Ran in to a number of people I know to the point the last one was arriving with his 2 kids and told him he had about 90 minute wait to get in and this was at 2 pm. At that point when I left, over 1,000 had seen the car and number where exceeding what was projected at that point.
Going in, I knew it was got to be a bitch to get any good videos or photos and you took your chance trying to get that one good shot. A number of people who wanted that great shot wish people stay away or out of their view. I take what I can as it will be near impossible for that one shot. The video is something not to write home about an the best under what was taking place.
Take what I say with a grain of salt as there most likely different versions being stated. 502 due in July. 503 & 504 in construction phase. 505 being assembly frame wise. All Edmonton 35m cars will be built in Kingston.
Representatives of Thunder Bay Management team for TTC order were on hand, handing out the photo of 501. They were in Kingston the day before looking at the work taking place there now.
Its my understanding, all the LRV will have 2 drivers when service start and thats a joke. As people stated, drivers to lazy to walk from one end to the other end as well a waste of money.
I thought there was to be someone on hand to answers questions related to the signage and wasn't qualify based on questions I heard as well asked base on what I saw on King St. Talking to the people I knew, one person came up with an answer to one of my questions: why 2 speed signs over each other going in the same direction. The answer was for both tracks with the lower speed for the opposite direction track when track is out of service for one reason or another.
With July 31 fast approaching for final completion date, a lot of work still to be done. Only a few areas for trackwork waiting concrete, otherwise 99.5% complete. Most of Charles and King St needs overhead, otherwise complete. All stations needs to be finish off which raise a question I saw at Northfield stop; is there a top coat of concrete or X to be added to the current platforms as both ends of Northfield stop has an access ramp that about 8" higher than the ramp on the platform. Need a photo to show what I saw and going be a few days before I get today photo of 400 as I got photos in front of them to fix, tag and number before I can up load them.
The other issue I saw is how long will it be before no u-turn signs go up to stop driver coming off Mills St onto Ottawa before been force to turn the wrong way they want to go as well using the driveways of residents to make that u-turn. Counted a dozen cars in the short time I was there.
With luck, I will say King St underpass should be open by the end of May or early June as most is completed. Crews were removing all the material for the hording to heat the track work and all that should be done my the end of this coming week.
None of the cars at this point will have the new reader for GRT smart card or fare machines. They are to be on the platforms only. I like their smart card and better than the Presto and can do more than Presto. I surprised they got away with it based on the pressure from Queen Park.