ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[tomh009]

I remember that 1978 storm ... we were living in Country Hills back then, and there were cars at the bottom of the hill, buried in snow up to their rooflines. (Yeah, no SUVs back then!)

[nms]

Speaking of trains and roundabouts, I did see a train track going right through a roundabout in NZ. That track doesn't get a lot of trains (and the roundabout doesn't get a lot of cars either). But it seems like going straight through is the thing. I don't think it was signalled, but different country etc.

There is a roundabout in Calgary that includes a double CP track, so it has been done in Canada, on a Class 1 railway no less.

As for snow days, I was in the school system from the mid-80s until 2010 by the time I finished post-graduate work.  At the time, UW tied their snow policy to the school boards.  I can recall snow days happening at least once a year every few years in that period.  The most dramatic one was when the schools were closed midday and the children were dismissed early.  That was a fun walk home!  There was also a time in the last 10 years or so where so much snow fell in the winter that people were running out of places to put the snow that had been shoveled from their sidewalks or driveways. Of a particular challenge were the banks that were higher than residential snow blowers could fling the snow.

[jeffster]

Speaking of trains and roundabouts, I did see a train track going right through a roundabout in NZ. That track doesn't get a lot of trains (and the roundabout doesn't get a lot of cars either). But it seems like going straight through is the thing. I don't think it was signalled, but different country etc.

There is a roundabout in Calgary that includes a double CP track, so it has been done in Canada, on a Class 1 railway no less.

As for snow days, I was in the school system from the mid-80s until 2010 by the time I finished post-graduate work.  At the time, UW tied their snow policy to the school boards.  I can recall snow days happening at least once a year every few years in that period.  The most dramatic one was when the schools were closed midday and the children were dismissed early.  That was a fun walk home!  There was also a time in the last 10 years or so where so much snow fell in the winter that people were running out of places to put the snow that had been shoveled from their sidewalks or driveways. Of a particular challenge were the banks that were higher than residential snow blowers could fling the snow.

When my kids went to school their were a lot of snow days. I think the issue stems from a time when most kids walked to school, or perhaps took city transit, by the time the mid-90's arrived, Kitchener Transit lost the school business, and yellow busses for a larger and larger set of kids. I think it was close to 4 or 5 times a year.

[ijmorlan]

The last time over 30 cm of snow fell in a single event was 2008.

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...storm.html

Thanks for that information. Looks like I might be slightly exaggerating. But still, only a little because we’ve had lots of storms where enough snow fell that it made travel difficult; the exact amount of snow isn’t hugely important. If they’d said once in 10 years I’d have to eat crow right about now.

[Bytor]

Once in a 20 year event seems like media hyperbole. We get heavy 15cm+ snowfalls every year and since this is Canada, they should be prepared for it.

If anybody is calling it that they have the attention span of a gnat.

20 years takes us back to 2002. In that time we have had numerous storms comparable to this one. I might believe that this storm was a once-in-four-years storm. Just a few years ago the University of Waterloo closed for 2 days in a row during exams, when that meant massive re-scheduling.

No, we have not. These things are tracked and recorded, and don't forget that human memory is faulty at best.

[tomh009]

The last time over 30 cm of snow fell in a single event was 2008.

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...storm.html

Thanks for that information. Looks like I might be slightly exaggerating. But still, only a little because we’ve had lots of storms where enough snow fell that it made travel difficult; the exact amount of snow isn’t hugely important. If they’d said once in 10 years I’d have to eat crow right about now.

15 cm might trigger a snow day for schools, but for the LRT, 30 cm is much more than twice as bad. Combine the train ground clearance with the excess snow being plowed onto the tracks, and you get a mess like we had now. At 15 cm we would have been OK, maybe even at 20 cm.

[danbrotherston]

Thanks for that information. Looks like I might be slightly exaggerating. But still, only a little because we’ve had lots of storms where enough snow fell that it made travel difficult; the exact amount of snow isn’t hugely important. If they’d said once in 10 years I’d have to eat crow right about now.

15 cm might trigger a snow day for schools, but for the LRT, 30 cm is much more than twice as bad. Combine the train ground clearance with the excess snow being plowed onto the tracks, and you get a mess like we had now. At 15 cm we would have been OK, maybe even at 20 cm.

Generally also the rate matters.

I'm sure we've gotten 30cm of snow in a week many times in the last decade, but getting it in a 24 hour period (or even like 18 hours) is really quite a big more problematic.

[jeffster]

15 cm might trigger a snow day for schools, but for the LRT, 30 cm is much more than twice as bad. Combine the train ground clearance with the excess snow being plowed onto the tracks, and you get a mess like we had now. At 15 cm we would have been OK, maybe even at 20 cm.

Generally also the rate matters.

I'm sure we've gotten 30cm of snow in a week many times in the last decade, but getting it in a 24 hour period (or even like 18 hours) is really quite a big more problematic.

Maybe. Typically, the snowiest month in Kitchener is January, with an average of 47 cm. Works out to 10.6 cm per week. We'd need 3 weeks worth of snow to get 30 cm in one week. But I am sure its happened.

[Bytor]

Generally also the rate matters.

I'm sure we've gotten 30cm of snow in a week many times in the last decade, but getting it in a 24 hour period (or even like 18 hours) is really quite a big more problematic.

Maybe. Typically, the snowiest month in Kitchener is January, with an average of 47 cm. Works out to 10.6 cm per week. We'd need 3 weeks worth of snow to get 30 cm in one week. But I am sure its happened.

And 30cm in a week would never has caused these problems because it would never be enough in just one day to be more than a tram could handle by simply driving the route, even if some did end up on the tracks thanks to a careless snow plow operator.

[Acitta]

Light rail gamble proving its worth

[jwilliamson]

Between 2018, the year before the Ion was launched, and its first full year of operation in 2020, public transit operating costs in the region more than tripled per passenger.

I seem to remember something else happening in 2020 that drove up costs per passenger.

[Rainrider22]

No kidding...perhaps an asterixs for the year 20 data would be appropriate ?

[jeffster]

We’re expecting a lot of snow potentially this Wednesday/Thursday — hopefully things go more smoothly.

And thankful that we don’t get the same quality dumps that our brethren over in NY and Massachusetts — 60 cm and more. Just insane.

[Bob_McBob]

Apparently the fare inspection rate on ION was a whopping 16% in 2021, and was well beyond industry standards even before Covid.

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...-says.html

[danbrotherston]

Apparently the fare inspection rate on ION was a whopping 16% in 2021, and was well beyond industry standards even before Covid.

https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-...-says.html

Yes, no question we are policing transit riders far more heavily than say drivers.  This is and always was unacceptable but we did it anyway.