01-06-2020, 11:00 AM
(01-06-2020, 10:13 AM)Spokes Wrote:(01-05-2020, 08:18 PM)drum118 Wrote: 5 minute service sound great, but it comes at a cost and inconvenience.
First of all, you need cars and spares to meet that 5 minute schedule and that is both an operation cost as well capital cost. Need at least 15% spare ratio plus the X cars on line. It cost money to put drivers in the seat of those cars as well to maintain them on a daily base. Cost of power to run the cars and etc.
If you have 5 minute service, then each crossing will see a train about every 2.5 minutes that will interfere the the flow of traffic and pedestrians. Who do you think will bitch the loudest and have a better say against the 5 minute service?
The lowest I have seen with 2/3 car trains (200-300') has been 10 minutes both in NA and Europe when crossing intersections other than Toronto that use single cars.
Most places in the US would love to see 7 minute service when they mostly see 15-20 minute service today for 66' cars, let alone 100'
How many spares are needed? And do we have now?
We have 14 vehicles, and I believe the plan was to have as many as 12 of them in service at one time, with 2 spares.
If the route is a 90 minute round trip (time from one departure from a station to the next departure of the same vehicle from the same station in the same direction), then this would allow 7.5 minute headways: 12 vehicles * 7.5 minutes/vehicle = 90 minutes.
Since the route is several minutes over 90 minutes right now, 12 vehicles are not enough to provide 7.5 minute headways. However, if we go to 8 minute headways then you get 12 * 8 = 96, which I think would work with current operating practices.
Based on observations from riding, I think it should be possible to get the round trip time down to 90 minutes. I’m pretty sure there is enough time wasted waiting for signals with insufficient priority or which expire too quickly, going excessively slowly in certain areas, and not achieving top speeds in other areas, that it should be possible to shave off those few extra minutes.
5 minute headways would require 18 vehicles in service assuming we can get the 90 minute roundtrip; at this point there should be 3 spares to maintain the same ratio for a total of 21 or 7 more than we currently have.