(12-14-2021, 02:12 PM)ac3r Wrote: That may be the case. I know for a while, ATC was not working so the drivers were doing everything manually, but then that got fixed so I always assumed that they gained some speed since the driver was no longer needing to rely on signals/signs and entirely manual operation. It still goes ridiculously slow in certain areas though, particularly when it involves a turn or approaching at a grade crossing.
ATC is only active for the off-street sections (Erb to Northfield, Ottawa to Fairway), on King it's still up to the operators. Unfortunately the ATC is still wonky for Hayward to Block Line. The southbound trains slow to ridiculous to cross the creek bridge 300 metres before they even get to Hayward, and northbound trains crawl from Block Line station to Hayward. They were faster when driven manually, and the powers that be seem to have no appetite to do anything about it.
The programming on the crossing gates needs tweaking too. I seem to recall that Transport Canada requires that the gates be fully down (solid lunar signal for the LRV drivers) 5 seconds (maybe even just 4) before the train arrives at the crossing, and I've counted 25 seconds at the Courtland/Balzer crossing on many occasions. The gate can also go back up 2 seconds after the train has cleared the crossing, and at most of the crossings I've observed they're quite poor on this metric as well. Drivers would be a lot less pissed off if they could get these dialed in, but again, no appetite to do anything.
...K