JackTatt 🇨🇦

In Sydney, streets have not reopened after closed to build stations. Martin Place was closed to cars to construct the Eastern Suburbs Railway, reopened as pedestrian plaza before a cenotaph was added in the 1990s ANZAC Day Parades. Hunter Street will be pedestrianized after metro station finishes.

Toronto is trying to do something similar with our King Street Transit Priority Corridor but we’re not there yet (though the green ball for right turns only were replaced with green arrows). A similar thing was being done on Bloor Street before the province banned bike lanes.

Sydney’s George Street was closed in 2019 for construction of the LRT. North of Bridge Street little work was initially done to the larger streetscape outside the two tram tracks. More recently, the city has replaced the sidewalks with the same stone pavers as the rest of the street. Construction:

Okay that’s counterintuitive, the most separated right of way and thus lowest risk is also the most slowed down? I hope your article looks at the why not just the where.

For what I wonder? (Knowing how political the US makes justice).

Montreal’s Montague Street Bridge: howmanydayssincemontaguestreetbridgehasbeenhit.com

Dear Canadian Planners,
Please forget the USA exists. Thank you.

Does Quebec have a “Yield to buses” law like Ontario?

Big Sydney and Brisbane are hilly cities allergic to straight roadways and grids. A road will go in every direction cardinal direction almost simultaneously in under a kilometre.

I don’t know about Milan specifically, but many tram systems only stop on request like buses.

Even though transit operations have been fundamentally safer than mainline rail beforehand. Metros already had train protection systems (through trip arms or something more modern), networks smaller so route knowledge more easily maintained, and trams lighter for shorter braking and line of sight.

CBTC is a bit more than that. CBTC is a moving block signalling system that will also enforce safe separation between trains (but trams run on line of sight) and braking curves for speed restrictions/stops (which may be overly conservative). It really has to be implemented well not set lazily.

Why? And is CBTC (fundamentally a moving block signalling system designed for metros) the right tool for the job.

Would GPS detection work for switch control? GPS is limited in railway signalling because of the need for safe systems even where multiple tracks are close together, so they would need to distinguish vehicle directions and which track the switch was on (even when switches & tracks are close)

Boston Green Line also getting CBTC to enforce their intersection speed limits!? Are MBTA operators similarly loose with following the rules currently?
Why does the public blame transit vehicles when cars/people crash into them!? Everyone knows where the tram is, there are tracks and signals.

It would be neat to see if all those 10-15mph speed bands are coincident with intersections or are for other reasons.

Permanent. They installed a new communications based train control system which is now rigidly enforcing the speed limits that were only loosely followed or routinely ignored by human operators (who operated to safety rather than by the letter of the rule book).

@swanboatsteve.bsky.social would remind us that TTC had an overhead power line detector for detecting streetcars and controlling switches. When ALRVs came, it was changed to the loop system that hasn’t been reliable. Since the fleet is back to a fixed length, maybe OCS detection could work again.

Yeah, it’s the stops and transit signal priority which need improvement (mostly the removal of some left turns.
It might actually already have some green extension TSP given that is very common along mixed traffic streetcar routes @ontariotrafficman.bsky.social.

That is rediculous. Fix the system and increase the speed limits to match actual maximum safe operating speeds.

Interesting how the track winds to accommodate stops and turn lanes within a constant fixed road width. In Toronto, the road width changes to keep the tracks straight with stops and turn lanes added around intersections, where the road widens.

Is that a local thing or an American thing. In my experience (@auguststreet.ca @swanboatsteve.bsky.social), TTC operators are very rules conscious and by the book, especially on subway and streetcar. They may stop only a nanosecond at 1km/hr to check switch positions but they don’t go fast through.

The problem is not the CBTC but the underlying rules it is enforcing. I’m surprised SEPTA is so lax with their staff. TTC streetcar operators religiously follow the stop and check switches order and 10 km/h through special trackwork, curves, and reduced overhead clearance rules.

Congratulations @septaphilly.bsky.social on being worse than the TTC! 16/hr speed restriction at all intersections not just those with switches (TTC has 10km/hr or 6mph speed limit for intersections with switches)!?

I do not know the D1 and D2 well. How does CBTC increase travel times? Are CBTC speed limits lower than previously speed limits? Are the enforced braking curves more conservative (don’t account for dry rails, use of sand, regenerative braking capabilities)? That seems like a crazy change.

Is a dangerous trend of safety and overbuilding at the expense of speed and travel time spreading across North America like a disease?
First, Toronto’s Line 6 enforcing speed limits (including excessive speed restrictions) with emergency braking. Now SEPTA in Suburban Philly. And next Muni in SF?

Cars aren’t going to follow signals they can’t understand, so would ignore the points indicator lights (could be blue as in Europe to avoid any confusion since blue is meaningless).
My proposal would be to display switch position in cab (since operator can set position of motorized ones using dial)

A couple things
1. No HTA changes required (though beneficial for unrelated reasons of preventing driver confusion and minimizing street cluttering with signals and signs explaining them)
2. Should be some posted limit signs on switches which can[not] be taken at line speed on through moves.

This is what a points indicator looks like on Sydney Light Rail. It is different from the Australian priority signal heads which are traditional traffic lights with T (for tram) or B (for bus) shaped lights depending on the mode that uses the signals.
Why wouldn’t TTC use an in-cab indication?

A double blade switch (embedded in pavers) on Sydney Light Rail. Note that there is a blade on both sides (easiest to see on the right) with the switch control housing spanning between both rails, so that the movement of one blade moves both, thus guiding both wheels of a tram to the selected track.

A trailing (spring loaded switch designed to only be operated on towards the viewer, so no choice can be made) switch on display at TTC Hillcrest Complex public open house for United Way. Note that only the left side has a movable blade.

You nailed the big risk with single point switches. Double point switches have a movable blade on each rail, so both wheels flanges are guided to the desired track. Single-blade switches only have a movable blade on the outside, depending on the axle to push/pull the other wheel onto the right rail.