10-25-2017, 09:32 PM
(10-25-2017, 08:55 PM)Pheidippides Wrote: The more I think about the amount of burn in time (600km per LRV) and testing they still need to do the more unlikely "May 1" seems. That's 8,400km of burn in kilometres to complete or 494.12 trips down the 17km (is that what we settled on for length?). At revenue service speeds that would be 46min per trip or a total of 22,729.41min or 378.82 hours or 15.78 days (24/7) of burn-in time; and the burn-in will not likely be at the regular speeds for the first while so it will take longer. Then there is system wide testing on top of all of that.
I’m not concerned about burn-in time. All they need to do is run regular service for a couple of days while still in testing. 600km is only about 18 round trips. Remember there will regularly be 12 vehicles operating on the line all at once and there is no reason burn-in can’t be done with multiple vehicles at once.
I’m more concerned that the testing phase will drag on and on with no information about what is actually happening, especially with testing showing no sign of actually starting. Testing does not require all vehicles; and most testing only requires one vehicle (things like do the signals get triggered by the vehicle, etc.). Of course some testing requires multiple vehicles — I thought one article said they needed 3.
So assuming that testing is already completed, it should be possible to begin a base service operating every 15 minutes 3 days after the 7th vehicle arrives, and ramp up to full rush hour service 3 days after the 12th vehicle arrives (spares should not be needed on a brand-new system, especially with the spares on their way within days or weeks of opening). Of course I don’t expect anything like that to happen — this project has never operated on the idea that things should happen as soon as they can. Also I’m assuming that vehicles arrive fully ready to operate and all they need is burn-in; and maybe each vehicle needs a bit more testing before beginning burn-in.