ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[MidTowner]

Someone commuting with me this morning was on that train yesterday. There was no collision, but the train braked hard and he was thrown to the floor. He says (this is all hearsay, remember) that the train was stopped for around 25 minutes, part of that time shut down with no HVAC, before a linesman or someone showed up to inspect the train and ask if everyone was okay. He said communication from the driver was good, except for the fact that there was nothing really to communicate.

He thought there was no collision at all, but that the car was stuck on the curb between the rails and the road.

Whether or not 25 minutes was subjective or objective time, there was obviously a delay and he told me the train was quite busy. Calling out paramedics, Keolis staff, and a couple of cops, all of whom have other things they could be doing, along with wasting a few dozens or potentially a hundred commuters' time, is a huge cost. There should be a significant charge against that driver.

It's very likely that a collision would not be particularly perceptible to people on the train.  A small sedan weighs about a ton, the LRV weighs about 50 tons unloaded, and the braking is particularly powerful. If you watch videos of trams hitting cars, the drivers of the trams are usually not even jostled by the collision, I doubt it would be any more jarring than the usual jostling the LRV undergoes during normal operation.

His account, and the newspaper reporting does not match the position of the car that I saw and photographed (it was clear of the tracks when I came upon it, and had substantial damage to the rear quarter panel), nor the damage to the LRV (scuffs on the front right bumper and dislodging of the centre panel)...

Honestly, I cannot understand how this is still a question...are our newspapers this careless?  Is there a cover-up?

I noted that what I was relaying was hearsay because, while I don't want to accuse anyone of lying, different people are focused on different things and so remember them with different levels of clarity. I don't see any solutions to the collisions besides patience, so I would hope that the responses would be better than they seem to have been.

We're talking about two different incidents, though- are you talking about the Manulife collision yesterday morning? I was referring to an incident in Midtown yesterday afternoon (and it seems like there was more than one of those...) that supposedly did not result in a collision, just hard braking. I can personally believe that someone might lose his balance when the train brakes unexpectedly.