So my wife and I had an interesting ION chase experience on Sunday.
We were driving on Fairway Rd heading towards the downtown in the early afternoon, and had just tuned in to the ION radio. We didn't hear any chatter, but as we got to Balzer Rd (just after where Fairway becomes Courtland) we saw the gates at the car dealership on their way up. We were just behind a train.
It did a quick stop/go at Block Line station which allowed us to pass, and we turned left onto Hayward to watch it there. The pedestrian gates at the Hayward/Courtland corner were slow to drop, forcing the LRV (discovered to be 514) to wait as we made our own left turn onto Hayward. The lights at the Hayward crossing just started to flash as we arrived, so we waited for the gates to drop and the train to pass. Then we hightailed it to Homer Watson and onto Ottawa to catch up.
As we crossed Courtland 514 was halfway up the hill to Charles, completing its turn before we got stuck at a red light trying to follow. We caught up to it at Borden, where it did another quick stop/go at the station, and we were able to keep ahead of it on Charles by driving faster than its limit through the turns. We parallel parked between Eby and Benton to wait for it to catch up, which I expected to take some time as they always have a red signal at the street crossovers and have to radio for permission to proceed.
The train passed us in no time and I realized two very important things:
1) It did not radio for permission to proceed through the Cameron crossover, it just went.
2) It had sailed through every traffic light we observed on Ottawa and Charles without ever having to stop and wait.
If the LRV hadn't done a quick stop/go at each station we'd never have been able to keep up to it by car, its luck with the lights remained uncanny.
Unfortunately it wasn't as lucky with the lights on Duke St, so we got ahead of it again and pulled into the Kaufman Lofts to wait. Once it passed us on Francis we again gave chase, but it didn't wait for another light all the way to Waterloo Town Square, nor did it stop and radio for permission at the Green crossover. We were continually behind it yet again!
Based on Sunday's experience, I would have to say that the FIE and its integration with the traffic signals (except on Duke St) works great, and the fact we couldn't keep up to it by car even though it was doing a stop/go at every station bodes well for the future. I can't wait to experience it as a passenger!
