION LRT vehicles (under construction) cannot easily cross a heavy rail track at grade (height of Overhead Catenary System will not clear a double decker train). Therefore, grade-separation is likely a necessity in the vicinity of Eagle Street and the main CPR rail from Toyota and in a few other areas not anticipated.
2. With the renewed investment in Toyota by senior levels of government, Toyota rail traffic is slated to increase further in the next few years. Therefore, the full impacts on CP rail operations are challenging especially as there will not be any impact accepted to Toyota rail operations. Other rail challenges include traversing Fairway Road to access the CP corridor, sharing CP’s Waterloo Subdivision corridor including property arrangements and track relocation, Transport Canada concerns about new at grade crossings of rail lines with public transit. Transport Canada is not in favor of non-gated and skewed crossings as presently proposed at King Street at Fairway Road and on Eagle Street. An alternative alignment or strategy needs to be pursued to reduce rail operation impact.

The alternate route of running LRT on King St. from Fairway to Eagle makes way more sense, though running up/down the grade at Shantz Hill is probably not possible with the Flexities - anyone know the steepest grade they can handle? Using the existing King St underpass of the 401 seems like a less expensive proposition than a new tunnel.

 

[Duck]

I can't imagine where they'd go at the bottom of Shantz Hill. That's so steep and sharp enough as it is trying to navigate that intersection in a car!

 

[P0per]

I can't imagine where they'd go at the bottom of Shantz Hill. That's so steep and sharp enough as it is trying to navigate that intersection in a car!

The proposed alternate route is to head straight through that intersection and immediately cross the Speed river. So it avoids the sharp corners, but looks like it runs straight up/down the hill.

 

[Duck]

Very interesting alternatives, so N-6 is what you're referring to? Where'd you find that map?

I don't like the idea of going down King between Fairway and Preston, only because I had hoped this run would be a long, higher-speed section (70-80 km/h) along the existing rail ROW. Street running is going to drop the speed to 50-60 km/h max with lots of intersection stops. King at Sportsworld is so busy/congested.

 

[P0per]

Very interesting alternatives, so N-6 is what you're referring to? Where'd you find that map?

From the public consultation materials - page 7 is where the route options start..

http://rapidtransit.regionofwaterlo..._Information_package_Nov2015_FINAL_access.pdf

 

[crs1026]

Looks like K-W is taking the potential for delayed delivery of the Flexities seriously, and has a Plan B under preparation:

http://www.railpictures.ca/?attachment_id=21629

- Paul :-0

 

[Duck]

What a gorgeous shot - great find. That's a keeper!

Here are some photos from this morning.

Crews replacing the "3rd" track which crosses Northfield. I thought they were installing the other 2 this weekend as well, but it doesn't look like it. I don't see how they can be, with this being day 4 of the 5-day closure.

Duct Bank installation along the Waterloo Spur. This is just south of the OMSF, behind Albert McCormic Arena.

Future Platform on Caroline

Future Platform on Caroline

Embedded track at Benton/Charles

Track at Benton/Charles

 

[Adjei]

http://www.therecord.com/news-story...-taking-shape-for-kitchener-bus-rail-complex/

 

[BMO]

http://www.therecord.com/news-story...-taking-shape-for-kitchener-bus-rail-complex/

So would option 1 mean the private developer would build the Transit HUB infrastructure? If so then why not choose that?

 

[dowlingm]

So would option 1 mean the private developer would build the Transit HUB infrastructure? If so then why not choose that?

Because then you end up with a station the developer is comfortable with rather than the one which best fits the requirement, maybe?

 

[BMO]

Because then you end up with a station the developer is comfortable with rather than the one which best fits the requirement, maybe?

Good point, it'll be interesting to see what comes out of this.

 

[Bytor]

Because then you end up with a station the developer is comfortable with rather than the one which best fits the requirement, maybe?

Ion Stage 1 is being built as a DBFOM project by a third party, yes, but the design must meet certain criteria and must be approved by the Region. As such, you get what is needed an wanted, not what the developer is "comfortable with".

 

[mpd618]

Ion Stage 1 is being built as a DBFOM project by a third party, yes, but the design must meet certain criteria and must be approved by the Region. As such, you get what is needed an wanted, not what the developer is "comfortable with".

The Transit Hub would be a completely separate project, unrelated to Grandlinq's contract for ION phase 1. DBFOM is a lot of planning and legal overhead for the much smaller scale of the hub.

 

[Duck]

Borden/Courtland:

Huron Spur, between Borden and Mill/Ottawa (not much beyond grading happening here, for moving freight traffic over):

One of the three tracks that will interface with Northfield is complete - this will be the freight-only line that continues Northbound. The other two Light Rail tracks will curve off to the right in this photo, toward Conestoga Mall.

From Northfield, looking South toward the OMSF:

 

[Transportfan]

Is there going to be any double-track street trackage anywhere? I'm not getting any "streetcar system" impression here.