Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang
^ Has the West LRT been designed to have more crossovers? If not, they should really put them in now as it will be the cheapest and least disruptive option.
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There's quite a few.
There's scissor crossovers at:
Directly east of Sunalta Station
Directly east of the tunnel portal at 33rd Street
East of the 69th Street Tunnel
There's one-way crossovers at:
East of 45th Street Station
East of Sarcee Trail guideway
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This should make it so that any localized single-direction disruption only shuts down one station at a time.
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For the overall system, I'm not sure if mechanical delays are any more due to vehicles than they are due to tracks/wires/switches, etc. Aside from the older vehicles being replaced, and some issues being resolved with the very new vehicles (false alarm emergency buttons, other bugs), a lot of the track and way and electrical system problems are being fixed on an ongoing basis.
This is why there are so many weekend closures - especially on long weekends during the warmer months. A lot of this year's maintenance has been spent fixing issues that sprung up due to the horrible winter we had last year that also saw a lot of potholes and deformation in roads. Ballast between Chinook and Heritage Stations has been completely replaced, which took a month's worth of weekend closures. Some electrical problems have been fixed as well. Hopefully this winter takes less of a toll and next year some of the longer term maintenance issues can be resolved.
In addition, some of the electrical capacity issues are being fixed along with the four car train expansions. The substations are all being upgraded to handle four car trains whereas some sections of track struggled to handle three car trains. This should prevent the odd substation blowout that occurs, and also get rid of some of the ongoing "slow order" areas where the current systems are substandard. This includes the section between Sunnyside and SAIT, and either side of 39th Avenue Station.