KCRag Forum

So why wasn't the curb just bumped out there?

longviewmo wrote:So why wasn't the curb just bumped out there?

That area is brutal at delaying the streetcar. I'm guessing it was the quickest, cheapest solution to the problem that had to be fixed. It should have been bumped out at design, but oh well. They fixed it

longviewmo wrote:So why wasn't the curb just bumped out there?

If it was a curb, people would still try and park there. The yellow bollards say something pretty specific.

DaveKCMO wrote:

longviewmo wrote:So why wasn't the curb just bumped out there?

If it was a curb, people would still try and park there. The yellow bollards say something pretty specific.

People actually tried to park up on the curbs to stay out of the street car

Most of that occurs when there's a white line and legal parallel parking.

Those bollards were much needed. I couldn't believe how often I saw people park partially on the sidewalk there.

All day ice shutdown is never a good look. How do other european cities with way more snow/ice make this work?

KCPowercat wrote:All day ice shutdown is never a good look. How do other european cities with way more snow/ice make this work?

Of course not. This was never presented as a possibility. Keep your streetcars running during the ice event, they said, and you’ll be fine.

You buy a thing and have to trust that it works as advertised, especially when it hasn’t been used in this environment with this configuration.

That being said, it’s a top priority to address. No one likes a service outage.

No apologies needed on a day like today.

DaveKCMO wrote:

KCPowercat wrote:All day ice shutdown is never a good look. How do other european cities with way more snow/ice make this work?

Of course not. This was never presented as a possibility. Keep your streetcars running during the ice event, they said, and you’ll be fine.

You buy a thing and have to trust that it works as advertised, especially when it hasn’t been used in this environment with this configuration.

That being said, it’s a top priority to address. No one likes a service outage.

Understood. I thought that's what we were told....be interested to see how other cities get around it...are there other technologies that help?

grovester wrote:No apologies needed on a day like today.

Yup nobody was asking for (or giving) apologies...all modes of transport suffer on days like this...but everything else has also recovered faster.

KCPowercat wrote:

DaveKCMO wrote:

KCPowercat wrote:All day ice shutdown is never a good look. How do other european cities with way more snow/ice make this work?

Of course not. This was never presented as a possibility. Keep your streetcars running during the ice event, they said, and you’ll be fine.

You buy a thing and have to trust that it works as advertised, especially when it hasn’t been used in this environment with this configuration.

That being said, it’s a top priority to address. No one likes a service outage.

Understood. I thought that's what we were told....be interested to see how other cities get around it...are there other technologies that help?

Toronto would be the leader here. Lots of snow and ice, every single year, and lots of overhead lines. They also never quit running streetcars, so there is institutional knowledge that we're just now building.

Yes, there are technologies that would help. Vendors were pretty much "don't waste your money". Famous last words, eh?

Are buses run as a contingency?

Yeah buses are running and maybe we don't need to invest in those technologies for the 2 days a year it happens here....but it gives the impression of unreliability which obviously isn't good.

I was always under the impression that the streetcars would be able to run well after buses got bogged down in snow/ice due to the weight of the streetcars...the overhead lines never occurred to me as the weak link.

earthling wrote:Are buses run as a contingency?

There was no actual service outage today. "Streetcar Link" buses have been running continuously since the streetcars went out of circulation.

KCPowercat wrote:...maybe we don't need to invest in those technologies for the 2 days a year it happens here...

Actually, we do... and we will.

even better!

Hasn't Cincinnati had significant weather issues with their streetcars? Is it a fundamental problem or limitation with the technology, or an implementation problem?

The Streetcar Authority is exploring using vehicles equipped with ice scrapers or heating the overhead lines, as other cities do, to prevent ice accumulation in the future and keeping the lines functional.

http://www.kansascity.com/weather/article201224049.html

Yes, Cincy has had the exact same issues, while cities NOT using the US-built CAF vehicle are not. So there you have it.

Any idea what the problem with their specific vehicles might be?

Glad to hear solutions are being explored....appreciate the learning and improving of the KCSA