ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[KevinL]

Huzzah!

[ijmorlan]

I think I described this exact issue at Mill/Ottawa a while back. I wonder if a valid solution for University crossing would be if the train just passed purposely leave the gates down & railway crossing lights flashing a bit longer until the traffic light is ready to change to green...

The gates controlling the sidewalks need to go up. I don’t remember if both of the gates controlling motor traffic are separate from the sidewalk ones. If they are then this could work. I’m not sure what I think about this. There might be places where it is severely inconvenient to have the gates stay down when the train is gone — what if it’s hard to have the gates stay down only for movements that still have a red? This could be viewed as pandering to ignorance — drivers simply need to learn to follow both sets of signals. But of course that probably isn’t going to happen unless we change our whole attitude toward driver licensing.

It would probably be better to get rid of the gates entirely and control it only with traffic lights. I believe railway crossing lights pre-date traffic lights, and now that we have traffic lights it’s not really clear to me why we need two different kinds of lights; and anybody who can’t obey a red has no business driving, so it’s not clear to me what the gates are really for. But of course that is probably against a regulation.

On another side note, has anybody noticed that the crossing in the park just north of the bridge over the creek stays activated way too long? I mean at least a minute or two after the trains have gone by.

[Square]

[bgb_ca]

For some reason, I'm not getting any real-time info for GRT (bus and LRT) in transit only for GO.  And I did check some other systems as well like TTC to ensure that still worked.

[Acitta]

[quote pid='74942' dateline='1573693655']
Thank you for the info and link.  Of course now Traze app is broken Broken, I mean it still has no data for ION and all other GRT buses shows 0 for the delays.
[/quote]

I recommend the Transit App. There is nothing better, IMO.

[urbd]

[quote pid='74942' dateline='1573693655']
Thank you for the info and link.  Of course now Traze app is broken Broken, I mean it still has no data for ION and all other GRT buses shows 0 for the delays.

I recommend the Transit App. There is nothing better, IMO.
[/quote]

+1 on this. Transit is the best transit app available and works anywhere.

[KevinL]

The entirety of GRT realtime seems to be down today.

[Square]

[quote pid='74942' dateline='1573693655']
Thank you for the info and link.  Of course now Traze app is broken Broken, I mean it still has no data for ION and all other GRT buses shows 0 for the delays.

I recommend the Transit App. There is nothing better, IMO.
[/quote]

Thank you, does it have a desktop version?

[KevinL]

No desktop version, no. I think there are ways you can run a virtual Android session on a PC, and it should work in that, but that's above my technical ability.

[Square]

No desktop version, no. I think there are ways you can run a virtual Android session on a PC, and it should work in that, but that's above my technical ability.

Thank you, downloaded the app on my phone.

[robdrimmie]

When I'm on a [desk|lap]top, Google Maps is my planning tool of choice.

[urbd]

ION is real time now!

[timc]

I saw a couple of these signs between the tracks near Columbia Street. I was curious about their meaning, but Google tells me nothing.

[jeffster]

I saw a couple of these signs between the tracks near Columbia Street. I was curious about their meaning, but Google tells me nothing.

I can only think of two things: Only single line (so no crossover) until past the next transfer point. Or down slop up ahead. I'm going with the single line though.

[ijmorlan]

I saw a couple of these signs between the tracks near Columbia Street. I was curious about their meaning, but Google tells me nothing.

I can only think of two things: Only single line (so no crossover) until past the next transfer point. Or down slop up ahead. I'm going with the single line though.

Isn’t that always true? I mean, there is never any crossing over until the next crossover. I think I’ve misunderstood you.

My guess is that the chevrons indicate direction — up or down the line. I haven’t seen any except in photos however, so I can’t tell if the way they are installed is consistent with this meaning so this is pure speculation. If it is verified that trains travelling from Conestoga to Fairway will always see one direction of chevron and trains in the other direction will always see the other direction, then I would upgrade this to working hypothesis (at that point it would be proven that they do indicate direction in that way at present, but it would still not be proven that that is the actual reason for their installation nor would it be proven that future installations would continue the pattern).