Second Ion train on schedule to arrive in region

WATERLOO REGION — The second Ion train is expected to arrive on schedule in Waterloo Region by the middle of next week.

By Thursday night, the train was in Liverpool, near Pickering, about a third of the way home, said regional Coun. Tom Galloway.

The train was loaded and ready to go from the Kingston plant on Monday, but Galloway said it may not have started its journey right away because it was up to CN to pick it up.

“It may have left a day or two later,” Galloway said on Friday.

The trip is expected to take about 10 days because several train companies are involved in the transportation and there may be delays.

“Different companies own different parts of the track, so one company can’t ship it the whole way,” Galloway said.

Regional officials met with Bombardier two weeks ago over concerns about train delivery delays for the region’s light rail transit project. They heard then that the second train was shipping this week, and two more trains are expected to arrive next month. These trains will be more advanced than the first one the region received, allowing them to be tested on the tracks by GrandLinq, the consortium hired to build and operate the light rail transit system.

The region has a contract for 14 Bombardier trains. Repeated production delays with the trains have contributed to pushing back the launch of the light rail system from late this year to next spring.