WATERLOO - And we have power!

The first powered testing of an Ion train was performed on Tuesday morning just outside the Waterloo light rail maintenance facility.

"So far, it looks good," said Brendon Simon, project manager with the Region of Waterloo. "It's the real test to see that everything works together."

Through the week, the train will go through the rest of the yard. Then by early next year, it will venture out onto the track.

"This test is basically the first step to start integrating the system," Simon said.

Tuesday's testing checked both the infrastructure and train, basically looking to see if power from the system was feeding into the train, and that the train was using that power for its systems.

Testing took about two hours, with the train travelling about 10 km/h from the facility into the yard.

When testing progresses to full speed out on the route, it will travel 50 km/h in urban areas and 70 km/h in track areas, such as the Waterloo Spur Line.

Word - in this case a tweet - travels quickly and soon there was a gathering of onlookers watching the testing from Weber Street.

"It didn't take long for people to show up," Simon said.

The first on-track testing was done in early November, but the Ion was pushed along the tracks through Waterloo slowly by another vehicle while an escort of about 20 people walked alongside, checking to make sure there was sufficient clearance.

The region now has possession of three of the 14 light rail vehicles under contract with manufacturer Bombardier.

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Delays in vehicle delivery have added to the project's construction cost by $50 million, the region announced earlier this month. That pushes the total cost to $868 million.

The province kicked in another $25 million and the region will try to recover the remaining cost from Bombardier. The region was still able to slightly reduce the 2018 levy to pay for light rail, from 1.5 per cent to 1.25 per cent.