ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Bob_McBob]

Lol, on the scanner just now:

"We should start a pool to see how long the ION lasts tonight."

[ac3r]

Lol, on the scanner just now:

"We should start a pool to see how long the ION lasts tonight."

Looks like the first cancellation was at 18:00 between Conestoga and R&T: https://twitter.com/AlertsGRT/status/163...5418840065

At 18:25 the first Conestoga to Fairway train was cancelled: https://twitter.com/AlertsGRT/status/163...5988955141

19:15 sees the first Fairway to Conestoga cancelled: https://twitter.com/AlertsGRT/status/163...6920094721

There isn't even freezing rain...looking out my window there is maybe 3 centimeters of snow? What is the justification this time?

I hope this shit show of a PPP is held accountable if this is going to continue. 1 billion dollars (give or take) on a "rapid transit" system that falls apart in the slightest bit of winter precipitation, crawls along like a turtle for most of the route, has doors that seem to be breaking more frequently, constantly gets into accidents due to an absolute moronic track route and so on.

Grand River Transit, Keolis and GrandLinq suck. People hate our transit, rightfully so. This recent Reddit thread which questions "what would it take to get you to start using transit/biking" etc and most replies point to the obvious: the LRT is slow as shit - you can walk faster than it moves in many places - and busing anywhere takes way more time than it should. A 15 minute drive by car can be an hour long, multi-bus and/or LRT journey. They can't manage the bare minimum and make transit for a region with a population so large an embarrassing situation. And now it seems like when it comes to winter time, everything falls apart. And the price to use it just keeps going up and up and up.

[nms]

Out of curiosity, how do Toronto's equivalent LRVs fare during this kind of weather? If their performance is better in the winter, what are they doing differently?

[ac3r]

Out of curiosity, how do Toronto's equivalent LRVs fare during this kind of weather? If their performance is better in the winter, what are they doing differently?

They actually get to work ahead of time to ensure their systems keep operating:

I mean yeah they have failures too - that's inevitable - but when's the last time you saw Keolis/GrandLinq doing this?

[Bob_McBob]

So far it's only buses having major issues, particularly on hills. One dicey situation at a station where two buses had to be winched because they couldn't keep moving without sliding into each other, and lots of other similar rescues. A newer ION operator called in to ask if it was normal to encounter "significant resistance" in snowy conditions, and another one called in to say it's normal because of snow building up around the tracks. Plows are apparently leaving 2 foot high snow banks at King and Northfield, but the trains don't have a problem getting through.

[ac3r]

The LRT is cancelled as of this morning. Going to guess they're waiting on the tracks to be cleared (and perhaps weren't already doing this all throughout the night).

[taylortbb]

If I remember from the last time a big snowfall took out LRT service, it wasn't the snow that fell on the tracks that was a problem, it was the snow that was plowed onto the tracks. Particularly the windrows left when a plow turns across the tracks at one of the intersections.

[Bob_McBob]

I think they only cancelled a couple trips this morning?

ION didn't seem to have any real issues with the heavy snow last night. The trains are able to push through accumulation on the tracks as well as small piles left by plows in intersections. The only problems I heard were other vehicles stuck on the tracks.

[ac3r]

Yeah it seemed okay this morning. I returned from working in Toronto in the morning and it was working just fine at about 7:30 with the exception of the Northfield and Conestoga stations.

[plam]

I mean I also spent 20 minutes shovelling the snow in Kingston this morning and then 10 minutes being stuck at an intersection. Everything seems cleared tonight in Waterloo though.

[tomh009]

It’s hurting the Region’s credibility that they’re basically not saying anything about the ION + ice situation to the public.

If lawyers have been engaged, they will likely have advised the region not to make any public statements.

[mpd618]

It’s hurting the Region’s credibility that they’re basically not saying anything about the ION + ice situation to the public.

If lawyers have been engaged, they will likely have advised the region not to make any public statements.

If the mechanics of public-private partnerships mean that no one can tell the public how or whether problems are being resolved, that's a pretty serious failure mode.

[ZEBuilder]

There's currently a LRT collision involving a pedestrian in front of Cameron Heights, it occured right after the school was let out for the day. Charles is closed between Cedar and Stirling. Obviously trains are not running.

WRPS tweet: https://twitter.com/WRPSToday/status/163...gr%5Etweet

[ac3r]

I've been told it caused a death. If true, that makes number two.

[bravado]

I've been told it caused a death. If true. that makes number two.

The latest police update is that the air ambulance was needed for serious injuries:

https://twitter.com/wrpstoday/status/163...1715201026