(07-08-2019, 09:37 AM)ijmorlan Wrote:(07-08-2019, 07:49 AM)trainspotter139 Wrote: Sorting out the ATP system will take longer than September.
Why? What are they doing? What have they been doing for the last 2 years? It’s not like they’re figuring out how to build a Hyperloop or something; this is established, mature technology.
The Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system is part of the Free Issue Equipment (FIE) that was obtained separately from the Bombardier contract. There's been some debate whether Metrolinx was originally supposed to spec it and then dropped the ball after their lines all got delayed, or whether it was the Region's job to spec it from the get go. That's closed door stuff I doubt we'll ever know the answers to. Either way, it appears to have been ordered late (in a low volume specialized market like this even 'off-the-shelf' equipment is not actually sitting on a shelf waiting to be ordered) and so didn't arrive at Bombardier for installation into the trains until about this time last year, with half the trains only getting it installed here in Waterloo last fall. They didn't have a lot of time to play with it with a full complement of trains running before launch on June 21st, and given that the ATP system's job is to keep trains from running into each other you're really not testing it until that full complement of trains is out there. Unfortunately the clock ran out on this one, but fortunately they've been able to hit the initial service targets without it. It only gets better from here...
...K