Concrete truck collides with ION train in Kitchener

After more than eight hours of work, a damaged ION train has been removed from King Street in Kitchener.

Crews spent much of Tuesday slowly lifting the light rail vehicle back onto the tracks a few inches at the time after it was derailed by a crash Tuesday morning.

The collision, which happened around 8 a.m., saw a cement truck smash into the side of the ION on King Street East near Agnes Street.

The impact pushed the front end of the train off the tracks.

“I was upstairs, and all I heard was a big bang,” said Al Crichton who lives around the corner. “I came down, and it looked like the train wanted to make a left onto Agnes, it can’t do that.”

The train was in service at the time, but no injuries have been reported.

According to Neil Malcolm, acting director of transit services for the Region of Waterloo, the crash is unprecedented in the time the ION’s been in operation in Waterloo region.

“This is the first collision involving an ION LRT where the train was actually pushed off the tracks,” Malcolm said. “That has not happened in the three-year history of service on the ION LRT.”

Crews were on-scene for more than eight hours on Tuesday, using a hydraulic air pump to slowly inch the train back onto the track.

“The vehicle needs to be lifted and moved over and then set down, and then lifted and moved over,” explained Malcolm. “It’s got to be slowly moved piece by piece until it’s in alignment with the tracks. It can’t just be picked up and moved over in one movement. So it takes a significant amount of time to get it back into position.”

Once returned to the tracks, another train pulled the damaged ION away.

“Once we get the vehicle back to the garage and give it a full assessment of the damage, then we’ll be able to determine very accurately what replacement parts are required, what’s been damaged. How much it will cost to repair the vehicle. We don’t know that yet,” said Malcolm.

ION service was disrupted on Tuesday with trains are not running between Uptown Waterloo and downtown Kitchener. Replacement buses were called in.

People who live nearby say it isn’t the first time a crash happened in the area.

“No left turns to Agnes from King, no U-turns, but they all do it,” said Crichton. “It’s bound to happen again and again and again.”

The cause of the collision is still under investigation. The region said even though one of its 15 light rail trains is out of commission, it won’t impact service to riders.