Really, SkyTrain Craps Out Again!
For a transit system that is supposedly free of breakdowns and loss of service, the SkyTrain mini-metro seems to have all too many breakdowns.
I would ask the SkyTrain lobby to refrain from the claim that SkyTrain is more reliable than light rail, simply because it isn’t.
Millennium Line out of service in New Westminster
Some SkyTrain riders will experience delays this morning because the Millennium Line is out of service between Sapperton and Columbia stations.
Photograph by: Ward Perrin, Vancouver Sun
METRO VANCOUVER – Some SkyTrain riders will experience delays this morning because the Millennium Line is out of service between Sapperton and Columbia stations.
TransLink says a bus route will be set up between New Westminster and Braid station.
Service on the Expo Line is not affected and running as normal.
Spokeswoman Jiana Ling says riders using the Millennium Line should plan for extra traveling time.
Ai?? Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Frankly, these posts are getting a bit old. Do you really think a light rail system would never “crap out”? Everything craps out. Power failures, car accidents, construction, any number of things could cause a light rail system to crap out.
Zweisystem replies: Until the SkyTrain lobby admits that SkyTrain is not and I repeat NOT more reliable than light rail, then i will ignore Skytrain’s down time. Today’s snafu clearly illustrates LRT’s superiority to SkyTrain. When a switch motor fails, it can be operated manually on light rail lines, until a repair is made; while on Skytrain, an entire section of track has to be shut down until a new switch motor is installed. With LRT minor problems to not stop service.
Zwei, this is an interesting video on treehugger http://www.treehugger.com/public-transportation/where-can-you-find-fastest-growing-transit-system-us-utah.html
Technically it doesn’t have too but, one of my contacts pointed out that yes, Skytrain can also manually do this with the points as well but, they do not do this because of legal issues. It is easier to shut down a section of track than to accept the possible liability of accidents when in manual modes. This is a growing phenomina in North American transit railroading. They would rather have 6000+ people late than have 1 person possibly sue. Here in Ottawa the O-Train has needlessly been shut down for the entire summer to do upgrades. Most (in fact nearly all) of these upgrades could have beeen done with the line operating and the rest done over night but, the lawyers at OC-Transpo and National Capital Railway would rather operate a pathetic, poorly operating back up system of buses at greater cost than deal with the possibility of one worker getting hit by a train while working.
Zweisystem replies: I have been told, in order to have a switch thrown manually, the SkyTrain itself must be driven manually. This entails a lot of man power and a lot of stress on the ATC, as trains are changed to manual operation, driven manually and then changed back to automatic train control. The time and bother to set up this sort of operation is deemed not worth it by management.
I forgot to mention this. yesterday in Toronto a section of signals went back into safe mode and severely delayed, essntially shut down the Yonge St. Subway south of Bloor St duringthe morning peak period. For those who do not know this is one the busiest stretch of Subway line (Heavy Rail, Metro, whatever you want to call it) in the world not just North America. Needless to say this caused chaous for Toronto and the whole TTC system was effected by this event. Lately the people of Toronto have grown quite testy about delays caused by the many TTC improvement projects, like the total; replacement of the 60 year old signaling system. Combine this with a customer service level that would fit in just right with a soviet era gulag and customers told the TTC they have had enough. The TTC was forces to create a daily system report card that must be responded to by the head of the TTC Andy Byford. So he wrote a sincere public apology and it was distributed on paper and internet today.
“This morning, many riders suffered horrendous commutes along the Yonge line when signal problems occurred at Bloor Station at the height of the morning rush hour. For that, I sincerely apologize.
“Having spent 90 minutes at Bloor assisting customers and supporting staff, I know only too well how angry our customers were at the extended journey times, inadequate information and general unpleasantness of the situation.
“As soon as the problems began, we dispatched response staff to the affected location to find and fix the failure. Shuttle buses were arranged and additional customer staff were positioned at Bloor and other locations to assist with crowd control.
“Not to get overly technical, but the root cause was a sustained drop in electrical current to the signal system in the vicinity of Bloor Station. In short, the system worked in that it ‘failed safe’, showing red signals. This caused a massive delay as trains had to be moved through the area very slowly.
“So what are we doing to fix this?
“First and foremost, there is an urgent need to replace the signalling and some sections of track on the Yonge line. This signal system is 60-years-old in some areas and while safe, it is worn out. We are replacing the signal system and that will make it more reliable and add train capacity to the line.
“In parallel, and more immediately, we need to get exponentially better at keeping you informed when things go wrong and at maintaining the assets that we have to work with.
“It’s my job to make that happen and I will redouble this organization’s efforts to improve.”
Andy Byford
My question maybe it is time for Translink and it’s customers propose the same thing? Now I know it is not the be all and end all of apologies but it is a start.
Hmm, the Expo Line undergoing its $1 billion upgrade to accomodate the supposed increase in ridership after the Evergreen Line takes all the cars off the roads here, by coincidence
Please replace the last post with this one:
Hmm, the Expo Line undergoing its $1 billion upgrade to accommodate the supposed increase in ridership after the Evergreen Line takes all the cars off the roads here, by coincidence is out of service and has trapped riders 10 metres in the air for hours:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/07/09/bc-skytrain-delays.html
This kind of thing couldn’t have been anticipated to go with at grade transit, instead? Hopefully a fire doesn’t start on the sky train due to an electrical fault before the passengers can be rescued
.