Confederation Line (Stage 1) | In Service 1.0

[Brannwagon]

Anyone know why some fare gates are being left permanently open at some stations? Parliament and Tunney’s have had a few gates left open for at least two weeks now, also seen at Rideau but not sure of the duration. You would think that this is a crucial time to be collecting as much fare revenue as possible along with (somewhat) accurate ridership data.

[J.OT13]

#1149(?) coming in from Brampton. Well, half of #1149(?)


https://twitter.com/John_T_Ottawa/status/1347276874393780229

[J.OT13]

Hurdman often being the subject of our ire, I thought I would bring two examples of Toronto area rail-bus transfers. One good example, and one arguably worse than Hurdman.

First the good example, the new bus terminal at Kipling station. This is a major transfer between Mississauga MiWay, GO and the TTC Subway. Of course this transfer hub is far busier than Hurdman, but the basic concept remains; the bus station includes a large, indoor, climate controlled waiting area and the exterior platform sports a generous canopy all around.

• Video Link




https://www.mississauga.ca/miway-transit/about-miway/kipling-bus-terminal/

On the other end of the spectrum, Humber College bus terminal, a transfer station between Brampton, Mississauga and TTC buses and the future Finch LRT station. The bus station is just an open canopy, better than Hurdman, but not great. It will be quite a hike of 250 meters between the LRT and bus terminal

• Video Link


https://humber.ca/staff/announcement/lrt-construction-and-tree-removal-update


https://blog.metrolinx.com/2019/11/15/fu...-find-features-of-the-lrt-elements-here/

For Hudman station, a proper climate controlled bus terminal could have been built under the station and the guideway along the bus loop. A canopy could have been extended from the guideway to cover the bus platform. Why is it too much to ask for the busiest permanent bus-rail transfer to be built in a way that meets the needs of passengers?

[Kitchissippi]

The Finch transit hub where TTC, GO and York transit (Viva) converge is old and ratty but still better than any transfer points we have here.

[eltodesukane]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

[...] the bus station includes a large, indoor, climate controlled waiting area and the exterior platform sports a generous canopy all around. "

Exactly what is missing at Ottawa's St Laurent station.
Very unpleasant waiting for the bus there!

[RogueNacho]

Apologies if this has already been addressed, but do they ever plan to uncouple the LRT vehicles and run them as single-vehicle trains? I remember reading a long time ago that the two-vehicle trains were to be run at peak hours and then uncoupled and run as single-vehicle trains during evenings and weekends. Was that idea scrapped at some point?

In which case, why have a two-vehicle train configuration at all instead of just running longer single-vehicle trains? Right now there's a lot of wasted space in the middle of each train taken up by the operator's cabin and the coupling section between vehicles.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by RogueNacho

Apologies if this has already been addressed, but do they ever plan to uncouple the LRT vehicles and run them as single-vehicle trains? I remember reading a long time ago that the two-vehicle trains were to be run at peak hours and then uncoupled and run as single-vehicle trains during evenings and weekends. Was that idea scrapped at some point?

In which case, why have a two-vehicle train configuration at all instead of just running longer single-vehicle trains? Right now there's a lot of wasted space in the middle of each train taken up by the operator's cabin and the coupling section between vehicles.

That was the plan, but the coupling/uncoupling proved to be an issue. No word on whether this might be implemented eventually.

I agree that the current configuration is a waste and hope that future orders will be for full 100+ meter trains. At the moment, no such train sets exist in low-floor LRT, but that could change over the next few decades, as we've seen with subway trains (TTC Rocket, Montreal Azure, Vancouver Mark-III).

[MalcolmTucker]

It wouldn't be the hardest to do technically. From an operational standpoint there would be less flexibility, and from a maintenance standpoint you'd probably need to rebuild the maintenance facility(ies).

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by MalcolmTucker

It wouldn't be the hardest to do technically. From an operational standpoint there would be less flexibility, and from a maintenance standpoint you'd probably need to rebuild the maintenance facility(ies).

Wasn't the Belfast maintenance facility built to accommodate the frequent coupling/uncoupling in the first place? They only realized it was not feasible after Belfast Stage 1 was completed.

[Catenary]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Wasn't the Belfast maintenance facility built to accommodate the frequent coupling/uncoupling in the first place? They only realized it was not feasible after Belfast Stage 1 was completed.

The constraint on maintenance is usually the length of the indoor maintenance area; if you only have a 60m building, it's hard to work on a 100m train. A long-term solution is to eliminate a cab at each end but keep the coupling, and probably a hostler control. This way you save the space and expense of the second set of controls, but maintain maintenance flexibility.

The constraints on coupling/uncoupling I have heard are mostly related to reliability. With two trains, you have one ready to push/pull when the other one requires it. We have seen singles running when they test new units late at night, but that's it.

[J.OT13]

24/7 live stream of the Confederation Line between Cyrville and Blair stations.

• Video Link

EDIT: a visual of where the camera is set-up and what area of the tracks is captures.


https://twitter.com/rail613/status/1354852559786307590

[sseguin]

**LIVESTREAM**

Enjoy this all-day, all-weather, all-season livestream of Ottawa's O-Train Line 1 (Confederation Line). Using the Alstom Citadis Spirit, it is the busiest LRT line in North America carrying up to 180,000 weekday riders.

On this live-feed, you can observe the trains approaching and leaving Blair Station, the eastern terminus of O-Train Line 1 (Confederation Line), located less than 200m east of this camera's position. To the west, approximately 1300m away is Cyrville station.

A very special thank you to David Bellerive (Twitter @Dbellerive15) for hosting and operating this camera for Rail Fans, the first in the city!

https://www.railfans.ca/otrain/live-1-east

[J.OT13]

Sorry Shane. I feel like I stole your thunder.

This is an awesome addition to O-Train Fans. Kudos to David and yourself for pulling this off.

[AuxTown]

Super cool, I still get excited when I'm driving and I see a train along Nicholas or Scott. Thanks!

[SidetrackedSue]

Thanks for the link!

I have a community bound grandchild who pines for the LRT. When I am allowed to take him from home, he begs to go watch the trains at Tunneys or Blair.

[AuxTown]

For those of you in the know, have there been any temperature-related issues this Winter? How are the new heaters working? Do you think we have worked out most of the kinks or is ridership so low it's impossible to know?

[LeadingEdgeBoomer]

Originally Posted by AuxTown

For those of you in the know, have there been any temperature-related issues this Winter? How are the new heaters working? Do you think we have worked out most of the kinks or is ridership so low it's impossible to know?

Not many. The new gas heaters seem to be working fine.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by AuxTown

For those of you in the know, have there been any temperature-related issues this Winter? How are the new heaters working? Do you think we have worked out most of the kinks or is ridership so low it's impossible to know?

Doesn't seem like there's been any switch related issues at all this winter. There have been a few incidents with stopped trains (including 3 the evening of January 26th when there was a snowfall). But they all seem to have been relatively brief, and service continued with single-tracking.

I'm not sure if the issues were related to power (inductors), doors, or brake faults. The latter seems to be the most common cause of stoppages recently.

[Harley613]

This is very cool! In Dresden Germany they have snowplow/ice removal adapters that hitch to the front of their trams. I wonder if something like this could help Ottawa's trains during the winter. I guess we haven't had as many issues this year because it's the lightest winter I can ever remember, but I imagine the problems will arise anew during a normal winter.

https://www.reddit.com/r/specializedtool..._source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

[Williamoforange]

Originally Posted by Harley613

This is very cool! In Dresden Germany they have snowplow/ice removal adapters that hitch to the front of their trams. I wonder if something like this could help Ottawa's trains during the winter. I guess we haven't had as many issues this year because it's the lightest winter I can ever remember, but I imagine the problems will arise anew during a normal winter.

https://www.reddit.com/r/specializedtool..._source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

RTG has plows already to clear the snow that's accumulated during off periods. After that the constant train movement keep the rails clear.

And while the amount had been low, there were heavy snow days already this year and last, and snow clearing wasn't a problem.