Kitchener-Waterloo - ION lrt is now open

[Shane 177]

The long awaited day has finally arrived... in Kitchener-Waterloo that is. Their new ION lrt system welcomed its first passengers this morning.

The system makes use of the Bombardier Flexity Freedom vehicles and travels on tracks embedded in the roadways.

Lots of great photos circulating on the internet today. Here are a few from twitter:

 

[Matth69000 25]

17 hours ago, Shane said:

The long awaited day has finally arrived... in Kitchener-Waterloo that is. Their new ION lrt system welcomed its first passengers this morning.

The system makes use of the Bombardier Flexity Freedom vehicles and travels on tracks embedded in the roadways.

Lots of great photos circulating on the internet today. Here are a few from twitter:

 

Looks pretty slow to me ... Any information about it's operating speed ???

[occheetos 53]

1 hour ago, Matth69000 said:

Looks pretty slow to me ... Any information about it's operating speed ???

Vehicles top out at 88km/h, but speeds on the line are generally about 50km/h.

Average operating speed across the entire line is 25km/h (compared to the Confederation Line's 35km/h).

 

[DavidBellerive 108]

4 hours ago, Matth69000 said:

Looks pretty slow to me ... Any information about it's operating speed ???

Also important to remember it is an "open" system, in the sense it shares the road with other vehicles. Dedicated lines and a certain section is off the road, but most of it is on the regular roadway compared to our dedicated right of way for Ottawa.

The line is 19km in Waterloo, which it travels in approximately 46 minutes. Ottawa will be 12.5km in Stage 1, with 24 minutes travel time.

With Stage 2, the speed will increase even further since the distance between station is further, but also due to the track geometry being a bit more favourable.

[Shane 177]

It does appear to run slow in some videos, but at the same time, it does look to go faster on average than the TTC Streetcar lines in Toronto, which do move at a decent speed as it is. I guess since the area is less congested and there is more space, and few tight turns.

[Matth69000 25]

A lot of Cabview videos coming online this weekend. For me this network is everything that shouldn't be done when it comes to LRT operations. Slow speed even on straight lines, no signal priorities at red-lights, road sharing with no grade seperation what so ever and an awful lot of crossing barriers even on sidewalks that are absolutely horrible to watch.
When I see this I'm so happy that we are gettin a Light-Metro fully grade seperated. Calling Ottawa's network an LRT is actually a big mistake ?

[Jim Henry 8]

I have watched some of the videos and it is painfully slow in spots. The schedule is 45 minutes end to end on 19km of track so it certainly isn't fast. I wouldn't want to use it to commute to work that is for sure but to just go a short distance on the line it might still be handy.

[Herlsone 40]

First time I looked at this system.  Very nice for sure.  When I went to google maps and looked at it I noticed the massive amount of normal rail lines that seem to be abandoned, yet cross the tram  or run near it at some point.  Would be simple to put a trillium style shuttle service all over the place in Waterloo and Kitchener.

[Shane 177]

Not quite breaking news but from the last 2 weeks...

Kitchener - Waterloo's ION trains have been found to be in need of structural repairs to 11 of the 14 trains.

Bombardier will complete this work in warranty, but it will take around 2 years to complete and will require disassembly of the trains. Bombardier indicates they will try to make available enough trains to not impact service. 

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/11-of-14-ion-lrt-trains-need-repairs-under-warranty-no-safety-concerns-1.5016817

Is anyone in the know current on what type of structural issue there is on the ION trains?