smallspy
Senior Member
On Saturday, I filmed some of the new weekend Barrie Line trains at the passing track between Maple and King City.
Both trains had 10 car sets with two locomotives each. I didn't see anyone on the trains other than the conductor, though there could have been people on the upper decks.
It seems awfully wasteful to run big dual-engine consists on this low-ridership service. Maybe they should create weekday consists with a cab car in the middle so that trains can easily be split into smaller trains on weekends. That would cut way down on fuel use and could yield better acceleration, depending on how many cars they run.
They are supposed to run a pair of the L10 consists on the weekend trains, not the L10Ls. Not sure why they seem to have changed that.
As for splitting the trains, they will then need to get carmen out there, perform additional brake tests, etc. before and after running the service. It's not just a matter of pulling a coupler cut lever and off you go.
Dan
Toronto, Ont.