ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Bytor]

Just based on this photo, I am struggling to figure out how a transport truck could be traveling fast enough or maneuver fast enough in that location that the LRV couldn't stop in time.  The damage appears to show that the LRV hit the truck that was fouling the track. The LRV was also presumably traveling at slow enough speed having just cleared the Erb/Caroline corner and also preparing to stop at the station. Based on the trailer, this truck was likely making a delivery to the Loblaws Independent Grocer.

The speed limit of the LRV in that section is 50 km/h (it's a rare section where the speed limit matches the surrounding traffic...doubly so for a side running section). It's 150 meters from the last intersection so I wouldn't say it "just cleared" Erb and Caroline. While it's unlikely the operator is actually doing the speed limit there, 40km/h is very possible. At that speed the LRV stopping distance will be significant (a dozen meters maybe).

Given the orientation of the truck, it was probably proceeding straight (the trailer is aligned in the lane), and made a turn, if they weren't signalling, the driver would have almost no warning about the impending collision.

40km/h is unlikely.

Had the tram not come by at that moment it would have gone something like this:

1. come up to just past the pedestrian island
   
2. cranked the steering wheel right so when they went into reverse the tractor-trailer would bend and the trailer go diagonally across the lanes
   
3. as they go start cranking the steering wheel left so the tractor and trailer align with each other
   
4. continue to back up diagonally across the road a bit more
   
5. turn the steering wheel right so the trailer turns to align with the loading dock
   

That turn at 2) would have taken them up onto the tracks. The tram would have been already very slow from rounding the corner and not needing to slow to stop at Willis Way station, so it was likely at the ass-end of the trailer or not much farther when the truck driver pressed on the accelerator to start the bend in step 2. If the tram was much farther back there would have been more time for the tractor-trailer to bend more and the tram's front-left corner would have hit the hitch end of the trailer or the right rear tires of the tractor instead of hitting and scraping along the cab and snagging the tractor's front bumper like that.


As the tram would not have been in the right side blindspot, the truck driver was likely fixated on the driver's side mirror to judge that the ass-end of the trailer was headed where they wanted it to go.

[danbrotherston]

The speed limit of the LRV in that section is 50 km/h (it's a rare section where the speed limit matches the surrounding traffic...doubly so for a side running section). It's 150 meters from the last intersection so I wouldn't say it "just cleared" Erb and Caroline. While it's unlikely the operator is actually doing the speed limit there, 40km/h is very possible. At that speed the LRV stopping distance will be significant (a dozen meters maybe).

Given the orientation of the truck, it was probably proceeding straight (the trailer is aligned in the lane), and made a turn, if they weren't signalling, the driver would have almost no warning about the impending collision.

40km/h is unlikely.

Had the tram not come by at that moment it would have gone something like this:

1. come up to just past the pedestrian island
   
2. cranked the steering wheel right so when they went into reverse the tractor-trailer would bend and the trailer go diagonally across the lanes
   
3. as they go start cranking the steering wheel left so the tractor and trailer align with each other
   
4. continue to back up diagonally across the road a bit more
   
5. turn the steering wheel right so the trailer turns to align with the loading dock
   

That turn at 2) would have taken them up onto the tracks. The tram would have been already very slow from rounding the corner and not needing to slow to stop at Willis Way station, so it was likely at the ass-end of the trailer or not much farther when the truck driver pressed on the accelerator to start the bend in step 2. If the tram was much farther back there would have been more time for the tractor-trailer to bend more and the tram's front-left corner would have hit the hitch end of the trailer or the right rear tires of the tractor instead of hitting and scraping along the cab and snagging the tractor's front bumper like that.


As the tram would not have been in the right side blindspot, the truck driver was likely fixated on the driver's side mirror to judge that the ass-end of the trailer was headed where they wanted it to go.

I understand what you are suggesting, but I still don't think the truck was doing that, I think he was making a turn. I doubt the train was able to drag the truck any distance, so I'm assuming it's position was the position it was in when the driver turned into the train. Given I saw it first hand, I have a good handle on the position, and the truck was exactly lined up for a turn onto Father David Bauer Dr., and while it is probably possible to reverse into the loading bay from there, if they were to go straight in from that position, they would back over the island.

But I don't think it matters anyway, there is no excuse for hitting a tram.

As for 40km/h, I think the thing that makes it less likely is the overly conservative operational safety policy which means they often operate the tram at more than 10km/h below the limit.

[dtkvictim]

To be fair, the LRT can’t go very fast on that block because of tight curves at each end.

Unlike all the places where it can’t go very fast because the people in charge won’t let it go faster.

Fair point. I happened to be going through today so I recorded the speeds on Google Maps. Ignore the navigation, I used car trip to get the speed to show up but I think it shouldn't affect the accuracy.

https://i.imgur.com/2vryNOa.mp4

I didn't record after the station but it also got up to about 40km/h, slowing down to 10-15km/h for the bends. So a 30km/h limit would technically slow the trip down a very small amount.

40km/h is unlikely.

...

...

As for 40km/h, I think the thing that makes it less likely is the overly conservative operational safety policy which means they often operate the tram at more than 10km/h below the limit.

See above to remove some speculation from your discussion. At least the operator I had today went by FDB at roughly 40km/h.

[taylortbb]

Rave takes over LRT train: A group of artists turned an LRT train into an all-out rave Saturday night

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video/c2834...-lrt-train

[kalis0490]

Hi There, a group of students from the University of Waterloo and some long time Tritag members are trying to rebuild the TriTag Organization. Such an organization can bring awareness to important urban issues that were identified in this forum (those regarding cycling infrastructure/ local and regional bus/train service and the airport). Please DM me on WRC if you want a link to the organizational group chat.

[nms]

Dare I ask how the Ion is holding up in this storm? Or is no news good news?

[ZEBuilder]

Dare I ask how the Ion is holding up in this storm?  Or is no news good news?

Based on the service alerts there has been 2 cancelled trips on the LRT tonight but those happened right around the heaviest snow so it appears that it's held up so far. Not having any freezing rain has certainly helped.

[Bytor]

Dare I ask how the Ion is holding up in this storm?  Or is no news good news?

Based on the service alerts there has been 2 cancelled trips on the LRT tonight but those happened right around the heaviest snow so it appears that it's held up so far. Not having any freezing rain has certainly helped.

If you look at TransSee.ca

https://www.transsee.ca/operatechart?a=g...y=on&ok=OK

You can see that it was the same tram, the light blue line that starts going horizontally instead of diagonally upwards and ending at Fairway station in time to leave

If you click on that line to view the trip path you can see the one that should have left Conestoga Station at 7:55pm went to the barn, and then went back out to be the 9:40pm tram leaving Conestoga and was 5 minutes late doing so.

That seems like some weird failure that was fixed, but who knows why they didn't send out a replacement tram from the barn to start a R&T Park instead of having that 30 minute gap in there.

That decision is kinda tone-deaf after the clear community anger at a suggested reduction to 30-minute evening service.

[ac3r]

It appears there were some cancelled trains again last night. Something caused trips between Fairway and GRH to be cancelled, then 50 minutes later the entire system went down.

Waiting for them to Tweet out something like "Route 301 ION light rail leaving Fairway Station on July 20, 2024 at 1:00 p.m. towards Conestoga Station is cancelled due to beautiful clear skies and sunshine."

[nms]

Last week (Saturday morning?) I happened to see a southbound train at Victoria/Charles that had it's rear hitch cover open. It wasn't clear it had simply been left open, or if the unit had used the hitch for some reason.

[ZEBuilder]

Last week (Saturday morning?) I happened to see a southbound train at Victoria/Charles that had it's rear hitch cover open.  It wasn't clear it had simply been left open, or if the unit had used the hitch for some reason.

It definitely wasn't just that one LRT, I was on 4 different ones on the weekend and every single one had the coupler panel in the open position on both ends. The only thing that I could think of is if the trains lost power in the event of ice build up on the catenary lines it would allow Keolis to easily tow the trains back since the coupler is accessible. However if one can open the coupler panel without the train having any power then that ideas completely wrong.

[Square]

They open those when we have heavy snow. Maybe that the panels don't break?

[Bob_McBob]

During severe weather, it seems to be standard practice to couple LRVs for extra traction, or to recover them with the shunter, so I assume they open the access panels preemptively now. The night of that huge ice storm last February, they were all running coupled just to limp back to the OMSF.

[KevinL]

I guess so they don't ice over when in the lower position, in case access to the coupler is needed.

[Bytor]

It appears there were some cancelled trains again last night. Something caused trips between Fairway and GRH to be cancelled, then 50 minutes later the entire system went down.

Waiting for them to Tweet out something like "Route 301 ION light rail leaving Fairway Station on July 20, 2024 at 1:00 p.m. towards Conestoga Station is cancelled due to beautiful clear skies and sunshine."

This is a normal Saturday (the 6th) evening/night service pattern.

This was this past Saturday (the 13th).

You can see that the 503 was taken out of service, for some reason, at Grand River Hospital station at 10:35pm and not replaced. That particular trip leaves Conestoga Station at 10:10pm then turns around and leaves Fairway Station at 11:00pm and arrives back at Conestoga Station at 11:44pm and then goes out of service and back to the barn.

At this time of night on a Saturday only two more trams leave Fairway Station, and they both did, but you can see that something happened to the penultimate tram from around Central Station. Then neither those two nor the final tram into Fairway Station completed their final loop.