Recent content by reaperexpress

Pretty much any photo of a tram switch outside of Toronto will be a dual-blade switch. Here's one from Wikipedia - note how both of the rails move when the switch changes direction, as opposed to the Toronto design where only one of the rails moves.

The 2018 image shows a single-point switch: So their 'test installation of a dual leaf switch' doesn't have dual leaves? How long is this "long-term" contract, and when does it expire? From what I've seen, the sole-source procurement contracts are typically 5 years. Even if they are within a...

The whole reason the Sudbury-White River train exists at all is that it connects small communities along the CPKC mainline that have no road connection to the rest of Canada. If it were just about connecting Sudbury to White River the train would have been cancelled a long time ago - there's...

"Northland Ontario (sic) got a train that makes no financial sense, why don't we get one too?"

In the US, EU-certified trains can operate on mainlines without a waiver (under Alternative Compliance). The Stadler FLIRT trains on TexRail, Metra and DART share tracks with freight trains but they didn't need to get waivers. US freight trains are just as big as Canadian ones so Transport...

Furthermore the pedestrian permeability in Hamilton is relatively decent via legal crossing routes. There are a few stretches where a pedestrian bridge/underpass may be warranted but for the most part it seems reasonable to construct more serious trespasser deterrents. Currently CN doesn't seem...

In addition to what @smallspy said, if there were only a flip-out ramp long enough to reach ground level at AODA-compliant slope, it would be too long to fit on a lot of the narrow raised platforms such as on St Clair. The ramp for raised platforms needs to be as short as possible to give people...

Where are there dual-blade switches on the mainline? I'm only aware of the ones in Leslie barns where the yard limit is 10 regardless of switches. These are not different ideas. These are two elements of the same idea, which is updating the switch design & control standards. Replacing the...

This is a phenomenal piece of journalism. Thank you so much for your efforts - I can't wait to see parts two and three!

Nice try with your gaslighting. But the question was actually: It's completely unclear what on earth they're talking about. Is the question whether UP Express trains skip UP Express stations? Or UP Express trains skipping GO stations? Or just express trains in general? All of those questions...

Oh right, because Metrolinx is the gold standard for cost-effective vehicle procurement. I'm not pretending that's not what I said, nor am I convinced that the statement "Toronto's streetcars were expensive" is false. That said, I am open to that possibility if you provide convincing evidence...

Okay? Nowhere in that paragraph did say anything about cost. I said the ability to use more than one model of streetcar per half-century is an additoinal benefit worth considering. Those diagrams are for increasing the minimum radius to 20 metres, which is absurd. And they were about the...

Half of all GO rail lines have express trains on them. I'm sure they found the answer just fine on their own.

Yes that was another aspect that needed to be customized. There was no one factor that was the issue, it was a combination of factors such as the ones I listed and this additional one you named. Line 6 has Citadis trains (same as Mississauga and Ottawa) and Line 5 has Flexities (same as...

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime