ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[danbrotherston]

I believe the main issue was that service started without ATC being enabled. This resulted in the drivers having to operate trains at a slower speed due to a fair amount of manual control being used. They haven't released any official news about whether or not that is still an issue, but if it is, then it will probably still take a few weeks as they only have limited hours each night to work on large parts of the system/trains.

I was on the train last weekend and the display in the cab still says “ATC bypassed call control” so I think it’s still not enabled. Does anybody understand what still needs to be done? Is there work on the cars, or are there problems with the stationary components of the ATC system?

All things considered, at least we did have a fairly smooth launch. This has been the scene on the Ottawa LRT twice this week simply due to someone holding open the doors for a few seconds in rush hour so they could jump off. The entire network ground to a halt, making thousands of people late. I don't understand how that can happen, because in any other transit system, the doors just try again and then unless you're desperately squeezing yourself between the doors for some pathological reason, they slam hard enough to make you get the hell out of the doorway.

Modern engineers seem to have forgotten how mass transit doors have to work.

I understand that on the Toronto subway, if the doors fail to close 3 times, the train is required to be taken out of service. On top of that, if the doors re-open, they all re-open, not just the one with the problem. I’m not a transit engineer, but given how much these trains cost it is inconceivable that it makes sense to re-open all doors (i.e., it’s not reasonable to say that the system to control the doors separately would be too expensive). Just re-open the one which is signalling a problem and try it again. Then the typical problem scenario would be 23/24 doors close and the remaining one opens and then closes again. Instead they all re-open, then maybe another one has a problem, then another, then the train goes out of service.

Additionally, the “3” seems arbitrary. If the driver presses a button indicating the problem was just somebody blocking the door, I don’t see why it has to count. It’s reasonable for a certain number of actual equipment failures to result in the train being taken out of service, but there is no specific limit on how often people might try to hold a door.

Meanwhile on our system there is no distinction between a door closing because it’s been a few seconds since it opened and it closing because the doors are being closed in order to prepare for departure. The first should not give the chime, and should re-open very easily if it detects any resistance at all or even an object in the way that isn’t touching it (like an elevator); whereas the second should give a chime and should be more insistent about closing (like a subway).

There does seem to be some poor engineering here. I will point out that our doors are far more complex than doors historically. They are flush with the outside of the vehicle, which improves efficiency, but this increases complexity because the door must close in two motions (sliding closed and then in). I believe there is probably a change in the door edge obstacle detection mechanism as well, this is probably one of the biggest challenges.