(06-30-2019, 12:26 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: On a related note, I’ve complained before about how crossing protection immediately past a stop activates as a train arrives at the stop, and there has been some discussion about why this might be needed — in case of overrun, etc. I’ve observed operations at Conestoga Mall which invalidate any conceivable justification for pre-activating the crossing protection (other than, of course, being required to follow “safety” rules arbitrarily imposed from above): twice I have arrived at the Mall with an LRV parked at the very end of the track, past the part of the platform which is currently used for passenger loading. My LRV simply drove in on the same track and stopped no more than a couple of metres short of touching the other LRV. If this is something they can do in service with passengers, then they clearly feel that they can stop reliably in the station, and it should be no problem if what is immediately past the station is not a parked LRV but instead a crossing.
The problem is ION has two different regulatory regimes. There's railway operations with crossing lights and ATP, and there's on-street line of sight (LOS) operations.
The Conestoga station is in the LOS operation section where it's basically just a bus on rails and the driver has all responsibility. The problems with gates are in the railway section, where all sorts of rules written for heavy rail trains (that can't stop quickly) come into play. It's definitely an arbitrary regulation issue, combined with general safety panic about trains (while we accept the same things from cars).