11-29-2018, 09:08 AM
(11-28-2018, 09:46 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: Out of curiosity, can anyone who knows more about trains than I tell me why it was necessary to bend the LRT tracks away from the freight alignment, towards the buildings right in front of Coras before the merge back together? It seems like it achieves nothing, it uses more space, but also decreases the radii of the track curve.
Part of it was likely wanting to use a standard switch as others have stated, but also that they'd want ION trains to get the straight path through it to minimize wear, since there will be far more ION transits through it than freight. It also increases passenger comfort not to be banging through the curved to straight transition part of the switch at speed. This is unavoidable at the end crossovers, but the speeds are lower there due to proximity to the platforms. Here the LRV is already a significant distance from the platform and accelerating into Waterloo Park.
...K