ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[ijmorlan]

That’s very interesting. I hadn’t really looked at that closely. I’ll be interested to see if they really put the points in the road, or if they go outside. It certainly is possible to put points in the road, but I suspect it is not preferred. One purpose of gauntlet track is to avoid having points in a crossing — have the tracks converge in the road, but stay shifted by just a few inches (rail width plus flange space) until the other side of the road and put the points there.

The split for the gauntlet tracks clearly begins just north of Seagram.  Not in the middle of the road.  Note where the image says "PS GAUNTLET"

The gauntlet track would also explain why they didn't do the second track at the UW service entrance.  They're doing the complicated trackwork sometime later.

Yes, but the points have some nontrivial length to them. Also, there should be a sidewalk beside the road, which is not shown on the plan. My default expectation would be that the points would be at least a little separated from all paved areas. Remember that is the RFP drawing, not the actual design itself.

Another reason I speculate the on-campus crossings do not have two tracks yet (although they have signs for two tracks!) may that they are less concerned with keeping them open. I suspect when the track-laying crews come through they’ll just close each crossing again for however long is needed whenever it is needed. Whereas at this point I don’t expect to see Columbia, for example, closed other than briefly for barrier installation and other relatively minor details.