Originally Posted by lrt's friend
There was a fairly large fire at an auto shop next to the Hunt Club Transitway loop this afternoon. I wandered over to have a look and then I realized I had an alternative access to the Line 2 right of way.
I made some interesting observations:
1. The Hunt Club Road bridge MUP was open to cross, at least while I was there. I have a sneaking suspicion that it is not officially opened and may be closed at certain times, like after normal working hours. The north end of the bridge was gated, open while I was there, but could easily be closed.
2. The link from that MUP to Bridle Path, immediately behind the Hunt Club Transitway loop is also open.
3. The MUP going south is far from ready. It is nothing more than a rough track. No real work has been done. I doubt that it will be completed this year.
4. The old pathway going south from South Keys station has been eliminated and the new path was sort of open. When I was there, they asked me to leave, because they wanted to close the gates. The same situation as the walkway to the Juno pedestrian bridge before it finally opened. I am not sure why the walkway needed to be gated when paving of the new walkway has been completed.
5. The next train signs on the South Keys platform were mostly working, but their were glitches. Phantom trains were occasionally displayed. There was flipping between Line 2 and 4 for the Airport, hiccups. Airport trains were shown as Line 2 for a second or two, before it correctly displayed Line 4.
6. The airport trains were running on a 12 minute schedule steadily.
7. The mainline trains were not running on a 12 minute schedule, missing trips, delays, etc.
8. It appears that they were trying to have a 6 minute wait time between mainline and airport trains. However, this was not entirely true. Yes, southbound there was about a 6 minute wait before the airport train arrived. But the real wait time was about 10 minutes, with the airport train waiting at least 4 minutes at South Keys station before it departed. Going in the opposite direction was worse. The airport train would depart just as the northbound train arrived, so a 12 minute wait. Southbound, there was about a 6 or 7 minute wait, 4 minutes while the airport train sat at South Keys and an additional 2 minutes before the southbound mainline was allowed to enter the station.
I have mentioned before how South Keys is going to make or break the line reliability because both Line 2 and 4 have to share this station. More specifically, it is the use of the southbound platform. The airport train is requiring at least 8 minutes of each 12 minute slot, to arrive, for the operator to change ends and to depart. Arrival and departure, is not just about the platform itself, but passing the signal south of Hunt Club in both directions. Only one train can be in that slot between the signal north of South Keys and the signal south of Hunt Club.
This is further telling me that there is no possibility of improving frequency. Double tracking Walkley accomplishes nothing, because of that tight time slot at South Keys, and the likelihood that the airport shuttle cannot operate at a 10 minute frequency. This is why the airport shuttle uses the southbound platform. The trains could not complete the 12 minute cycle when using the pocket track. Unless, we are prepared to double track north of South Keys, so that airport trains can also proceed to Bayview, we are likely stuck with 12 minute frequency, which as far as I have seen, is still not proven on the mainline with tests so far.
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