ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[trainspotter139]

Absolutely; this is the worst time for those kind of failures to occur, but by the nature of testing and integration, it’s exactly the time when they will.

For what it’s worth, when driving through Brantford on the weekend, we had to detour around a railway signal which was stuck down. Police were waving people to go down to the next street. I don’t ever recall coming across stuck crossings before, but perhaps I’m just more aware of it now that I’ve been following progress here.

I had to call in the CP crossing on River @ King a week ago because it was stuck on. This same crossing was in the news a couple days ago because a school bus had stopped on it while a train was approaching. (CP staff were apparently also there at the time to perform maintenance)

[Canard]

Is it possible that the unusually wet winter is wreaking havoc on a system that would normally be fine? If you saw this happen in Brantford, perhaps the problem is more wide spread than just with the ION gates. That said, it does seem to primarily be a problem with the gates north of Erb - I don't think I've heard any reports of stuck gates on the southern half.

Oh god, stuck gates happen everywhere. Not isolated to one section at all.

[Spokes]

Sandbags are stand-in passengers for Ion testing

Ion trains are taking unusual passengers for a ride.

Heaps of sandbags — the equivalent of a train's 200-passenger capacity — are loaded on as part of the ongoing testing of vehicles and light rail infrastructure.

"There's quite a few sandbags on there," said Brendon Simon, senior Ion project manager with the Region of Waterloo. "It fills up the train from end to end."

The sandbags simulate a full vehicle, giving the driver a feel for how it handles and brakes compared to travelling along the line when it's empty.

"The vehicle performs a big differently," Simon said. "It just gets that practice in."

The weighted train also tests out the infrastructure along the line, including the power supply to keep it moving along at the right speed.

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/919...n-testing/

[plam]

There kind of seemed to be a lot of fault codes two weeks ago when I last listened to the radio. How's that been going? I think we need 600 hours of fault-code-free operation per train to certify, or am I wrong?

I wouldn't read too much into that. Bombardier likely still has the trains running on a "Debug" version of the operating software which in all likelihood has ridiculously strict fault tolerances that the "Release" version wouldn't have.

Makes sense and I defer to your expertise about trains. There are certainly bugs in the software which will hopefully not be too serious.

The Record article said 4-6 per day, have we seen 6 out yet?

[Bob_McBob]

So when do we get the LRV update? Still nothing in the council meeting agenda.

[trainspotter139]

So when do we get the LRV update? Still nothing in the council meeting agenda.

It  won't be added until just before the meeting.

[Canard]

So when do we get the LRV update? Still nothing in the council meeting agenda.

They do it as a last-minute thing (literally, like seconds before they start talking about it), so the Media doesn't jump the gun on the "goodies".

[Spokes]

But what about us?!?!?!?

[Bob_McBob]

It's up!

https://calendar.regionofwaterloo.ca/Cou...020106c222

All fourteen vehicles are currently in Waterloo Region. The status of these vehicles is as follows:

• Installation of specialized on-board equipment on all the vehicles was completed in December 2018
  
• All fourteen vehicles are being used to complete system testing, training and demonstration activities and vehicle modifications
  
• Vehicle and system integration testing and driver training has resulted in approximately 30,600 km of cumulative travel equaling approximately 800 ION round trips 
  
• All rolling stock vehicle testing required to start revenue service is complete
  
• Reliability of vehicles is not yet “ready for service”
  
• Overall reliability of the vehicles continues to be an issue. Bombardier needs to complete significant modifications to address reliability issues. This totals approximately 50 to 100 hours per vehicle of critical work that needs to completed before service starts and 200 to 250 hours of work that can be completed after service starts. These types of issues can be expected with an initial run of vehicles. 
  
• Preliminary Acceptance Certificate (PAC) and Final Acceptance Certificate (FAC) processes still need to be completed.
  

To begin service, vehicles must go through an acceptance process. Significantly, no vehicles are yet fully ready for service, in that they have not yet achieved Preliminary Acceptance Certificate (PAC) or Final Acceptance Certificate (FAC).

[Bob_McBob]

Notable:

Based on the current schedule for the completion and testing of Bombardier vehicles and GrandLinq’s schedule for system integration testing, and driver and mechanic training, it is expected that service will start in spring 2019.

[Chris]

Notable:

Based on the current schedule for the completion and testing of Bombardier vehicles and GrandLinq’s schedule for system integration testing, and driver and mechanic training, it is expected that service will start in spring 2019.

Oh man, let me ride the LRT already....


   

[Canard]

Just happy to be along for the ride. it’s been an incredible journey. I’ll be a little sad when it’s over, a sentiment I’m sure many who were actually responsible for bringing it to life will feel, too.

[plam]

Looks like they're aiming for the spring service switchover date, whenever that is.

"Starting service in spring 2019 aligns with the start of spring service for Grand River Transit and will allow the LRT service to integrate smoothly into the overall transit network."

They expect the PAC will be issued shortly (for all vehicles). They do mention that reliability is still a concern at the moment. 78/86 required system integration tests have succeeded, but I don't really know what that means. I'm sure things like vehicle coupling were part of that. They are also doing dry-run for burn-in, but not counting it in the official burn-in times yet. 503 has an open items inspection started with 25 still open, although 512 is estimated to require the fewest number of hours of modifications. Hours of modifications is a bit weird because we don't know how many hours can proceed in parallel.

They also flag availability of spare parts as a concern.

[KevinL]

Looks like they're aiming for the spring service switchover date, whenever that is.

That's typically at the end of April, when the university winter term has ended.

[trainspotter139]

Looks like they're aiming for the spring service switchover date, whenever that is.

"Starting service in spring 2019 aligns with the start of spring service for Grand River Transit and will allow the LRT service to integrate smoothly into the overall transit network."

They expect the PAC will be issued shortly (for all vehicles). They do mention that reliability is still a concern at the moment. 78/86 required system integration tests have succeeded, but I don't really know what that means. I'm sure things like vehicle coupling were part of that. They are also doing dry-run for burn-in, but not counting it in the official burn-in times yet. 503 has an open items inspection started with 25 still open, although 512 is estimated to require the fewest number of hours of modifications. Hours of modifications is a bit weird because we don't know how many hours can proceed in parallel.

They also flag availability of spare parts as a concern.

Spring Service Changes for GRT is Usually the last Monday of April. The 8 remaining tests relate to crossing gates, runtime tests, headway tests and communications tests are are planned to be completed by early March. The last bits of Bombardier Qualification are waiting of the next software upgrade which will likely be a part of the reliability modifications.