I was busy on a different train yesterday, so today was my first ride on Line 6.
I brought my stopwatch, and kept track of the time we spent stationary waiting for traffic lights. I counted only the time when the vehicle was totally stationary, and did not include the considerable “creep” time that was wasted when the vehicle coasted towards a red light. Nor did I count the “creep” time attributable to stopping for a light, then having to proceed at slow speed to make a stop at a farside platform.
i departed Humber College at 12:12, and arrived at Finch West at 13:04 - a 52 minute trip.
The total time spent sitting still waiting for traffic lights was 11:29.
In my view this is simply unacceptabe. Even applying TPS to half the intersections would significantly improve trip time. And when one considers how much slow-speed running is caused by operators coasting towards lights, or moving slowly towards platforms (it appeared that in most cases, even with green signals, operators braked ahead of intersections and then crept across them slowly into the farside platforms) - there is a great deal of additional speed that can be attained.
For that matter, trams wait 6-8 seconds after doors close before starting to move. Eliminate thise pauses, and a minute is shaved across the entire trip.
My performance standard for LRT is simple: the same as a subway. The doors shut, the vehicle immediately accelerates at full power until track speed is reached, the vehicle runs at track speed until making a single fairly firm deceleration (the kind that makes standees grab the handrail) and stops at the next platform.
By that standard, in today’s state Line 6 wasn’t worth the money.
- Paul
Ps -- the turnouts and curve at Humber is signed for 10 km/hr - and we crawled around them and on the curves to Mount Olive
