Tuesday brought Waterloo Region a sight it had never seen before: A light rail vehicle running on a track under its own power.

One vehicle was brought out of the maintenance and storage facility in north Waterloo and onto the track for low-speed tests.

While there had been Ion vehicles on the track before, they had been towed along the 19-kilometre line.

“This is an important milestone for us, to make sure that the trains work well with our track infrastructure,” said Brendan Simon, the region’s rapid transit manager.

The vehicle was kept at approximately 10 kilometres per hour for Tuesday’s tests.

Simon says the tests will progressively see the vehicles move at faster speeds. He says the fourth Ion vehicle will arrive in the region over the holidays, while six more are in final production or testing in Kingston, and the final four are still being assembled by Bombardier.

Ion service is scheduled to start next spring.