Calgary Transit CTrain Service Disruptions

[Jeffsey500]

A friend who was on a train yesterday during the evening rush told me that as the train entered one of the downtown stations, it slammed on it's brakes with the horn blaring because someone was running across the tracks trying to jump up onto the platform. The operator then got out of his cab, opened the front door of the train, pulled the person up onto the platform and shouted at him "we don't need another accident! you're not getting on my train!", then got back into his cab and carried on.

Best Operator Ever.

[1604]

Best Operator Ever.

I agree

[LRT]

The operator then got out of his cab, opened the front door of the train, pulled the person up onto the platform and shouted at him "we don't need another accident! you're not getting on my train!", then got back into his cab and carried on.

Sounds like an operator I know right to the tee! Good thing he didn't run the guy over!!

C-Train Pedestrian Fatality tonight that caused severe distruptions. Same location as the one in July.

This time it happened on the inbound side.

[1604]

Power outage on the 201 inbound track between Lion's Park station and University station. Hope they get it fixed before rush hour. Trains are singletracking between Lion's Park and Brentwood(? I got on at University so I don't know for sure)

[1604]

Power outage on the 201 inbound track between Lion's Park station and University station. Hope they get it fixed before rush hour. Trains are singletracking between Lion's Park and Brentwood(? I got on at University so I don't know for sure)

and right now there's a train just sitting at Sunnyside heading outbound with a

bunch of people standing outside it not going anywhere. So no trains can get out of downtown heading to the Nw right at rush hour. Pretty sure it's not the signals as the next is only orange.

Fun day this has been

EDIT: train just left (5:12). 10-20 minute frequenies at rush hour are pretty pathetic.

[CTrainDude]

and right now there's a train just sitting at Sunnyside heading outbound with a

bunch of people standing outside it not going anywhere. So no trains can get out of downtown heading to the Nw right at rush hour. Pretty sure it's not the signals as the next is only orange.

Fun day this has been

If the next signal is yellow, it means the next block has a track circuit down (most likely caused by a train being there ). If they are single-tracking between University and Lion's Park inbound, guaranteed the trains outbound are backed up to Sunnyside from the crossover at Lion's Park. Not enough room for all those trains on that long single-track!

[mersar]

Looked like crews were sitting on the pad north of University, several vehicles including one that looked like it had a spindle of wire on its back and an Enmax bucket truck. Also a track and way vehicle parked by the gates with the pull-off area south of University. Glad I drove instead of taking the train today.

[vicinity]

Looked like crews were sitting on the pad north of University, several vehicles including one that looked like it had a spindle of wire on its back and an Enmax bucket truck. Also a track and way vehicle parked by the gates with the pull-off area south of University. Glad I drove instead of taking the train today.

Me and my friends were trapped on a packed train for and hour and a half! 5 trains went south before we left sunnyside............then sat at SAIT for 20 mintues which sucked too hahahah

[xqc13]

It trickled down to the south line too... trains were full to the brim at 5:30 and were running 10 min behind

[LRT]

It all happened about 1345hrs. Key 6 left University when Enmax (already on scene for a unrelated problem) spotted a problem with the trailing car's pantagraph. They tried to radio key 6 to stop the train but it was to late, the train entered the tunnel inbound at about 75km/h damaging the catenary almost all the way through the tunnel. The train finally shut down, and the operator had no idea what had happened. Control asked the operator to check the pantagraphs and noticed that the pantagraph on the trailing car was bent out of shape. There was alot of damage caused to the catenary, from just north of University station all the way to the south end of the crowchild tunnel.

Chunks of debris hit the train, breaking 3 windows, causing minor body damage to the train and other equipment in the tunnel

Hopefully they will have it fixed by morning.

[1604]

It all happened about 1345hrs. Key 6 left University when Enmax (already on scene for a unrelated problem) spotted a problem with the trailing car's pantagraph. They tried to radio key 6 to stop the train but it was to late, the train entered the tunnel inbound at about 75km/h damaging the catenary almost all the way through the tunnel. The train finally shut down, and the operator had no idea what had happened. Control asked the operator to check the pantagraphs and noticed that the pantagraph on the trailing car was bent out of shape. There was alot of damage caused to the catenary, from just north of University station all the way to the south end of the crowchild tunnel.

Chunks of debris hit the train, breaking 3 windows, causing minor body damage to the train and other equipment in the tunnel

Hopefully they will have it fixed by morning.

I'm guessing it was a U2 consist? Saw a 2 car U2 consist Out of Service heading along 7th Ave east with, what looked to be, a smashed/broken window. I also noticed a single U2 in service near Chinook station heading south early this afternoon, was that part of the consist that caused the problem?

[mersar]

Noticed 2241 was stopped as the tail end of a consist heading southbound into the tunnel from University when I went past about midnight. Enmax and track and way was still on site as well. Lets hope things are good for the morning.

[LRT]

I'm guessing it was a U2 consist? Saw a 2 car U2 consist Out of Service heading along 7th Ave east with, what looked to be, a smashed/broken window. I also noticed a single U2 in service near Chinook station heading south early this afternoon, was that part of the consist that caused the problem?

Yes it was, they piled everyone from the middle and trailing car into the lead car in the tunnel, then the single lead car proceeded in service all the way south stuffed with people!! Can you imagine a single car running in service in rush hour!

Noticed 2241 was stopped as the tail end of a consist heading southbound into the tunnel from University when I went past about midnight. Enmax and track and way was still on site as well. Lets hope things are good for the morning.

They may of been the tow train to remove the broken down car that was in the tunnel all day, they may of pushed the car back to Anderson Garage. The train suffered major damage to the roof, it may be months before that car sees revenue service again.

[LRT]

Well, all hell broke loose today when the interlocking signals on both directions of the inbound track when "blank". Because the signals went blank the switches were put into manual and all trains were bypassing the singles and a supervisor was there to direct train traffic.....witch also meant lots of paper work and lots of delays. Signals personal was on site repairing the system. Eventually all trains were bypassing all signals between Dalhousie and Crowfoot both directions. The problem was fix after rush hour

[mersar]

Yep. And at least one train was unloaded and turned around at University in the middle of it just as I was going to the station to go home.

[LRT]

Some disruptions that I heard about this weekend:

All weekend

201s in the south were running to 10st west due to track maintenance, 201s in the north ran from Crowfoot to Lions park. Shuttle buses filled the gap.

Saturday

A U2 consist lost 6 mirrors from making contact to a bus on 7th ave, damage to the bus was minimal. Train needs new mirrors on the passenger side, 10 minute delays due to that incident

Sunday

Car 2205 lost its pantograph and was parked at Marlborough for about an hour before the whole consist was retrieved by electro mechanics, trains were reverse running from Whitehorn inbound to Franklin. 10-20 minute delays was the result of that issue.

[BCT-3122-D800-10240]

Some disruptions that I heard about this weekend:

Saturday

A U2 consist lost 6 mirrors from making contact to a bus on 7th ave, damage to the bus was minimal. Train needs new mirrors on the passenger side, 10 minute delays due to that incident

A passenger started telling me about that incident on my route 3 on Saturday! I started work at 1547 and had not heard about that incident. Was sort of surprised to hear it from a complete stranger I had never met before. Someone from the board maybe????

[LRT]

A passenger started telling me about that incident on my route 3 on Saturday! I started work at 1547 and had not heard about that incident. Was sort of surprised to hear it from a complete stranger I had never met before. Someone from the board maybe????

I heard people talking about it in my train too!

That incident was a 50/50 preventable (train and bus fault)

[BCT-3122-D800-10240]

Lots of power outages throughout the city this afternoon and into the evening. At one point it sounded like there were no 202's operating due to an outage. Crazy afternoon today. I am sure the Ctrain operators on this board will enlighten us more on what all happened...

[M. Parsons]

Lots of power outages throughout the city this afternoon and into the evening. At one point it sounded like there were no 202's operating due to an outage. Crazy afternoon today. I am sure the Ctrain operators on this board will enlighten us more on what all happened...

I know there were trolley outages in the past when blowing dust got into the substations. Was usually a spring time thing when the streets hadn't been cleaned yet.

[BCT-3122-D800-10240]

Yeah. I should have mentioned in earlier post about high winds and blowing wet snow. I almost got stuck this afternoon while driving my route 154.

[A. Wong]

Your weather made it up here to Edmonton...

[BCT-3122-D800-10240]

Your weather made it up here to Edmonton...

LOL! I thought it came from Edmonton. It hit the Calgary area sometime around 1630 or so. I forget exactly, but it was after I started my afternoon run out of Dalhousie.

[LRT]

OK, where do I start.....

It started with the snow and wind, all N.E level crossings were not working properly due to the ice and wind, then trains were dumping (penalty stops) left right and center due to the signal system crashed (signals Christmas tree'd)....then control lost its tracking system and could not track trains....we were all ordered to stop our trains and wait for it to reboot or something (some 45 minutes or so) all trains were running at half power do to sub stations blowing and loosing power....no LRT traction power between Whitehorn and Mcknight, both tracks....A train got stranded near McKnight West Winds station with no power and people were evacuated from that train and forced onto the R.O.W and walked to MW....Whitehorn interlocking failed.... however no trains broke down! Amazing!!!

yup a busy day, winter is not over just yet..

[TransitOp]

OK, where do I start.....

It started with the snow and wind, all N.E level crossings were not working properly due to the ice and wind, then trains were dumping (penalty stops) left right and center due to the signal system crashed (signals Christmas tree'd)....then control lost its tracking system and could not track trains....we were all ordered to stop our trains and wait for it to reboot or something (some 45 minutes or so) all trains were running at half power do to sub stations blowing and loosing power....no LRT traction power between Whitehorn and Mcknight, both tracks....A train got stranded near McKnight West Winds station with no power and people were evacuated from that train and forced onto the R.O.W and walked to MW....Whitehorn interlocking failed.... however no trains broke down! Amazing!!!

yup a busy day, winter is not over just yet..

Yes, the weather was bad, but Calgary Transit really dropped the ball in its lack of response. They could have prepared a little better. Maybe they've never heard of 'The Weather Network'. Most of the gates on the 202 line were either stuck up or stuck down or touching the ground. Power in the 36 St tunnel was out. Many train signals (including interlocking signals) were either blank or displaying red. Only 2 trains dumped. Visibilty was poor during the snowstorm.

A couple of trains were stopped short of a signal because Control was refusing to bypass them and those trains could not make out the signal indications because snow was on all the bulbs. Roll call was taken by Control twice. They knew where every train was despite not having a tracking board. They could have bypassed a couple of trains to get service moving. Instead they chose to wait until tracking board came back.

It took like 2 hours for any type of Signals personnel respond. Signals are responsible for traffic signals, LRT signals, crossing gates, etc. All power in the area of Marlborough was out including the station and traffic lights. Trains had to dodge cars to go through some of the crossings as there was no police presence until we were an hour into this.

Overhead power was working on the entire 202 line except between McKnight Westwinds and Whitehorn.

One single track maintainer showed up at McKnight Westwinds (where there were no track maintainence problems). It took him 20 minutes to get from McKnight Westwinds to Whitehorn. Whitehorn interlocking was taken to manual mode. Trains were short turned there. 2 Supervisors eventually made it out to the NE but did little except use Rundle Crossovers to short turn one train back downtown.

Operators were told to tell people that we were stuck due to "power failures", but really it was to do with LRT signals problems. Operators were not told what to tell people regarding shuttle buses. Shuttle buses appeared at Marlborough, Rundle, and Whitehorn. There were no station announcements made. The onus for PA's was all left on the shoulders of the operators.