[Steve X]

Remember the recent reports on how Torontonians can't get real time updates on Line 6 arrival times because of a "Metrolinx firewall"? TTCriders finally launched a petition calling on Metrolinx to release the data. Please sign and share.

Tell Metrolinx to Release the Data

www.ttcriders.ca

They don’t even have the Vision system used to track surface vehicles. I’m sure it’s not that hard to figure out if they want to but I suppose the route manager uses the signaling system for location like the subway instead of gps for surface routes?

 

[Mind_the_gap]

I'm sorry for tagging you @smallspy, but I felt you were the right person to answer this question:

Is the ridiculous speed limit on the curve at Highway 27 the fault of bad planning, or the result of the cancellation of the Flexities in lieu of Citadis cars?

To a layman, I think the shorter modules on the Flexities could've negotiated the curve better.

Succintly, is the built form of Line 6 designed to Flexity or Citadis specs?

I don't think this has been answered before.

 

[Bordercollie]

I'm sorry for tagging you @smallspy, but I felt you were the right person to answer this question:

Is the ridiculous speed limit on the curve at Highway 27 the fault of bad planning, or the result of the cancellation of the Flexities in lieu of Citadis cars?

To a layman, I think the shorter modules on the Flexities could've negotiated the curve better.

Succintly, is the built form of Line 6 designed to Flexity or Citadis specs?

I don't think this has been answered before.

The Ottawa LRT has tighter curves but has resulted in premature bearing failure so perhaps they are being overly cautious

 

[pmacpherson68]

Good job that communists don't believe in labour unions.

Ive been to China... its the most capitalist country ive ever been to, money buys you everything and anything. the communism is only the power side of the equation.

 

[urbanclient]

Ive been to China... its the most capitalist country ive ever been to, money buys you everything and anything. the communism is only the power side of the equation.

Noo that can't be true, I have it on good authority (experts on Urban Toronto) that those red commies haven't discovered market capitalism... /s

“Americans Don’t Know How Capitalist China Is”

Weijian Shan was born in China and had his life upended by the Cultural Revolution. Educated in the United States, he worked for the World Bank and J.P. Morgan and taught at the Wharton School. Today he is the CEO of PAG, a $40 billion private equity firm based in Hong Kong. In this interview he...

hbr.org

 

[smallspy]

I'm sorry for tagging you @smallspy, but I felt you were the right person to answer this question:

Is the ridiculous speed limit on the curve at Highway 27 the fault of bad planning, or the result of the cancellation of the Flexities in lieu of Citadis cars?

To a layman, I think the shorter modules on the Flexities could've negotiated the curve better.

Succintly, is the built form of Line 6 designed to Flexity or Citadis specs?

I don't think this has been answered before.

The curve at Highway 27 is no sharper than can reasonably be traveled at a reduced speed by any generic LRV built to the "common standard", regardless of maker. It was never meant to be a full-speed curve, as that was never a reasonable option at that corner. If I had to point at a number, it seems to me that it should be able to be traversed at about 25km/h - but that's a guess and nothing more.

That said, yes, it does seem to me that they are operating through there slower than they absolutely need to. But then again, they are operating the rest of the line slower than they strictly need to as well.

Is that because of the many historic issues of the Citadis trams? Is that because of Mosaic still requiring the lowered speed limits on the line? I don't know, it may be both.

Dan

 

[dowlingm]

In theory, Metrolinx could truck a pair of Flexities to Finch, install and qualify the line’s safety equipment, and put them out on the FWLRT to compare performance. That would be a good way to know if there was any merit in tacking a bunch of cars onto the ECWE order and sending the Flexities to Hurontario. If they and the TTC were the only parties involved, it might even happen.

But Mosaic, having no public accountability, could simply say “we maintain the vehicles in our contract and will allow no other”

I reject (again) the notion a couple of pages up thread that Metrolinx were obviously wrong to order Citadis for FW.

1. At the time Citadis was a powerhouse in the LRT market in Europe, the Middle East and Australia.
2. Bombardier had carpetbombed its credibility by having City and TTC dutifully sign on their delivery assurances and having them contradicted within days. Recall also that a large chunk of the first 204 cars had to be pulled out of service and sent to Quebec for re-welding.
3. Citadis was under construction in Ottawa which gave some assurance that there would be sufficient vendor parts inventory in Canada to meet a usual amount of operational wear and tear.

What wasn’t anticipated was Alstom’s choice to use Citadis’ related but poorly selling product line as the base of the vehicle, and then adding a few more changes besides (see @smallspy’s message above). Even worse, instead of shaking out the initial bugs, new bugs (the bearing cartridges) showed up when the vehicles were out of their early service and should have been at the most reliable part of their lifespan.

Flexity had the advantage of years sitting around in depot as TTC figured out the nuance of the downtown cars and thus a knowledge base for a large degree of the uptown car’s needs, including vehicles with significant mileage, and came out of a production line and supply chain which was significantly more mature to the point that the TTC felt comfortable with going back to them for 60 more cars.

I think Canadian light rail is better off with a choice of vehicles *and* a choice of manufacturers - so the selection of Hyundai Rotem in Edmonton isn’t all bad if it helps keep Alstom honest. But I think any notion of Alstom saying “we don’t sell Flexity any more” should be strongly resisted, particularly for orders not yet signed. It will be interesting to see what kind of Citadis will be provided to SEPTA and maybe that is a big enough order that forces Alstom to come up with a retrofittable solution in Toronto and Ottawa, but until that’s true it is surely madness to consider more.

 

[SashaLemon]

I rode it last weekend, along with Line 5. Transit priority aside, the vehicles on Line 6 just *feel* inappropriate. They feel so heavy, like your just scraping along the route.