[Allandale25]

There was some quirk of the CN dispatching system that made it not like that point (there is a similar issue with the plant at Snake, between Aldershot and Bayview), and in concert with the moving of the interlocking plant at Creditview it was decided to remove the track altogether.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

By "point" you mean, "switch", right?

 

[smallspy]

By "point" you mean, "switch", right?

No, by "point" I am referring back to the location - the interlocking at Creditview.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

 

[andrewpmk]

Although I kind of understand all sides, one also needs to decide future dividends (by attendees) like increased demand for safe&proper bike infrastructure. That -- alone -- justifies the event totally for me, even with zero donations.

Sure, as a driver, I have been detoured onto a gridlocked Lakeshore.... But NO, it does not change my stand.

Plus, GO could easily run slightly modified GO bus schedules via the Lakeshore route, and the default single decker buses at downtown terminal have no clearance issues on these detours. Longer ride, but at least people will still be moving along. Late buses are preferable to unexpectedly zero buses...

Did you see the traffic jams Lake Shore yesterday? After 11am it was crazy. My guess it would have taken an hour to get from the Humber River to the DVP. It never is this bad in rush hour. Also, there were traffic jams in many other places, and I saw a lot of King and Queen streetcars stuck in traffic. The vast majority of the traffic jams were in the last few hours between 11am and 2pm. Before 10am was OK. GO Transit had no choice to cancel GO bus service because buses would have been an hour late otherwise. The Coach Canada and Greyhound buses were running though and I saw a lot of them stuck in traffic.

Shutting down major roads for special events in any major city with serious traffic problems is a really bad idea and I don't understand why the politicians are so keen on it. There are road closures pretty much every weekend in Toronto from March-November which are frequently combined with subway closures and construction closures and it causes way too much disruption and I constantly hear people complaining about it. I seem to recall a poll a while ago claiming that 60% of Torontonians want fewer road closures. John Tory has basically broken his promise to stop closing roads that he made when he was first elected.

 

[LNahid2000]

Did you see the traffic jams Lake Shore yesterday? After 11am it was crazy. My guess it would have taken an hour to get from the Humber River to the DVP. It never is this bad in rush hour. Also, there were traffic jams in many other places, and I saw a lot of King and Queen streetcars stuck in traffic. The vast majority of the traffic jams were in the last few hours between 11am and 2pm. Before 10am was OK. GO Transit had no choice to cancel GO bus service because buses would have been an hour late otherwise. The Coach Canada and Greyhound buses were running though and I saw a lot of them stuck in traffic.

There were other routes that were much emptier. Adelaide was empty between Bathurst and the DVP at 12pm. Bloor wasn't that busy either. If people planned ahead instead of just realizing the Gardiner was closed and then getting on Lakeshore, this closure doesn't have much impact on a Sunday morning. But of course you only see what you want to see. There's no way to verify that it would take an hour to get from the Humber to the DVP on Lakeshore. People also have the option of parking at a GO or TTC Station and taking transit downtown for a faster trip.

 

[reaperexpress]

No, it predates any Creditview grade separation construction by at least a year, and possibly two. There was some quirk of the CN dispatching system that made it not like that point (there is a similar issue with the plant at Snake, between Aldershot and Bayview), and in concert with the moving of the interlocking plant at Creditview it was decided to remove the track altogether.

Hmm, very odd. Perhaps it's something about the spacing of signals?

In any case, thanks for the info.

 

[smallspy]

Hmm, very odd. Perhaps it's something about the spacing of signals?

I can't see that being the case, at least not for Creditview. The signals are spaced pretty regularly and normally through there.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

 

[Allandale25]

Food for thought, I got a call from the RTC this one time... He was calling us to ascertain the location of our train. Apparently we had completely disappeared from his panel at some point past Brampton, this after having violating a stop indication, or two. I saw nothing but clear signals the whole way which the silent witness would later confirm.

To this day I still don't feel entirely comfortable going by that area.

Is the "silent witness" the camera?

 

[mdrejhon]

With the presumed arrival of CBTC in a decade (well, the beginnings thereof) -- hopefully signal malfunctions become less ambigious like that.

I hope that was a fail-safe rather than a fail-danger (false stop indications rather than false clear indications). I would presume it is always designed to fail safe. But one wonders...

 

[smallspy]

Is the "silent witness" the camera?

A set of cameras and microphones, yes.

Dan
Toronto, Ont.

 

[TOareaFan]

Kitchener line suspended this afternoon....pedestrian hit by a freight train at Brampton GO station.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Kitchener line suspended this afternoon....pedestrian hit by a freight train at Brampton GO station.

Very little sympathy for that - like what is the cumulative impact to rush hour trains so far this year as a result of these incidents?

AoD

 

[TOareaFan]

they are taking a train out at 6:05 to Bramalea then using buses to shuttle people further west

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Bay Teamway is a complete zoo - and AMA is tweeting sweetness about hoping the person is ok - nope, the individual is dead. Deal with the crowds instead. The 1723 LSWX is already 20 mins late thanks to a door issue.

And cherry on the cake - Islington just got knocked out by a "power off". Such a charming west end commute.

AoD

 

[TOareaFan]

they are taking a train out at 6:05 to Bramalea then using buses to shuttle people further west

 

[steveintoronto]

Food for thought, I got a call from the RTC this one time... He was calling us to ascertain the location of our train. Apparently we had completely disappeared from his panel at some point past Brampton, this after having violating a stop indication, or two. I saw nothing but clear signals the whole way which the silent witness would later confirm.

Yikes....That's CN dispatched at that point? Any update on that most appreciated.

Just last year:

Arbitrator's decision on similar:

Turning to the merits of the grievance, I have more substantial difficulty with the position of the Company. The Company bears the burden of proof in these proceedings. Among the evidence tabled before me are unchallenged statements relating to other occasions, involving different signals, where a permissive signal has unexpectedly dropped to being a red stop signal without any warning and, it appears, where the Rail Traffic Controller could give no explanation for what occurred. In the instant case, extraordinary as it may be, three employees testified independently that they all saw a green permissive indication being displayed by Signal 1175D as they proceeded through the siding. The grievor, who has thirty-four years of service and an exemplary disciplinary record, as well as his locomotive engineer who had thirty-nine years of service and retired immediately thereafter, stated consistently during their respective investigations, as did the more junior assistant conductor, that all of them saw the green indication and that they verbally called it among themselves as required by the operating rules. I find their evidence to be credible. I also accept the account of Conductor Love who relates that the stop indication of the dwarf signal at the west end of the siding was seen only at the very last moment, when it was obviously too late for their train to stop to avoid going past it. While technically, in these circumstances, it is clear that the grievor and his crew did operate their train past a stop signal, these are not facts which, in my view, would justify the assessment of any discipline for violations of either CROR 439 or CROR 34. While I appreciate that the Company must rely upon the integrity of its equipment, including the result of the signal download which it conducted, in the unique circumstances of this case, I am prepared to conclude, on the balance of probabilities, that the accounts of all three employees are to be believed. [...]

http://croa.com/PDFAWARDS/CR4408.pdf

Whether the facts can be verified or not in this or other cases as Vegeta mentions, is beside the point. The point is that something went wrong, and that's unacceptable. What's clear is that PTC, at the very least, is necessary.

With the presumed arrival of CBTC in a decade (well, the beginnings thereof) -- hopefully signal malfunctions become less ambigious like that.

One can only hope...