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ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - Printable Version

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RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - ac3r - 03-03-2023

(03-03-2023, 09:14 PM)nms Wrote: Out of curiosity, how do Toronto's equivalent LRVs fare during this kind of weather? If their performance is better in the winter, what are they doing differently?

They actually get to work ahead of time to ensure their systems keep operating:


I mean yeah they have failures too - that's inevitable - but when's the last time you saw Keolis/GrandLinq doing this?

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - Bob_McBob - 03-03-2023

So far it's only buses having major issues, particularly on hills. One dicey situation at a station where two buses had to be winched because they couldn't keep moving without sliding into each other, and lots of other similar rescues. A newer ION operator called in to ask if it was normal to encounter "significant resistance" in snowy conditions, and another one called in to say it's normal because of snow building up around the tracks. Plows are apparently leaving 2 foot high snow banks at King and Northfield, but the trains don't have a problem getting through.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - ac3r - 03-04-2023

The LRT is cancelled as of this morning. Going to guess they're waiting on the tracks to be cleared (and perhaps weren't already doing this all throughout the night).

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - taylortbb - 03-04-2023

If I remember from the last time a big snowfall took out LRT service, it wasn't the snow that fell on the tracks that was a problem, it was the snow that was plowed onto the tracks. Particularly the windrows left when a plow turns across the tracks at one of the intersections.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - Bob_McBob - 03-04-2023

I think they only cancelled a couple trips this morning?

ION didn't seem to have any real issues with the heavy snow last night. The trains are able to push through accumulation on the tracks as well as small piles left by plows in intersections. The only problems I heard were other vehicles stuck on the tracks.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - ac3r - 03-04-2023

Yeah it seemed okay this morning. I returned from working in Toronto in the morning and it was working just fine at about 7:30 with the exception of the Northfield and Conestoga stations.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - plam - 03-05-2023

I mean I also spent 20 minutes shovelling the snow in Kingston this morning and then 10 minutes being stuck at an intersection. Everything seems cleared tonight in Waterloo though.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - tomh009 - 03-06-2023

(03-03-2023, 01:49 AM)mpd618 Wrote: It’s hurting the Region’s credibility that they’re basically not saying anything about the ION + ice situation to the public.

If lawyers have been engaged, they will likely have advised the region not to make any public statements.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - mpd618 - 03-08-2023

(03-06-2023, 02:32 PM)tomh009 Wrote:
(03-03-2023, 01:49 AM)mpd618 Wrote: It’s hurting the Region’s credibility that they’re basically not saying anything about the ION + ice situation to the public.

If lawyers have been engaged, they will likely have advised the region not to make any public statements.

If the mechanics of public-private partnerships mean that no one can tell the public how or whether problems are being resolved, that's a pretty serious failure mode.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - ZEBuilder - 03-08-2023

There's currently a LRT collision involving a pedestrian in front of Cameron Heights, it occured right after the school was let out for the day. Charles is closed between Cedar and Stirling. Obviously trains are not running.

WRPS tweet: https://twitter.com/WRPSToday/status/1633555663094939649?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - ac3r - 03-08-2023

I've been told it caused a death. If true, that makes number two.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - bravado - 03-08-2023

(03-08-2023, 05:15 PM)ac3r Wrote: I've been told it caused a death. If true. that makes number two.

The latest police update is that the air ambulance was needed for serious injuries:

https://twitter.com/wrpstoday/status/1633580791715201026

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - ac3r - 03-08-2023

Hopefully they pull through.

Proper grade separation would have prevented most collisions and fatalities but that would have cost more money than it's worth (actual human lives and hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix LRVs and other infrastructure). And while it's easy to argue "well don't try to beat the train" that doesn't really matter when people are always going to do that anyway and thus preventing that in the first place is what should be done first.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - ZEBuilder - 03-08-2023

(03-08-2023, 06:28 PM)ac3r Wrote: Hopefully they pull through.

Proper grade separation would have prevented most collisions and fatalities but that would have cost more money than it's worth (actual human lives and hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix LRVs and other infrastructure). And while it's easy to argue "well don't try to beat the train" that doesn't really matter when people are always going to do that anyway and thus preventing that in the first place is what should be done first.

Obviously I hope for the best but the pedestrian was crossing the street mid block, half way between the Cameron st intersection and the Cameron heights driveway. By walking the extra two minutes to cross at Cameron it would've been entirely avoided. So while it is obviously best for the whole system to be grade separated the pedestrian wouldn't have been struck had they crossed where they are supposed to. Not to mention that it was not political possible at the time to do grade separation.

According to the article the fire department had to lift the train to extract the victim before transporting them to the air ambulance.
https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/person-airlifted-after-being-struck-trapped-under-lrt-train-in-kitchener-1.6304786

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - ijmorlan - 03-08-2023

(03-08-2023, 07:37 PM)ZEBuilder Wrote:
(03-08-2023, 06:28 PM)ac3r Wrote: Hopefully they pull through.

Proper grade separation would have prevented most collisions and fatalities but that would have cost more money than it's worth (actual human lives and hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix LRVs and other infrastructure). And while it's easy to argue "well don't try to beat the train" that doesn't really matter when people are always going to do that anyway and thus preventing that in the first place is what should be done first.

Obviously I hope for the best but the pedestrian was crossing the street mid block, half way between the Cameron st intersection and the Cameron heights driveway. By walking the extra two minutes to cross at Cameron it would've been entirely avoided. So while it is obviously best for the whole system to be grade separated the pedestrian wouldn't have been struck had they crossed where they are supposed to. Not to mention that it was not political possible at the time to do grade separation.

According to the article the fire department had to lift the train to extract the victim before transporting them to the air ambulance.
https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/person-airlifted-after-being-struck-trapped-under-lrt-train-in-kitchener-1.6304786

Not just crossing mid-block, but doing so very carelessly, it would seem. LRTs are easy to see and easy to avoid; the level of carelessness required to be severely injured by one is sufficient that crossing at a traffic light would not be sufficient to guarantee safety. Anyway, it’s pure coincidence that the LRT was involved. The exact same person attempting the exact same crossing at a different time would have been hit by a truck on the motor vehicle lanes. All grade separation would accomplish would be to eliminate the tiny number of incidents that involve the LRT, leaving all the motor vehicle incidents unchanged. And I’m pretty sure nobody here would be in favour of grade separating our roads.