ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[chutten]

hopefully they can monitor real-world timing after the trains start running and tweak the schedule accordingly.

I certainly hope so! Even the public has access to real-time GRT tracking data: http://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/region...FSdata.asp

[Markster]

Keep in mind however, there are now a couple more stations than the 200 iXpress had, and more turns I think.  Although saving time not winding through the terminal.  Who knows where it evens out.

That being said, keeping a schedule is only important when headways are >= 10 minutes.  Less than that, and a schedule becomes pointless because you run +/- 3 mins anyway, and all of a sudden, nobody bothers to check the schedule.

Definitely the 200 has/had more turns than ION.

[Markster]

Totally agree.  I certainly hope that would be faster than iXpress -- hopefully they can monitor real-world timing after the trains start running and tweak the schedule accordingly.

I hope so!
The last thing I want are trains idling in downtown for 5 minutes while it waits for the scheduled timepoint.

Personally, I'd prefer a service that is 85% on-time for an aggressive schedule, than a service that is 95% on-time for a heavily padded schedule. But unfortunately, only the latter looks "good" in year-end reports.

[Spokes]

What's been promised is they'll keep their schedule. If it's behind, it'll get priority. But it won't necessarily always get green lights.

Is that because green lights could cause the trains to get there early and thus get off the schedule?

[Markster]

What's been promised is they'll keep their schedule. If it's behind, it'll get priority. But it won't necessarily always get green lights.

Is that because green lights could cause the trains to get there early and thus get off the schedule?

More like, aggressive signal priority would cause more impact to the perpendicular vehicular traffic than they want.

[Canard]

Is that because green lights could cause the trains to get there early and thus get off the schedule?

Yes; exactly!

More like, aggressive signal priority would cause more impact to the perpendicular vehicular traffic than they want.

 Imagine a busy intersection like Erb/Caroline, halting traffic for up to 1 minute in all directions every 3.25 minutes.  That would be a bit of a disaster...

[nms]

Apparently the platform issue was caught by GrandLinq's quality assurance program. Let's hope that the program has been able to catch any other issues that have been overlooked.

As for the LRVs keeping their schedule and whether they have signal priority, I can imagine that since we aren't going to have five minute LRV headways that a critical part of the network interconnections will be that every vehicle arrives where it should when it should plus/minus a few minutes. For instance, someone arriving at the station either on a connecting bus or to catch a connecting bus (which might operate say with 15 or even 30 minute frequency) won't appreciate if they arrive only to discover that their connection has already left (in the case of a faster than expected LRV) or that it will a longer wait (also in the case where the LRV arrives before it is planned to arrive).

[Viewfromthe42]

The buses will have a more variable arrival time than LRVs, so simultaneous transfers are unlikely. More likely would be a situation where, with 10 minute headways, a bus would be targeted to arrive halfway between two LRVs. That way, if you are trying to go from LRV to bus, you should have 5 minutes of waiting, and if you are trying to do the reverse, going from the bus to an LRV, you should have 5 minutes of waiting. If the bus is ahead or behind schedule, one of those waits becomes shorter, the other longer.

I would think they really should try using the burn-in to confirm/deny the predicted travel times. Do runs with no priority at all, runs with priority only activated for trains running X minutes behind schedule, and priority at every single crossing, and see what kind of travel time you can get. It will be the easiest way to get models for this timing, without having to deal with extra costs/interferences.

[Pheidippides]

Woo-hoo!

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Production of roof modules for <a href="https://twitter.com/Metrolinx">@Metrolinx</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/yegvalleyLRT">@yegvalleyLRT</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/rideIONrt">@rideIONrt</a> LRV projects now underway, as scheduled, in our Kingston site. <a href="https://t.co/CE9nt1zOA7">pic.twitter.com/CE9nt1zOA7</a></p>&mdash; BombardierRail (@BombardierRail) <a href="https://twitter.com/BombardierRail/status/788005412381548545">October 17, 2016</a></blockquote>

That is a little bit revisionist. I think they actually meant, "as per our the revised, twice delayed, schedule."

[zanate]

And the baseline schedule in the project agreement is not exactly pushing any speed records.  It's got about the same end-to-end time that the iXpress initially launched with. Considering that this now cuts off the King/University corner, has a dedicated lane, and several intersections have been removed from both King and Charles Streets, it's safe to say that it should make the trip in time without any signal priority at all.

Interesting to note that the last schedules for 200 before the detours had its Conestoga-Fairway times at 60 minutes during rush hour, which is substantially slower than the rest of the day.

Much of that delay was built into the Waterloo portion of the route, so much so that a 7C from Conestoga can beat the 200 to uptown by 6-7 minutes despite making frequent stops in traffic during rush hour. I'm expecting great things from ION in this leg. With the rail spur and the cut through the park, I foresee this gap disappearing unless the 7C has light off-rush-hour traffic and few stops.

[Pheidippides]

   
   
   

[Pheidippides]

I think they forgot to put an accessible ramp at the end of the GRH platform:
   

I think the forgot to put an accessible ramp across the street from the Willis way platform. See the ramps don't align on both sides of the street at the north end on the platform:
   

Like they do on the south end of the platform:
   

[DHLawrence]

Do the crossings have bells as well or just lights? I can see that getting old really fast for nearby residents.

[white_brian]

In the second and third pic's from Uptown King it seems like there is a very wide swaft for the Northbound track. Is this all for sidewalk or Northbound traffic and sidewalk or am I missing something totally. Tried to find the saved PDF for the plans but can't find this portion

[danbrotherston]

In the second and third pic's from Uptown King it seems like there is a very wide swaft for the Northbound track. Is this all for sidewalk or Northbound traffic and sidewalk or am I missing something totally. Tried to find the saved PDF for the plans but can't find this portion

I suspect that will be the utility/bench/trashcan/bike rack/street tree space next to the sidewalk.