ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[KevinL]

Oof. Not a good look on the first day of scheduled service.

[tomh009]

Trains are running, though, and not crowded—at least not before 7 AM.

[MidTowner]

My train this morning was pretty busy- at least as compared with the 200 at the same time of day last week. A few people were clearly "tourists" still, even at 6:30. A few commuters were grumbling because it was late- by two minutes- and I think that was exacerbated by the fact that, on the platform, the display was simply saying that trains depart every ten minutes, which we knew wasn't the case.

Edit: I mis-spoke above. I checked the schedule, and it wasn't two minutes late, it was on time. So the perception of it being late was actually caused by the fact that the display wasn't showing the proper schedule. Not a big deal, in the grand scheme of things.

[panamaniac]

I see that there was another minor collision yesterday, when a car hit a corner of one of the trains on Mill St.

[goggolor]

I took it to work today on my regular commute from GRH > R&T Park which used to take about 35 minutes (and frequently longer on the way home). Total time was 20 minutes door-to-door, but that's mostly because I lucked out and caught a #9 which cuts down the 1km walk from the station. But at least now all the parts of my commute are predictable instead of being at the mercy of car traffic.

The train was busy at 8 AM but still had some available seats. There were issues with the doors closing and re-opening repeatedly at each station. It seemed like a passenger who had boarded and was standing too close to the doors after they closed, would trigger the motion detector to re-open the doors. Not sure how well that will work if/when the cars become more crowded.

[Pilsner]

https://www.therecord.com/news-story/945...ion-train/

[panamaniac]

Scratch 'n dent, scratch 'n dent ... 

I guess turning right, into the path of the train, is going to be the most common of these bumps?

[KevinT]

So I took ION to work this morning. Two buses and a train from stop 2047 in Doon South (the extreme southwest of Kitchener service) to the R&T Park Station (in north Waterloo) took just an hour and ten minutes, almost the exact time it takes me by bike. (I would have biked to Fairway to meet up with ION but I'm a fair weather biker and there was that threat of rain today.)

Observations:

Just as I'd experienced last night, there were no 'next stop' announcements northbound anywhere from Fairway through Grand River Hospital, they only started at Allen station. I do however love that they announce the connecting bus routes!

There was not a single graphic I spotted inside the train to explain what the 'door open' buttons were, and lots of people were confused when it came time to get off. The operator stepped out of the cab at Block Line to explain to everyone (since the internal PA was tinny sounding and constantly fed back, making it next to useless) that you had to push the button on the door when it turned green to get off the train, but a lot of people didn't pay attention. A high school student that was literally right beside the operator during the speech started to freak out and knock on the glass when the train pulled away with them still on it, then expected the operator to immediately stop and let them out on the tracks! Two of us calmed them down and explained that they could get off at Mill and re-board a southbound train, and that they had to push the button when it turned green both to get off and back on to the other train. Sadly the southbound train just pulled out of Mill as we pulled in, so they had a 10 minute wait ahead of them. We demonstrated the door opening process when the train stopped at Mill.

Confusion continued at every stop and by Central Station I got out of my seat and babysat the nearest door, since so many people didn't know what to do and couldn't get on or off. Some vinyl icons above the button on both the inside and outside of every door, as well as announcements on both the platform and in-train PA system every 3 to 4 minutes would go a long way towards resolving the issue. I hope it doesn't become like the TTC where they just give up on the buttons and open all doors at every stop, which will be awful on cold or hot muggy days as the HVAC struggles to keep up.

Even after a door button was pushed, the doors seemed to close too quickly. One, maybe two, people would make it in or out but then the chimes would sound and the next person would get caught unless they were quick to push the button again. It was quite distressing for the kid guillotined in their stroller! I wonder if they could just have a door stay open after activation for 60 seconds or until the train were ready to depart again (whichever came sooner)?

Everyone remained as friendly and talkative as they were during the weekend demo service, which was nice to see as my train seemed to be 90% commuters compared to the 90% tourists on my weekend trips.

In all I'm really digging this service, but there's still a few unfortunate glitches to be worked out. I hope they're lightning quick to get them tuned before people start getting turned off of the system.

[Bob_McBob]

Looks like the real-time departure issue is affecting all GRT services.

Real-time departure information is not available on our trip planning tools this morning. We are looking into the issue. Apps and other tools are showing scheduled departure times.

https://twitter.com/grt_row/status/1143126389186605056

[KevinT]

Taking the train downtown for lunch and just heard the platform announcement "To enter or exit the train, please push the button on the door." Awesome!

[goggolor]

Is there actually a motion detector on the inside of the door that's supposed to open the door when a user is standing in front of it? That's what passengers were saying this morning when we had door problems - they told a woman to move away from the door and we were able to move shortly after. But I don't recall that being a feature. Was it just co-incidence the problems stopped when the passenger stepped away from the doorway?

[KevinL]

Interesting, I din't have to push door buttons during the demonstration service on the weekend. I guess they had the drivers controlling them then, but now they're manual?

[trainspotter139]

Is there actually a motion detector on the inside of the door that's supposed to open the door when a user is standing in front of it? That's what passengers were saying this morning when we had door problems - they told a woman to move away from the door and we were able to move shortly after. But I don't recall that being a feature. Was it just co-incidence the problems stopped when the passenger stepped away from the doorway?

There's a detector at the doors to detect 'obstructions' to prevent the doors from closing on them.

[danbrotherston]

Taking the train downtown for lunch and just heard the platform announcement "To enter or exit the train, please push the button on the door."  Awesome!

This is the kind of thing it would have been good to explain during the weekend, however, nobody said this once, all the many many times I was chatting with them.

Frustrating moment when the train doors did not open arriving in station, and it took 7-10 seconds for someone to push the button.

Also worth noting that many many people are leaving Frederick station by the missing entrance, because of course they are.

I'm very happy to see the LRT running, but the frustrating bits are still there.

[KevinT]

This is the kind of thing it would have been good to explain during the weekend, however, nobody said this once, all the many many times I was chatting with them.

Frustrating moment when the train doors did not open arriving in station, and it took 7-10 seconds for someone to push the button.

The ambassadors on my first Friday train explained that the doors were opening automatically for the launch weekend, but that starting Monday we would have to push the buttons ourselves.  I didn't hear it on my return trip, and there was no ambassador aboard Sunday evening.  A "Starting tomorrow..." automated announcement played every few minutes would have been helpful.

I suspect the ambassadors were all given talking points, but the nature of a temporary volunteer workforce means that many would have quickly forgotten to say it.  I give them points for trying.

Also worth noting that many many people are leaving Frederick station by the missing entrance, because of course they are.

When I got off at Willis Way today I walked to the north end of the platform and used the crosswalk to get to QuickSandwich, but I was the only one.  Everyone else just herded across the street from wherever they were standing when the train moved out of the way.