ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[ijmorlan]

The signal timing on Northfield really needs further improvement. Trains heading to Conestoga Mall are way off in the distance by the time the arms start coming down. It causes some rather significant delays in combination with all the single pedestrians crossing there to get to the bus stop on the other side.

I understand that the tourist train also triggers the crossing for an extended period of time, even though it doesn’t even cross the street at all.

[ijmorlan]

We need some well placed stickers for these people: https://youtu.be/LPxDHN7aLo4?t=140

This should be a license-renewal issue for the operating permit of the bus company. I mean, the police should be able to ticket (and interested in doing so) as usual, but the real penalty should be the risk that too many tickets would result in a permit renewal denial.

Of course it’s also true that they probably shouldn’t have done so many curb lane tracks. Why are most of the one-direction segments curb lane running? What is it about one rather than two LRT lanes that makes the side rather than the centre of the road the right place for them? But if they do need to be there, just use a proper curb to separate from the other traffic. The bus could but probably wouldn’t hop a curb.

[KevinT]

Are there rules/regulations for this sort of things? ie. Signals/barriers must be activated when a train is within xxx metres of a crossing?

For a crossing in the middle of nowhere there's three detection zones, an 'island' under the crossing itself and one to either side extending out some distance.  When multiple crossings are close together, detection zones are shared between two or more.  For each zone the system sends an AC signal down one rail, with the axles of an approaching train shorting it to the other for detection.  The inductance of the rails affects the signal in a measurable way, which changes as the train gets closer.  This lets the system calculate both distance and speed, activating the gates based on predicted arrival time.  The Transport Canada Grade Crossings Handbook says (more or less, it's complicated) that gates have to activate at least 20 seconds before the train arrives.  It's an analog world however so each track section behaves differently and the math can't be hard-coded, there was a lot of tuning done with stopwatches while police protected the crossings in the system's early days.

While there's no argument that some of the crossings need better tuning, I worry that they won't be allowed to re-tune without police guarding the crossings again, lest an adjustment cause the gates to drop late.  Hopefully this can happen yet before they start simulated service, or its going to be a lot more painful as headways decrease.  I doubt they'll ever hit perfect, but I hope they can at least get them all to under 25 seconds.  University was amazing when I was there around lunch yesterday, that's how they all should be.

Another thing I've noticed are the 'no left / no right / train' signs are way too conservative, particularly the ones out of the Graybar driveways on Hayward.  For northbound trains they don't clear until the train has made it quite some distance down Courtland, leaving a driver blocked for 30 seconds or more after the train has passed.  I haven't sat around to watch but I'd be surprised if their employees haven't already developed bad habits, and I fear "the boy who cried wolf" effect is going to cause an accident there one day. 

[robdrimmie]

Another thing I've noticed are the 'no left / no right / train' signs are way too conservative, particularly the ones out of the Graybar driveways on Hayward.  For northbound trains they don't clear until the train has made it quite some distance down Courtland, leaving a driver blocked for 30 seconds or more after the train has passed.  I haven't sat around to watch but I'd be surprised if their employees haven't already developed bad habits, and I fear "the boy who cried wolf" effect is going to cause an accident there one day. 

Agreed. Yesterday at Water and Charles after a train went by I counted 24 seconds (not with a watch, so not exact) that the `no right / train` sign was lit. It didn't turn off until all the lights at the intersection changed to allow traffic on water to move again.

[KevinT]

Of course it’s also true that they probably shouldn’t have done so many curb lane tracks. Why are most of the one-direction segments curb lane running? What is it about one rather than two LRT lanes that makes the side rather than the centre of the road the right place for them?

Turning radius. Unlike the TTC's painful 12 meter radius curves that require concessions in the vehicle design, our system has a more standard 25 meter minimum radius. In theory this lowered the vehicle complexity and kept their costs down. Unfortunately you can't get from road center to road center with a 25 meter radius, so they swing wide into the curbs instead and just stay there. The other approach would be to kick right to turn left and vice versa, or immediately swing from the curbs back to the center, but this would block more lane space and push stop lines back, and I guess it was rejected for that reason. This choice also makes for the curious reverse running sections on Francis and Allen where the train is on the wrong side of the road for the direction it's travelling. Fortunately those sections are short.

[danbrotherston]

We need some well placed stickers for these people: https://youtu.be/LPxDHN7aLo4?t=140

This should be a license-renewal issue for the operating permit of the bus company. I mean, the police should be able to ticket (and interested in doing so) as usual, but the real penalty should be the risk that too many tickets would result in a permit renewal denial.

Of course it’s also true that they probably shouldn’t have done so many curb lane tracks. Why are most of the one-direction segments curb lane running? What is it about one rather than two LRT lanes that makes the side rather than the centre of the road the right place for them? But if they do need to be there, just use a proper curb to separate from the other traffic. The bus could but probably wouldn’t hop a curb.

One of the reasons for curb running tracks is it takes much less space.  This is largely to do with the fact that our society has decided that ~4.5 is the narrowest right of way we can tolerate, so a centre track down a two lane road takes vastly more space than a side running track.  I disagree with that requirement, but I suspect it is not something the engineers could get away with changing.

[KevinT]

Another thing I've noticed are the 'no left / no right / train' signs are way too conservative, particularly the ones out of the Graybar driveways on Hayward.  For northbound trains they don't clear until the train has made it quite some distance down Courtland, leaving a driver blocked for 30 seconds or more after the train has passed.  I haven't sat around to watch but I'd be surprised if their employees haven't already developed bad habits, and I fear "the boy who cried wolf" effect is going to cause an accident there one day. 

Agreed. Yesterday at Water and Charles after a train went by I counted 24 seconds (not with a watch, so not exact) that the `no right / train` sign was lit. It didn't turn off until all the lights at the intersection changed to allow traffic on water to move again.

The signals for the on-street sections are triggered by 'inductive loops' in the pavement, just like left turn lanes are for cars.  (That's why the bus parked on the tracks at Charles kept triggering the train cycles at Ontario.)  There's a loop on each side to allow trains to reverse run in emergencies, and I suspect it's not until the train has cleared the second loop that the signs go dark.  To me that's a design deficiency, as soon as the second loop is triggered the sign could go dark, but there's probably some arcane "what if?" based regulation that governed the way it was done.

I keep hoping the vehicle location system that's used for schedule adherence and automatic train protection will be overlayed into it somehow to make it more precise (and also prevent false trips from cars, bikes, and buses), but the closer we get to launch without a change to the status quo the more I think it's just not going to happen.

Edit to add: We also have to recognize that what appears to be an arcane "what if?" based regulation may have been written in blood. Failure of imagination during the design phase has been responsible for innumerable injuries and deaths.

[jamincan]

I wonder if the long length of the "No Right Turn" signs has to do with the signs just being tied into larger blocks so that if the block is occupied, the signs come on, if it's not, they go off. It would be a simpler and cheaper arrangement, especially where there are multiple spots in close succession where the signs are required, but it would mean that the signs would be slower to respond to a passing train.

[tomh009]

I saw a train with no numbers at all at around 6:15 AM today. Could this have been 501? Or are there other trains that are missing numbers? (It did have the usual larger "testing" decals, though.)

[tomh009]

We have art! (This is at the Kitchener Market station.)

   

[Rainrider22]

I like it !!

[Rainrider22]

And I notice that in the background we can see that DTK still doesn't have a completed crane !!

[KevinL]

And I notice that in the background we can see that DTK still doesn't have a completed crane !!

Per the DTK thread, they had issues installing the jib.

[robdrimmie]

The piece looks really good from the seat of a bus as well. Next time I ride to/from work I'm planning on taking Charles to see it in person.

[urbd]