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ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - Printable Version

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RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - nms - 11-15-2021

Meanwhile in Britain: West Midlands (aka Birmingham and Wolverhampton) tram services suspended due to cracks
Quote:West Midlands Metro (WMM) said permanent repairs were needed and it would take its fleet of 21 trams out of service. It said: “The safety of our customers and colleagues is our priority and this will never be compromised.”

WMM said the decision to suspend services had not been taken lightly and apologised for any inconvenience. It has not given a date for when services will resume but work to repair the trams is expected to take at least four weeks.

Have all of the Ion units had their warranty work finished?

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - jeffster - 11-16-2021

(11-15-2021, 10:41 PM)nms Wrote: Meanwhile in Britain: West Midlands (aka Birmingham and Wolverhampton) tram services suspended due to cracks
Quote:West Midlands Metro (WMM) said permanent repairs were needed and it would take its fleet of 21 trams out of service. It said: “The safety of our customers and colleagues is our priority and this will never be compromised.”

WMM said the decision to suspend services had not been taken lightly and apologised for any inconvenience. It has not given a date for when services will resume but work to repair the trams is expected to take at least four weeks.

Have all of the Ion units had their warranty work finished?

Sydney Australia as well: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/sydney-suspends-trams-made-same-22168033

As for our work, it's being done bit by bit. Hopefully our trains don't deteriorate like the ones in the UK and Australia. Though different manufacturers, it seems to be similar problems. Though in our case it's a welding defect, in the UK and Australia, it seems to be substandard material being used.

Stuff like this doesn't give people a lot of faith in this type of mass transportation. Seems everyone LRT's are having serious issues.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - ac3r - 11-17-2021

Maybe new systems. Germany and Austria have had light rail for the longest time and haven't had issues like these.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - kps - 11-17-2021

(11-17-2021, 08:08 AM)ac3r Wrote: Maybe new systems. Germany and Austria have had light rail for the longest time and haven't had issues like these.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_Combino#2004_recall_due_to_flaws_in_construction

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - ac3r - 11-17-2021

Yet another ION crash: https://kitchener.citynews.ca/police-beat/minor-crash-involving-ion-train-in-waterloo-4766827

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - ac3r - 12-05-2021

Seems like the freezing rain tonight has totally caused the ION to grind to a halt in many locations. Multiple trains were struggling to get up minor terrain elevations causing long delays and two trains managed to lose all power which really threw things off.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - jamincan - 12-06-2021

Don't they have sanders to address that?

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - KevinT - 12-06-2021

(12-06-2021, 10:05 AM)jamincan Wrote: Don't they have sanders to address that?

How effective they are depends how quickly the ice builds up, as well as the train headways. They also have an ice-cutter pantograph or two that they can fit to the trains, but with 90 minutes for a round trip it's not very effective if the ice builds up fast.  :-(

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - plam - 12-14-2021

So I've been taking LRT rides much more than I did in 2019, since I'm housesitting at Kaufman. Despite some peoples' complaints about trip times, KW really isn't that big. 12 minutes to UW, 24 minutes to Fairview. Sure, could be faster to Fairview, but is it going to matter for most people? Frequencies are more important I think.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - danbrotherston - 12-14-2021

I think the real frustrating part about the speed is that the bus is faster to many destinations...I think that's part having a more direct route in a few cases, but also being able to travel at road speed, that is infuriatingly higher than the LRT limit in many places...I still just cannot believe that nonsense.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - ijmorlan - 12-14-2021

(12-14-2021, 01:15 AM)plam Wrote: So I've been taking LRT rides much more than I did in 2019, since I'm housesitting at Kaufman. Despite some peoples' complaints about trip times, KW really isn't that big. 12 minutes to UW, 24 minutes to Fairview. Sure, could be faster to Fairview, but is it going to matter for most people? Frequencies are more important I think.

We could increase frequency for zero cost by just driving faster. The same number of vehicles can provide more frequent service if they move at a higher speed. Safety paranoia has a cost.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - plam - 12-14-2021

(12-14-2021, 08:30 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: I think the real frustrating part about the speed is that the bus is faster to many destinations...I think that's part having a more direct route in a few cases, but also being able to travel at road speed, that is infuriatingly higher than the LRT limit in many places...I still just cannot believe that nonsense.

I haven't taken a GRT bus since sometime in 2019, so it's hard for me to compare. Certainly the Wellington buses are extraordinarily slow because they get stuck in traffic. But sure, there's something wrong if the 7 is faster than the 301 (I don't know if it is or not).

(12-14-2021, 09:04 AM)ijmorlan Wrote:
(12-14-2021, 01:15 AM)plam Wrote: So I've been taking LRT rides much more than I did in 2019, since I'm housesitting at Kaufman. Despite some peoples' complaints about trip times, KW really isn't that big. 12 minutes to UW, 24 minutes to Fairview. Sure, could be faster to Fairview, but is it going to matter for most people? Frequencies are more important I think.

We could increase frequency for zero cost by just driving faster. The same number of vehicles can provide more frequent service if they move at a higher speed. Safety paranoia has a cost.

Sure, that's true.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - danbrotherston - 12-14-2021

(12-14-2021, 10:55 AM)plam Wrote:
(12-14-2021, 08:30 AM)danbrotherston Wrote: I think the real frustrating part about the speed is that the bus is faster to many destinations...I think that's part having a more direct route in a few cases, but also being able to travel at road speed, that is infuriatingly higher than the LRT limit in many places...I still just cannot believe that nonsense.

I haven't taken a GRT bus since sometime in 2019, so it's hard for me to compare. Certainly the Wellington buses are extraordinarily slow because they get stuck in traffic. But sure, there's something wrong if the 7 is faster than the 301 (I don't know if it is or not).

The 7 is much faster to Conestoga Mall. That's at least partly because the bus stops closer to the mall, and partly because the route is more direct, and a little bit because of absurd speed limits (IIRC the speed limit on Northfield for the LRT is lower than for cars, despite having no conflicts--which means it travels 20-40km/h slower than traffic...even buses). The 7 isn't faster to other destinations.

The 6 (I think it's the 6) is faster going south to Fairway mall, as well as other destinations. In this case, it's primarily to do with the fact that the LRT is ridiculously slow through that section. Partly because of poor choice of routing (and in this case, it's a choice, it isn't to reach destinations) and partly for absolutely no sensible reason, it just goes slow and no engineer has provided any justification reasonable or otherwise.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - ac3r - 12-14-2021

The buses are faster for many loactions but then you feel like you're a rock in a shoebox being shaken around when you're in one. You feel every single bump. I find that really annoying since I am usually reading a book on the bus and that makes it hard. I'd prefer to spend an extra 10 minutes commuting by using the LRT for the majority of my trip versus a bus.

The buses can be faster, however, that's for sure. From where I usually live in Kitchener, the number 8 gets me downtown faster than any other bus or the LRT. But, unless I felt like sleeping in a little longer, I just take the 206 and transfer to the LRT for the more comfortable ride. Better seats, smoother ride, free wifi and more warmth.

Overall, the trains should be going faster and I'd love to hear what their engineers have to say as to why they can't seem to achieve that, but who knows if they'll ever address that at this point.

RE: ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit - jamincan - 12-14-2021

(12-14-2021, 01:37 PM)ac3r Wrote: The buses are faster for many loactions but then you feel like you're a rock in a shoebox being shaken around when you're in one. You feel every single bump. I find that really annoying since I am usually reading a book on the bus and that makes it hard. I'd prefer to spend an extra 10 minutes commuting by using the LRT for the majority of my trip versus a bus.

The buses can be faster, however, that's for sure. From where I usually live in Kitchener, the number 8 gets me downtown faster than any other bus or the LRT. But, unless I felt like sleeping in a little longer, I just take the 206 and transfer to the LRT for the more comfortable ride. Better seats, smoother ride, free wifi and more warmth.

Overall, the trains should be going faster and I'd love to hear what their engineers have to say as to why they can't seem to achieve that, but who knows if they'll ever address that at this point.

I was on the bus for the first time in a long time this past weekend and the thing I had forgotten about was just how loud it is. The LRT is so much more pleasant. It might just be me imagination, but I also though the train was going faster along King than when it first started.