HB_1024

What a mess: https://globalnews.ca/news/6552131/ottawa-lrt-train-shortage-pm-commute/ I was at Parliament station eastbound this afternoon when they were short-turning westbound trains at Lyon, there was some guy that was furious that neither the red vest employee on the platform (who probably wasn't told since the problem didn't affect that particular platform) nor the guard knew how to get from there to Tunney's Pasture. I can't imagine he was the only one venting frustration on platform staff. I feel bad for them.

I'd think the safety risks of running a train through a crossover that's even partially occupied by unmovable equipment far outweigh the benefits. What if the derailment was caused by a misaligned switch and you derail a second train through the same crossover as a result?

Weird experience today on board 1131/1122 (I was on 1131 and deboarded at Bayview around 13:25) with the radio conversations being relayed, rather loudly, over the PA system. I don't think the operator was bumping the PA controls, and I didn't think it was even possible for cab radio communications to be broadcast over the PA. There was an Alstom tech on board and I don't think she really knew what to do or say either.

5134, route 257 Bridlewood, boarded at Tunney's Pasture 15:15.

Problem with the eastern switch out of the MSF late morning/early afternoon too (I passed through around 11:30 or so), the eastbound trains had to change tracks between Tremblay and St-Laurent. Minor impact to service with maybe a five minute wait tops, but still, these things add up. Not to mention all the eastbound platform signs say trains ending at St-Laurent which is false. 🙄

The official figure is four spares for a total of 17 coupled trainsets.

Don't read too much into this, but this past Saturday evening (December 21st) I noticed that a few (three or four, maybe more) Orion VII hybrids were parked in front of Pinecrest garage in the area formerly used to store retired Inveros. They were covered in snow but decals appeared to still be intact, wasn't able to get any numbers though.

I wouldn't bother wasting time trying to talk sense into them. You'd have a more productive conversation with an eggplant. At the very least, the eggplant wouldn't come back every few weeks with the same complaint. 🙄

I'm sorry, but I fail to see how I am "watering down issues" by choosing instead to focus on the positives of the issues. 🙄 The current MDBF is ridiculous and needs to improve, yes, you'll get no argument from me on that. However, I often wonder how much of that is caused by the fact that we seem to be running the system really close to if not at maximum capacity and not doing anything about it even though (in theory at least) we can. iON runs at a 10 minute frequency (last I knew), at 10 minutes you have plenty of time to work around problems. At the four minutes Confederation runs at, a small door fault opens up a worst-case eight minute gap and delays the next several trains behind it. I'm also of the opinion that some of the issues we have also fall under the category of anomalies. Soiled trains, switch glitches, these things happen (although again, the switch at Blair seems to be a problem point that ought to be addressed). I'll even go so far as to make the argument that a door issue here and there isn't of grave concern either, but again we're having them way too frequently. I won't make excuses for the fact that trains 14 and 15 should have been online from the start, needed or not, there should be pocket tracks for (at the very least) quickly stuffing problem trains, the doors evidently weren't tested effectively, the curves in places are sub-optimally tight, etc. I'm no expert, and I've never seen a door fault in person, but I'm sure that it takes around five minutes alone for the door to fault out, the operator to figure out the door has faulted, exit the train and go to the problem door, isolate it, and then go back to the cab and continue, especially on a crush loaded train. Heaven forbid the door can't be isolated, as seems to be happening a lot (again, probably more than it should). Perhaps the "red vests" on the platform should be trained in isolating doors? Maybe they are, I dunno, but they won't be around forever.

People need to settle down and realize that there isn't a solitary rail system in existence that doesn't have problems. Today was the first time I'd encountered a delay that necessitated taking a replacement bus, and the whole ordeal (while definitely annoying) was smooth, painless, and maybe only added five minutes total to the commute time (although I only had to go one stop). The red vests were doing an excellent job directing everyone at St-Laurent. I'd like to think that lessons learned with this will be applied to R2 service as well; every time I have used R2 in an unplanned closure, it's been a total gong show. That said, I think we'd have been much better off if we had pocket tracks in strategic areas of the line. I'm also curious why a problem at Blair took out Cyrville station as well; in my mind at least, a shuttle train could have ran between St-Laurent and Cyrville. Better communication by way of platform signage is needed as well; sure, there were audio announcements both in stations and onboard the train, but the next train displays and the train itself implied it was heading all the way to Blair, rather than ejecting everyone at St-Laurent.

A lot more spacious too; they were more cylindrical and thus had wider aisles (although this may have just been a perception thing). They also didn't try and cram as many seats as possible into them at the expense of comfort. In theory as well, they were slightly more accessible than the LINTs are. Sure, they don't have all the passenger intercoms and flip-up seating and things like that, but ramps connected train cars rather than stairs. That said, I'd be surprised if they see service again. They're 18 years old now, how much more life can realistically be had out of them, even with a multi-million dollar overhaul?

4277, route 28 Blackburn Hamlet, at Blair station 10:40.

1117 had them installed as well.

Taken at face value, this Ottawa Citizen article confirms this: I was sure there was a more official correspondence that said something. I haven't been able to find it.

What honestly bugs me most are the consistent posts on certain threads asking for more information, including but not limited to the current status of a vehicle. This is information that is posted as it becomes available, and thus it shouldn't be constantly needing to be asked for. Exceptions are obviously cases such as procurement after several months have gone by without hearing anything. It'd probably also be best enforced as a polite reminder the first time or two, followed by stricter action. I am going to place another vote towards having a separate sightings sub-forum, and I am also going to put another vote towards a post limit, and in that case, perhaps it's something like a limit on the number of posts one can make in a 24 hour period, until they've made a certain number of posts (50?) and/or been a member for a certain period of time (a few weeks or a few months?).