ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[nms]

The Ion has now been in operation for over 1000 revenue days; it has been sidelined for parts of "at least" three days according to that CTV report. Overall, a pretty good operating track record. That being said, we know that the LRVs can be fitted with ice scrapers when bad weather is expected. What I don't know is, in cases where the ice isn't present, does the scraper add any kind of wear to the catenary itself? How do tram lines in places like Finland manage? Or is the case there that weather is generally drier (eg mainly snow and not freezing rain) and therefore a different operating condition?

If freezing rain, as opposed to snow, is the problem, then someone may have to dig into the operating agreement to figure out who pays for increased operating costs due to climate change. My bet is that it would be the Region that pays.

In October and November, many motorists put on snow tires for winter driving and leave them on until March. If we only put them on ahead of each storm, it would slow us down too. But, the winter tires would be in much better shape because they were only used for a handful of days.

[tomh009]

Freezing rain is plenty common in Finland. And yet they manage trams (Helsinki), LRT (Tampere) and nationwide electric train service.

I would really like to see an answer from the region to the scraper question.

[Bytor]

The Ion has now been in operation for over 1000 revenue days; it has been sidelined for parts of "at least" three days according to that CTV report. Overall, a pretty good operating track record.

More than that. It was three days this past (2022/23) winter alone. There has been at least a half day of lost service every winter since service started.

That being said, we know that the LRVs can be fitted with ice scrapers when bad weather is expected.  What I don't know is, in cases where the ice isn't present, does the scraper add any kind of wear to the catenary itself? How do tram lines in places like Finland manage?  Or is the case there that weather is generally drier (eg mainly snow and not freezing rain) and therefore a different operating condition?

The problem is definitely freezing rain and not snow. he problem is that the ice buildup on the catenary wires can only get a millimetre or so thick before the regular pantograph shoes. The special scraper shoes can handle much more but they add extra wear on the catenary wires. Snow just rests on op of the catenary wire and does not block contact by the shoe.

In Finland and elsewhere when deicing solution is not enough ot not practical, they just put the special shoes on when the freezing rain is coming and leave them on until it is no longer in the forecast and just budget appropriately for a faster catenary wire replacement schedule.

If freezing rain, as opposed to snow, is the problem, then someone may have to dig into the operating agreement to figure out who pays for increased operating costs due to climate change. My bet is that it would be the Region that pays.

The contract requires the trams to keep running up to an hourly accumulation rate of 12.7mm per hour or 25.4mm over every 2 hours. That an inch thick that GrandLinq/Keolis is required to have a solution that works, whether de-icing fluid or scraper shoes.

So climate change, per se, is not really in the picture as a worry, as nothing is said about the frequency of freezing rain events, just the accumulation rates of the ice during them.

In October and November, many motorists put on snow tires for winter driving and leave them on until March.  If we only put them on ahead of each storm, it would slow us down too.  But, the winter tires would be in much better shape because they were only used for a handful of days.

There's no reason whey they can't look at the weather reports and put the scraper shoes on at 4am before that trams go out for the day's service.

[KevinT]

Lets make sure GRT knows that 30 minute iON headways are a non starter
They have the survey up for the proposed changes. https://grandrivertransit.qualtrics.com/...OJK338CstM

Done, thank you so much for that!

[Acitta]

Service changes may put brakes on Ion’s gold standard of transit by Brian Doucet

[ac3r]

Gold standard? Best transit in Ontario? Who is paying Doucet to say this lmao.

[tomh009]

Service changes may put brakes on Ion’s gold standard of transit by Brian Doucet

An excellent opinion piece!

[KevinL]

I hadn't thought of the 'clock face schedule' aspect. It's a decent point, but I'm not sure as many riders rely on it as he thinks.

[ijmorlan]

Service changes may put brakes on Ion’s gold standard of transit by Brian Doucet

An excellent opinion piece!

A weird combination of insightful and idiotic.

He is absolutely right about 30 minute headways being ridiculous, and his suggestion of going to 7.5 rather than 8 minute headways is excellent for the reasons he gives.

But on the other hand, he says “Its combination of frequency, reliability and punctuality is unmatched in this province”. In fact the worst scheduled frequency for the Toronto subway of every 5-6 minutes, on the underused Sheppard line, is better than the best scheduled frequency for ION of every 10 minutes (ignoring overnight closures). At rush hour the main Toronto subway lines operate on a 2-3 minute frequency. If this were proposed here we would probably be told it’s impossible for reasons that might make sense until you consider that many vehicles per minute travel along most of our Regional roads at busy times. The subway similarly operates with actual headway management controlled by signals (unlike the TTC bus and streetcar routes, which suffer from grossly incompetent line management). There certainly are delays and unplanned outages on the subway, but the same happens on ION, including absurd ones stemming from perfectly normal weather.

[danbrotherston]

Indeed...that rather threw me. And even if he wanted to argue "reliability and punctuality"....well...it hasn't been reliable either....TTC operates during freezing rain generally.

Even if you say "outside of the GTA"....I'm not sure it would beat Ottawa. Probably ION wins on reliability (ION hasn't derailed and had months long closures as a result) but as far as I remember, it's got less service.

[plam]

Indeed...that rather threw me. And even if he wanted to argue "reliability and punctuality"....well...it hasn't been reliable either....TTC operates during freezing rain generally.

Even if you say "outside of the GTA"....I'm not sure it would beat Ottawa. Probably ION wins on reliability (ION hasn't derailed and had months long closures as a result) but as far as I remember, it's got less service.

I think it's just a bit warmer in Toronto and there is probably less freezing rain. I'm sure ION beats Ottawa on reliability but yes, the Ottawa network is much more vast. Perhaps on a per-capita basis? Ottawa is still bigger.

[cherrypark]

An excellent opinion piece!

A weird combination of insightful and idiotic.

He is absolutely right about 30 minute headways being ridiculous, and his suggestion of going to 7.5 rather than 8 minute headways is excellent for the reasons he gives.

But on the other hand, he says “Its combination of frequency, reliability and punctuality is unmatched in this province”. In fact the worst scheduled frequency for the Toronto subway of every 5-6 minutes, on the underused Sheppard line, is better than the best scheduled frequency for ION of every 10 minutes (ignoring overnight closures). At rush hour the main Toronto subway lines operate on a 2-3 minute frequency. If this were proposed here we would probably be told it’s impossible for reasons that might make sense until you consider that many vehicles per minute travel along most of our Regional roads at busy times. The subway similarly operates with actual headway management controlled by signals (unlike the TTC bus and streetcar routes, which suffer from grossly incompetent line management). There certainly are delays and unplanned outages on the subway, but the same happens on ION, including absurd ones stemming from perfectly normal weather.

Seems to me he's speaking in reference to other LRT systems and not rapid transit generally? Definitely performing better, notwithstanding the very fair criticism of the ice outages, compared to some of the TTC services bunching and delayed without signal priority (even if KW is a far simpler network to operate in that regard).

[panamaniac]

Indeed...that rather threw me. And even if he wanted to argue "reliability and punctuality"....well...it hasn't been reliable either....TTC operates during freezing rain generally.

Even if you say "outside of the GTA"....I'm not sure it would beat Ottawa. Probably ION wins on reliability (ION hasn't derailed and had months long closures as a result) but as far as I remember, it's got less service.

I think it's just a bit warmer in Toronto and there is probably less freezing rain. I'm sure ION beats Ottawa on reliability but yes, the Ottawa network is much more vast. Perhaps on a per-capita basis? Ottawa is still bigger.

I could be wrong, but I think Toronto tends to get more freezing rain.   I believe it is expected to increase in Kitchener as the climate warms.

[ijmorlan]

Seems to me he's speaking in reference to other LRT systems and not rapid transit generally? Definitely performing better, notwithstanding the very fair criticism of the ice outages, compared to some of the TTC services bunching and delayed without signal priority (even if KW is a far simpler network to operate in that regard).

“Waterloo region’s Ion light rail transit (LRT) line is the best transit route in Ontario!”

If you’d like to argue that the TTC subway lines are not transit routes, that’s fine, but please wait for me to get my popcorn.

[ac3r]

So, freezing rain tonight. Anyone dare to bet against me that it shuts the system down? The pot starts at 100k Runescape gp.