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

[Duck]

You went for quite the drive today! I thought I was the only one who routinely drives the whole route to check it out Where is the Schneider Creek bridge?

Great photos!

It feels like they've been pushing dirt around for years, now - un-building. I can't wait for the actual concrete infrastructure to start going down, and for the thing to actually start being built!

 

[P0per]

Where is the Schneider Creek bridge?

Just north of Hayward - Google Maps. The construction site was hidden until a lot of trees along the Huron Park spur were removed a couple months ago.

Should not be long before they are laying track in North Waterloo and adding second tracks to the at-grade crossings at Bearinger and Columbia.

 

[timio]

Should not be long before they are laying track in North Waterloo and adding second tracks to the at-grade crossings at Bearinger and Columbia.

The past few updates from GrandLinq have been suggesting the upcoming closures of Quiet, Bearinger, Columbia, University, and Seagram for up to 2 weeks when they happen. No specific dates have been given yet as to when to expect these closures.

 

[Duck]

The temporary sign at Bearinger said closing May 19.

 

[Markster]

The temporary sign at Bearinger said closing May 19.

Here's the notice that I saw on my work's front door:

 

[Markster]

You went for quite the drive today! I thought I was the only one who routinely drives the whole route to check it out Where is the Schneider Creek bridge?

Hey!
Some of us don't drive it, we walk it!

I didn't post it on UT at the time, but back on May 2nd, I took a long walk along the corridor:

See all 60 photos on facebook

On May 6th, I saw them doing some actual relocation of the existing tracks:

[video=youtube;0GMcf1ItnY8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GMcf1ItnY8[/video]

 

[Markster]

Official stop names have been announced.

Behold, Torontonians, and weep before the sheer utilitarian glory.

New names on the left, old working names on the right

No "Northfield Metropolitan Centre Station" or "Joseph Schneider Haus Historic Site Station" to be found!

 

[nfitz]

No "Northfield Metropolitan Centre Station" or "Joseph Schneider Haus Historic Site Station" to be found!

Laurier-Waterloo Park is a bit much. And not particularly descriptive either, not being at WLU. Seagrams would have worked better.

It's rather like the unnecessary hyphenation that's been added recently in Montreal ... where simple station names had nearby Universities hyphenated unnecessarily into the names.

 

[mpd618]

Laurier-Waterloo Park is a bit much. And not particularly descriptive either, not being at WLU. Seagrams would have worked better.

It's the closest station to Laurier, which is a pretty big transit destination. Seagram Drive is not that well known. There's definitely politics behind the name choice as well, but I don't think the name is unreasonable.

 

[nfitz]

It's the closest station to Laurier, which is a pretty big transit destination. Seagram Drive is not that well known. There's definitely politics behind the name choice as well, but I don't think the name is unreasonable.

It's closer to UW than WLU.

I think most who live in the area know where Seagram Drive is.

The LRT doesn't particularly serve WLU very well. I expect the King Street bus will continue to be important to WLU.

 

[Markster]

As a friend of mine put it, they can't just call it "Political Compromise Station" explicitly.

 

[Duck]

Some photos from today.

Operations, Storage and Maintenance Facility:

Construction at the Bearanger Road Crossing:

 

[Duck]

Construction this morning at Bearanger is in full swing. The first permanent tracks for ion will be placed here within the next day!

 

[robmausser]

Its so cool that they are using as much of current rail lines as possible for the LRT, what a great idea.

They kinda did the same thing in Ottawa and San Diego but used Diesel heavy rail trains.

A lot of cities actually have infrequently used rail lines running through downtown, or even heavily used corridors with space to expand, yet the logic seems to escape people to use these.

 

[ehlow]

Its so cool that they are using as much of current rail lines as possible for the LRT, what a great idea.

They kinda did the same thing in Ottawa and San Diego but used Diesel heavy rail trains.

A lot of cities actually have infrequently used rail lines running through downtown, or even heavily used corridors with space to expand, yet the logic seems to escape people to use these.

Were these rail lines unused previously?