Streety McCarface
Senior Member
I commute via the iON, and while it's too early to tell whether these patterns will be the norm, they are certainly affecting service currently. A lot of people tend to wait for the train to stop to allow for some commuters to get off the train, thereby allowing them more room to get through the crowds of people.I don't see that increasing dwell times. If someone is in the middle between doors in one of the two narrower areas, they have moved from their long before the vehicle stops. Even crush-loaded, I haven't seen lengthy, 3 people get off the streetcar, and wait for those getting off to slowly climb out, and then reboard, with the long wait for the new arrivals to get off the steps before the door closes.
This should be even a less of a problem on the Line 5, where even the peak demand approaching Eglinton West is only about 2/3 of peak capacity - so we shouldn't normally be seeing crush-capacity situations you see on streetcar lines, or on Line 1 and Line 2. Worst case scenario is that rarely there'll perhaps a slight delay at Cedarvale and Eglinton - but we see that all the time now on Line 1 and Line 2 interchange stations, despite being high-floor with more doors.
I can't fathom on how this is a problem in Waterloo - ridership doesn't seem that high even now with free fares. Shouldn't be very common at all once regular service starts. Though I haven't seen it yet ... perhaps I'll take transit up there for a meeting soon and check it out.
That sounds very extensive compared to even the TTC Flexities ... looking at some videos, it's about 2 seconds to close the door on a TTC Flexity. I don't think it's 1 second on a CLRV ... and you can't even close them immediately then, as people have to move away from the doors first.
I think you are exaggerating the problem. The only vehicles I really see a delay on, are the back doors of buses. Now that's slow.
The thing we have to remember with transit systems is that average capacities don't matter, you need instantaneous data because the knock-on effects from one train can be significant. One train may be completely crush loaded and the train behind it may be only half full, leaving a utilized capacity of about 3/4. The difference is that the crush loaded train will spend nearly 3-4 times as long at the station while the half-full train behind it may only spend a few seconds stopped. That crush loaded train, because it is so full and is taking more time to travel its route, will delay trains behind it. Similar effects are guaranteed to happen on Eglinton, even with short-turns. The problem is made worse by the bad design of the vehicles, and the longer dwell times themselves, which will ultimately add a significant amount of time to a journey.
It's also worth noting that the vast majority of iON trains running during the free period feel crush-loaded at 170-190 passengers — between 68 and 75% of the actual maximum capacity. Crosstown vehicles that are 2/3s full will feel crush loaded, this is unlike a subway car (or even a Scarborough LRT car), where a crush load will occur at or after it's specified maximum capacity (1450 passengers for a TR train).
I commute via the iON and work at UW, it's very common to see almost every train running after 10 to be standing room only, and to see afternoon trains completely full, to the point in which people have to wait for the next train. Obviously, this likely won't be the case come next tuesday, but the experiences from the traffic that occurred this week are apparent, and should raise concerns for other light rail projects in the region.
When I was counting the time it takes for doors to open, I started counting as soon as the train stopped. There is often a delay of between 2-3 seconds between the stopping of a flexity and the full opening of the doors. This video shows this but isn't particularly great:
For iON Trains, it's just unbearably long, up to 7 seconds just to open the doors