ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[ijmorlan]

This is on point...I seem to recall GRT runs pretty lean in terms of spares...they're going to be hard pressed to pull in more than a few extra buses. If they know a delay is going to last an extended period, maybe they can pull in a few more, but many of us should think about how many of us would be able to jump up and go to work on our day off if our employer called.

Unfortunately providing really good resilience probably involves paying some drivers to be on call.

This is also a good reason to schedule a moderately excessive amount of service — if you need to cover a problem, lower traffic routes elsewhere can drop from every 5 minutes to every 10 minutes, for example. Also a good reason

This reminds me of a student project I once saw about providing transit within UW campus. If I recall correctly they proposed having a bus do a loop around campus a couple of times an hour, and costed it using averages of how expensive it is to run a bus for a certain period of time. The grader quite severely criticized them for implicitly assuming they could find drivers who would be willing to alternate 15 minute work periods with 15 minute unpaid periods all day.

[timc]

Unfortunately providing really good resilience probably involves paying some drivers to be on call.

This is also a good reason to schedule a moderately excessive amount of service — if you need to cover a problem, lower traffic routes elsewhere can drop from every 5 minutes to every 10 minutes, for example. Also a good reason

This reminds me of a student project I once saw about providing transit within UW campus. If I recall correctly they proposed having a bus do a loop around campus a couple of times an hour, and costed it using averages of how expensive it is to run a bus for a certain period of time. The grader quite severely criticized them for implicitly assuming they could find drivers who would be willing to alternate 15 minute work periods with 15 minute unpaid periods all day.

Which is a good case, I guess, for an autonomous vehicle.

[dunkalunk]

Unfortunately providing really good resilience probably involves paying some drivers to be on call.

This is also a good reason to schedule a moderately excessive amount of service — if you need to cover a problem, lower traffic routes elsewhere can drop from every 5 minutes to every 10 minutes, for example. Also a good reason

This reminds me of a student project I once saw about providing transit within UW campus. If I recall correctly they proposed having a bus do a loop around campus a couple of times an hour, and costed it using averages of how expensive it is to run a bus for a certain period of time. The grader quite severely criticized them for implicitly assuming they could find drivers who would be willing to alternate 15 minute work periods with 15 minute unpaid periods all day.

Which is a good case, I guess, for an autonomous vehicle.

Maybe we could keep Route 2 just so GRT could keep some reserve buses around. When ION goes down, the route is cancelled. It works perfectly because only really 2 trips a day on that route are used.

[ac3r]

Oops. Trains are (were?) down going southbound due to a foolish truck driver. 

[panamaniac]

I don't think that has ever happened there before.

[KevinL]

Hard to see in this pic but it looks like the truck's arm wasn't fully retracted.

[bravado]

Looking forward to the Record blaming this on the LRT

[ijmorlan]

Hard to see in this pic but it looks like the truck's arm wasn't fully retracted.

Makes sense — I didn’t think the clearance was all that much lower than normal for a roadway. Does anybody know what the now-hilariously-destroyed Max Height sign said?

[dtkvictim]

Is this kind of thing happening more often? Or am I just reading more news as I get older? I'm thinking of all the dump trucks in Southern Ontario who have run into signs and bridges with the lifts up, along with this. It seems much more incompetent than the usual regular citizens renting a UHaul and hitting a low bridge.

Part of Halls Lane has had a closure at an intersection, and on the first day a truck trying to maneuver its way out hit the building and conduit for my building's security cameras, knocking them out. The next day someone lightly hit my car leaving a decent scratch and paint, but I can't tell if it was another truck since the cameras were out. And finally today, less than 24 hours after asphalt was laid at the closure, a truck decided to remove the cones and drive right through it (didn't replace the cones after either, so he just decided for himself and everyone else that the road is now open!)

Makes sense — I didn’t think the clearance was all that much lower than normal for a roadway. Does anybody know what the now-hilariously-destroyed Max Height sign said?

4.35m / 14' 3"

[jeremyroman]

Hard to see in this pic but it looks like the truck's arm wasn't fully retracted.

Makes sense — I didn’t think the clearance was all that much lower than normal for a roadway. Does anybody know what the now-hilariously-destroyed Max Height sign said?

Max. Height: 4.35m / 14'-3"

[Bob_McBob]

24 hours later, ION is still out of service between Grand River and Market. Apparently they had a structural engineer out assessing the damage yesterday, so I wonder how long it will take to get the all-clear to resume service. A good example of how that stupid line split in DTK can turn what should be a minor issue into a major issue.

[neonjoe]

Well if they ran both ways on Charles through downtown the issue would be the same.

[westwardloo]

It should have run down king street, but that ship has sailed unfortunately.

[danbrotherston]

Yeah, doesn't seem like a split issue.

In fact, the split should allow them to run trains in reverse direction through downtown (perhaps with reduced frequencies), but I'm guessing they're not doing that because they're petrified of ... well..their own shadows but in this case, not unreasonably of drivers not looking the other way for trains.

That being said, please tell me the road is closed? If the road is not closed, then there is zero justification for the LRT being shut down.

[taylortbb]

That being said, please tell me the road is closed? If the road is not closed, then there is zero justification for the LRT being shut down.

The road is closed.

Yesterday morning they actually had the road closed but ION still operating.