06-05-2021, 12:29 PM
(06-05-2021, 11:12 AM)ac3r Wrote: Is 515 the latest LRV that Bombardier sent us for their colossal screw ups?
I'm curious if they plan on putting it into service anytime soon, or whether it'll just act as a spare. I don't know much about train scheduling but if adding that could increase headway, that would be pretty nice. I may be remembering incorrectly, but I think the initial headway was supposed to be 7 minutes in rush hour and...possibly 12 minutes the rest of the time.
Edit: Unrelated, but does anyone know if the automatic door opening will end up being permanent? I know they started that at the beginning of the pandemic when we thought that it could be easily transmitted through touch, but research has since proven that it's extremely hard to do so. I don't mind having them open on their own, it's pretty useful.
On the first point, they seem to be testing it, so I'm guessing it will be put in the rotation. I'm not an operations specialist, but I suspect that it makes more sense to keep all your vehicles in rotation, so that they all see equal wear, and none are left sitting to rot (or whatever mechanical devices do to degrade when you leave them sit). That being said, I don't think it will be used to increase headway. I believe the current fleet was enough to achieve 8 minute headways, the limitation was never equipment, but policy, that left us with less. And during a pandemic, I really doubt we'll see any investment.
As for automatic doors, I'm not sure. I know that we all know touch is a low probability vector, but it a highly advertised part of the...COVID theater. I've seen numerous examples even to this day, of government announcements spending even half of a notice talking about the need for handwashing and surface sanitation. And ultimately, I suspect that at least part of the reason it is so low risk, is because of precautions we all take. But regardless, I doubt they will be easing up on those any time. (Of course, at no time was the region willing to turn off its beg buttons, because pandemic or no pandemic, priority is always on moving drivers faster, and fuck the rest of us).
That being said, I know they wanted the doors not to open automatically for the benefit of heating and air conditioning efficiency and comfort of passengers, and I'm gonna say...I'm definitely sympathetic to that argument.