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(10-12-2017, 11:15 AM)ijmorlan Wrote: I was thinking it would be cool if there was an LRT shuttle — just back and forth between UW station (providing cross-platform transfer with the main route) and a station in the middle of Laurier. Just a single track, one vehicle going back and forth, both giving Laurier a convenient LRT stop and linking the two universities. I wouldn’t want to drive that route however. I can’t imagine a more boring driving job.
You could even do that with ... a bus! 
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Or a small, elevated peoplemover system, SIPEM Monorail (Dortmund), Ultra PRT, or ground-based driverless shuttle (2getthere/FROG, EasyMile)... I've been saying for years there should be an automatic circulator at UW and R&T.
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(10-12-2017, 11:15 AM)ijmorlan Wrote: I was thinking it would be cool if there was an LRT shuttle — just back and forth between UW station (providing cross-platform transfer with the main route) and a station in the middle of Laurier. Just a single track, one vehicle going back and forth, both giving Laurier a convenient LRT stop and linking the two universities. I wouldn’t want to drive that route however. I can’t imagine a more boring driving job.
If the LRT stop had been at University Ave, then that shuttle could have been "literally every bus already on University Ave"
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(10-12-2017, 11:45 AM)Canard Wrote: Or a small, elevated peoplemover system, SIPEM Monorail (Dortmund), Ultra PRT, or ground-based driverless shuttle (2getthere/FROG, EasyMile)... I've been saying for years there should be an automatic circulator at UW and R&T.
Those would indeed be lovely. But a bus-based shuttle could be done with zero expenditure and could be running by the time the LRT is.
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10-12-2017, 12:50 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-12-2017, 12:58 PM by trainspotter139.)
On-track tests of LRT vehicle expected to start next week
http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/on-track-tes...-1.3629564
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The Seagram stop is closer to Laurier than the R&T Park stop is to the offices currently at R&T Park.
In other ION news, around 11:30 this morning workers were putting up large signs on Columbia approaching the LRT tracks saying something like "This is an LRT test area - Live overhead wires, please obey all signals".
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New signs going up at the crossings in the current test zone warning motorists of the upcoming testing.
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Hopefully, they’ll also put them up inside the University, where I endlessly see people walking on the tracks, often with headphones in, or texting.
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(10-12-2017, 12:55 PM)goggolor Wrote: The Seagram stop is closer to Laurier than the R&T Park stop is to the offices currently at R&T Park.
In other ION news, around 11:30 this morning workers were putting up large signs on Columbia approaching the LRT tracks saying something like "This is an LRT test area - Live overhead wires, please obey all signals".
Saw one of these signs this afternoon on King St as well, just past Conestoga Mall.
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(10-12-2017, 01:24 PM)Canard Wrote: Hopefully, they’ll also put them up inside the University, where I endlessly see people walking on the tracks, often with headphones in, or texting.
Along the tracks, or just crossing carelessly?
I’m just curious because I can’t think of a single trip where the “best” route (ignoring rail safety and the rough terrain) involves walking along the tracks through campus. The only future exception is going between the station platform and E5, where the shorter route (and the one that should have been implemented in the plan) involves walking between the two tracks from the platform to the crossing in front of E5.
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(10-12-2017, 11:48 AM)Markster Wrote: (10-12-2017, 11:15 AM)ijmorlan Wrote: I was thinking it would be cool if there was an LRT shuttle — just back and forth between UW station (providing cross-platform transfer with the main route) and a station in the middle of Laurier. Just a single track, one vehicle going back and forth, both giving Laurier a convenient LRT stop and linking the two universities. I wouldn’t want to drive that route however. I can’t imagine a more boring driving job.
If the LRT stop had been at University Ave, then that shuttle could have been "literally every bus already on University Ave"
Touché. Although I just said it would be cool, not that they should have done my idea.
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(10-12-2017, 12:55 PM)goggolor Wrote: The Seagram stop is closer to Laurier than the R&T Park stop is to the offices currently at R&T Park.
In other ION news, around 11:30 this morning workers were putting up large signs on Columbia approaching the LRT tracks saying something like "This is an LRT test area - Live overhead wires, please obey all signals".
I wonder what was/will be the first actual date for live wires? I do know one thing — I won’t be testing it with a pole!
I read an account of a tour of an abandoned New York subway tunnel (authorized, as far as I recall) in which it was mentioned that it was safe to assume the third rail was still live. Not in the usual sense of the assumption probably being true, but in the sense that the assumption in question is the safe thing to assume.
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(10-12-2017, 12:50 PM)trainspotter139 Wrote: On-track tests of LRT vehicle expected to start next week
http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/on-track-tes...-1.3629564
" Two more functional Ion vehicles are expected to arrive in Waterloo Region by the end of the month, with passenger service scheduled to start next spring."
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(10-12-2017, 01:36 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: Along the tracks, or just crossing carelessly?
I’m just curious because I can’t think of a single trip where the “best” route (ignoring rail safety and the rough terrain) involves walking along the tracks through campus. The only future exception is going between the station platform and E5, where the shorter route (and the one that should have been implemented in the plan) involves walking between the two tracks from the platform to the crossing in front of E5.
The route from UW Station to the UW Plaza (going in front of E5) is missing a direct (and level) pedestrian link, and it is not surprising at all that people would walk on the tracks in that area.
In Red is the paths you are supposed to take, as designed.
In Green are the natural paths a pedestrian will want to take.
A contributing factor is how narrow all the pedestrian paths and crossings are. They are insufficient for the volume of pedestrians. The E5 crossing is the only one that was built to an appropriate width.
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(10-12-2017, 02:05 PM)Markster Wrote: (10-12-2017, 01:36 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: Along the tracks, or just crossing carelessly?
I’m just curious because I can’t think of a single trip where the “best” route (ignoring rail safety and the rough terrain) involves walking along the tracks through campus. The only future exception is going between the station platform and E5, where the shorter route (and the one that should have been implemented in the plan) involves walking between the two tracks from the platform to the crossing in front of E5.
The route from UW Station to the UW Plaza (going in front of E5) is missing a direct (and level) pedestrian link, and it is not surprising at all that people would walk on the tracks in that area.
In Red is the paths you are supposed to take, as designed.
In Green are the natural paths a pedestrian will want to take.
That will be true in the future, but not today, since the station is not a destination at the moment.
I've never seen anyone walking along the tracks there, but I'm not there all that often, so it could be happening, but I don't see a reason for it right now.
When the station is open, I'm quite sure it will absolutely be a regular occurrence as people run for the train.
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