The region owns the spur line and has complete control over scheduling. CN has to wait for authorization from the control centre at the derail every time they run a train. I don't know what specific rules are being followed in terms of LRVs sharing the line with freight. The way they do it right now, 2-3 nights a week the freight train essentially eliminates a scheduled ION trip at a random time between 11pm and midnight.
I had heard about these delays in passing from ION riders, and I finally took the time to check it out on TransSee. On one particularly bad night (Jan 16), 504 was held at Waterloo Public Square for 25 minutes, which meant 510 had to be held at Allen and also ended up 15 minutes late. These delays are slowly made up all the way to Conestoga and back to Fairway because they're so long, but on this night even that wasn't enough, and it really messed up the schedule. Sometimes Fairway-bound LRVs are held at Waterloo Park while the freight train is on the line, but they're released before the Conestoga-bound LRV so it doesn't seem like the freight train has to completely clear Northfield before ION traffic resumes.
I don't know what is a reasonable solution here. I doubt CN would be willing to work within the limited time ION is out of service (~2am to 4:30am), especially if it meant running the train back and forth on subsequent nights. Integrating the train into the schedule would require CN to follow an actual fixed schedule, but right now they basically send a train whenever they feel like it. It seems like they try to keep the LRVs held at Waterloo Public Square for 15 minutes or less so it at least doesn't affect the next trip, but the random nature of CN's scheduling means you simply cannot rely on ION for connections at this time of night, and that is really unacceptable.
I had heard about these delays in passing from ION riders, and I finally took the time to check it out on TransSee. On one particularly bad night (Jan 16), 504 was held at Waterloo Public Square for 25 minutes, which meant 510 had to be held at Allen and also ended up 15 minutes late. These delays are slowly made up all the way to Conestoga and back to Fairway because they're so long, but on this night even that wasn't enough, and it really messed up the schedule. Sometimes Fairway-bound LRVs are held at Waterloo Park while the freight train is on the line, but they're released before the Conestoga-bound LRV so it doesn't seem like the freight train has to completely clear Northfield before ION traffic resumes.
I don't know what is a reasonable solution here. I doubt CN would be willing to work within the limited time ION is out of service (~2am to 4:30am), especially if it meant running the train back and forth on subsequent nights. Integrating the train into the schedule would require CN to follow an actual fixed schedule, but right now they basically send a train whenever they feel like it. It seems like they try to keep the LRVs held at Waterloo Public Square for 15 minutes or less so it at least doesn't affect the next trip, but the random nature of CN's scheduling means you simply cannot rely on ION for connections at this time of night, and that is really unacceptable.