Another Waterloo iON LRT opening day photo. Yes, I made a day of it. This is Francis Street North in downtown Kitchener. In fact, it is about a block and a half to the north of where I took my previous opening day photo - 'GRT LFLRV 507 On Duke Street'. iON LRV 510 is headed "northbound" - in Waterloo it's called "northbound", in Kitchener it's called "westbound", I've mentioned this before. Soon she will curve onto King Street, then through the King and Victoria Street intersection towards Waterloo and all points beyond. Like Duke Street, Kitchener's Francis Street never had a street railway (streetcar) alignment. In the old days, the trams simply trundled down narrow King Street along with the horse carts and those stinky new fangled automobiles. Indeed, Kitchener-Waterloo only had one real streetcar line and that was along the length of King Street from the "east" end of Kitchener to central Waterloo - in many places only single tracked. There was a spur line to the CNR Station as well as an adopted single track line to the then Town of Bridgeport. But the KWSR did not dedicate much service to them. And abandoned them or converted them to bus service respectively by the late 1930's and early 1940's. In the background is the rear of the 'Kaufman Lofts'. A swanky modern condo which no doubt houses a few well off managers from the local Google HQ, three blocks to the north. And no, I do not work for Google, or 'Spaghettioes', or 'The Circle' or whatever they are calling the corporate mothership these days. To Google, I am of too 'mediocre intelligence' for the team. But let's be fair, Nortel said the same thing about me. Never heard of Nortel? HA-HA-HA! I'm look forward to the day when the children of the Millennials will ask one of their parenting pod leaders, "What's Google?". But there was a time when the 'Kaufman Lofts' weren't so lofty. Back in the day - when the Earth was flat, approximately - this building was the Kaufman Rubber Plant. They made stinky Canadian boots and we were proud. On dark and brass-monkey-ball cold February nights, it was a surreal experience to wait for a (then) Kitchener Transit 'Mainline' bus in front of the plant. The vapours from the manufacturing process seeped out of the street catch basins like a scene from John Carpenter's 'The Fog'. How the plant's exhaust actually got into the city sewer system is still a state secret, but I dare say I caught sight of the odd mist shrouded ghoulie during those long cold vigils. But that was then. Today, there are no more boots at the Kaufman plant - sorry lofts. No more mists, no more stinky ghoulies. And no more 'Mainline' bus. Route 7 was officially called 'Mainline' before it was officially known as Route 7. The service had been called 'Mainline' since the abandonment of streetcars back in 1946. That all changed this past Monday, when what everybody else just called the King bus officially became the 'King' bus. Needless to say, iON is the "Main Line" in KW from now on. Sooooooooooooooo much has changed. But dark February nights in Kitchener can still freeze the balls off of a brass monkey. Some things will never change. Thanks for stopping by and viewing my pictures. Cheers! Notes: GRT: Grand River Transit LFLRV: Low Floor Light Rail Vehicle iON: Official Name for Waterloo Region's Rapid Transit Service (Light Rail and Rapid Buses) Google: Anyone remember the 1970 film, 'Colossus: The Forbin Project'? CNR: Canadian Nation Railway KWSR - Kitchener-Waterloo Street Railway. (Not to be confused with the short lived 'Kitchener-Waterloo Socialist Republic') KW: Short form for the definitely separate cities of Kitchener and Waterloo. And don't forget that if you come here.