ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Bob_McBob]

Keep in mind that the tracks need to be free overnight for freight movements on the Waterloo Spur.

The region can safely operate the late night schedule as late as they want without interfering with the single freight train to Elmira. The way the freight train is typically scheduled they will be running concurrently anyway. In fact, they've even occasionally been running the freight train during the day over the last six months.

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Safe Separation of Light Rail Vehicles from Freight Railroad Trains

Since the structural crashworthiness of a light rail vehicle is not the same as a freight railroad car or a commuter rail car, safety is the paramount concern. The preferred approach is to only run freight trains on LRT tracks when LRT trains are not operating. Although considerable effort was spent on accommodating service for freight industries during a time frame when LRT trains were not operating, the freight operating time that was needed to serve the chemical industries in the region was greater than the time period when LRT service was not running. The Region of Waterloo, CN, WSP | Parsons Brinckerhoff, and the shippers developed a workable consensus to restrict freight railroad service to the hours between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. This is the time frame when the LRT service is operating its late night off-peak service with longer 30 minute headways. In general, the time needed for the freight railroad movement is about 15 minutes, which allows the freight railroad service to operate without impacting the LRT service even when their operations coexist.

To achieve a safe separation, the system in Waterloo reserved an exclusive route for freight railroads that cannot be violated by the LRT trains.  An automatic train protection (ATP) system was installed that will prevent the LRT trains from entering the route reserved for the freight railroad. To prevent a freight railroad from violating a route reserved for LRT trains, derails are provided as an additional means to prevent a freight train from entering a track reserved for LRV service. Derails are controlled at the Central Control Facility (CCF) and the freight railroad cannot pass the derails until the route is safely reserved for their movement.