ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Canard]

Is that because green lights could cause the trains to get there early and thus get off the schedule?

Yes; exactly!

More like, aggressive signal priority would cause more impact to the perpendicular vehicular traffic than they want.

 Imagine a busy intersection like Erb/Caroline, halting traffic for up to 1 minute in all directions every 3.25 minutes.  That would be a bit of a disaster...

[nms]

Apparently the platform issue was caught by GrandLinq's quality assurance program. Let's hope that the program has been able to catch any other issues that have been overlooked.

As for the LRVs keeping their schedule and whether they have signal priority, I can imagine that since we aren't going to have five minute LRV headways that a critical part of the network interconnections will be that every vehicle arrives where it should when it should plus/minus a few minutes. For instance, someone arriving at the station either on a connecting bus or to catch a connecting bus (which might operate say with 15 or even 30 minute frequency) won't appreciate if they arrive only to discover that their connection has already left (in the case of a faster than expected LRV) or that it will a longer wait (also in the case where the LRV arrives before it is planned to arrive).

[Viewfromthe42]

The buses will have a more variable arrival time than LRVs, so simultaneous transfers are unlikely. More likely would be a situation where, with 10 minute headways, a bus would be targeted to arrive halfway between two LRVs. That way, if you are trying to go from LRV to bus, you should have 5 minutes of waiting, and if you are trying to do the reverse, going from the bus to an LRV, you should have 5 minutes of waiting. If the bus is ahead or behind schedule, one of those waits becomes shorter, the other longer.

I would think they really should try using the burn-in to confirm/deny the predicted travel times. Do runs with no priority at all, runs with priority only activated for trains running X minutes behind schedule, and priority at every single crossing, and see what kind of travel time you can get. It will be the easiest way to get models for this timing, without having to deal with extra costs/interferences.

[Pheidippides]

Woo-hoo!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Production of roof modules for <a href="https://twitter.com/Metrolinx">@Metrolinx</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/yegvalleyLRT">@yegvalleyLRT</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a> LRV projects now underway, as scheduled, in our Kingston site. <a href="https://t.co/CE9nt1zOA7">pic.twitter.com/CE9nt1zOA7</a></p>&mdash; BombardierRail (@BombardierRail) <a href="https://twitter.com/BombardierRail/status/788005412381548545">October 17, 2016</a></blockquote>

That is a little bit revisionist. I think they actually meant, "as per our the revised, twice delayed, schedule."

[zanate]

And the baseline schedule in the project agreement is not exactly pushing any speed records.  It's got about the same end-to-end time that the iXpress initially launched with. Considering that this now cuts off the King/University corner, has a dedicated lane, and several intersections have been removed from both King and Charles Streets, it's safe to say that it should make the trip in time without any signal priority at all.

Interesting to note that the last schedules for 200 before the detours had its Conestoga-Fairway times at 60 minutes during rush hour, which is substantially slower than the rest of the day.

Much of that delay was built into the Waterloo portion of the route, so much so that a 7C from Conestoga can beat the 200 to uptown by 6-7 minutes despite making frequent stops in traffic during rush hour. I'm expecting great things from ION in this leg. With the rail spur and the cut through the park, I foresee this gap disappearing unless the 7C has light off-rush-hour traffic and few stops.

[Pheidippides]

   
   
   

[Pheidippides]

I think they forgot to put an accessible ramp at the end of the GRH platform:
   

I think the forgot to put an accessible ramp across the street from the Willis way platform. See the ramps don't align on both sides of the street at the north end on the platform:
   

Like they do on the south end of the platform:
   

[DHLawrence]

Do the crossings have bells as well or just lights? I can see that getting old really fast for nearby residents.

[white_brian]

In the second and third pic's from Uptown King it seems like there is a very wide swaft for the Northbound track. Is this all for sidewalk or Northbound traffic and sidewalk or am I missing something totally. Tried to find the saved PDF for the plans but can't find this portion

[danbrotherston]

In the second and third pic's from Uptown King it seems like there is a very wide swaft for the Northbound track. Is this all for sidewalk or Northbound traffic and sidewalk or am I missing something totally. Tried to find the saved PDF for the plans but can't find this portion

I suspect that will be the utility/bench/trashcan/bike rack/street tree space next to the sidewalk.

[D40LF]

LRT cuts off low-income neighbourhood’s access to shops

[rangersfan]

I really like the majority of the local LRT reporting it's good for a laugh.
You read the title and and the first few paragraphs and it sounds like trails were ripped up etc. Then the article stumbles to the heart of the matter, the land surrounding the track is all private property and the need for a crossing wasn't identified during the consultation phase as previously discussed. In fact if a crossing is put in place ( which I think should be done) it will be the first crossings for these residents that was technically not trespassing. Don't get me wrong I definitely understand the need for a crossing and the inconvenience this would cause for the local population.

Ideally the titled should read 'More input from the public requested for future infrastructure projects'.

[danbrotherston]

@rangersfan. This is exactly right. My position on this is the real problem is that pedestrian access was never designed into that neighbourhood and it is only by coincidence that it kind of worked before. Many other neighbourhoods In the city have this problem already.

[kitborn]

For what it's worth, I've always wanted full-priority, but it was pointed out to me early on that accuracy in arriving at a scheduled time at a station is more important than just blasting end-to-end as fast as possible. Which, as a train guy first and foremost, is what I wanted. But I see the logic in keeping an integrated schedule, especially when it ties in with Bus.

It should get full priority, and the schedule should be planned to use the priority, with a reasonable buffer so that minor problems don’t immediately put the schedule off for the rest of the day. But yes, there should be a schedule and no transit vehicle should ever run “hot” (meaning, leaving a pickup point before the scheduled time).

What I would say is that the schedule should be as fast as possible, subject to being realistic in the face of reasonably foreseeable and reasonably common circumstances.

A early bus/train is no bus/train.

[zanate]

It should get full priority, and the schedule should be planned to use the priority, with a reasonable buffer so that minor problems don’t immediately put the schedule off for the rest of the day. But yes, there should be a schedule and no transit vehicle should ever run “hot” (meaning, leaving a pickup point before the scheduled time).

What I would say is that the schedule should be as fast as possible, subject to being realistic in the face of reasonably foreseeable and reasonably common circumstances.

A early bus/train is no bus/train.

Incidentally, this is why GRT's service standard is asymmetrical: to be within -1 and +3 minutes of schedule. You could take the position that there's no excuse for being even 1 minute early, though I would see that as impractical given the amount of attention this would require from drivers at every stop.

(I've heard complaints over the years about a GRT bus running through stops early, and every time I encourage those people to talk to GRT customer service. While it's possible to be a handful of seconds early with the best of intentions, virtually every driver I've seen makes allowances for people who are almost at the stop. To be more than a minute early is to ignore the schedule, and GRT management will talk to drivers who do that.)