KCMO Downtown Streetcar

[flyingember]

St. Louis metrolink trains are 8.7 feet wide
I can't find our size other than being wider than portland's trains.

That likely makes ours the 2650mm variant, which would be 8 feet 8 inches. So basically the same size.

If it's the 2400mm variant that's approx 8 inches skinnier than metrolink. It would be hard to tell the width difference without a tape measure. Certainly not by eye and in different cities

It's probably the square vs rounded ends that give the illusion.

For gauge, ours are 1435mm. The same width as St. Louis and Houston light rail and Amtrak. Track gauge is another place where streetcar vs light rail terms are blurred.

[flyingember]

It's gone from real time reporting sites

Not just no vehicles, not in the list anymore

[JBmidtown]

It's gone from real time reporting sites

Not just no vehicles, not in the list anymore

Sigh...

[grovester]

Just chill. It's been <30 days. This is what that time is for.

[flyingember]

Just chill. It's been <30 days. This is what that time is for.

Live vehicle data went up April 18. Making this day 42.

The first three week absolutely was for testing and fixing issues. Issues were seen almost immediately and the testing period fixed nothing visible about the bad data.

A train shouldn't be a block from a stop and report as 7-10 minutes away. They shouldn't show up as going both directions simultaneously. On a ~25 block line they shouldn't show up 5 further blocks away than they are. Apple can give me better detail on where my moving cell phone is than we can have to find where a $3.5 million train is.

Only 2.5 weeks into live use was their any admission the real time data was unreliable and turned off. It took 5x as long as it should have to call the vendor. They should have got them to come out by April 22nd and had the system fixed before May 6.

I support a large number of IT systems and am formally certified in IT service management methodologies. This was a fundamental failure of incident management at its most basic. I would have been fired if I handled an IT issue like this one was.

[grovester]

I imagine you could be fired for all sorts of reasons.

[KCPowercat]

This isn't a new problem.... MAX arrivals have been off forever... The streetcar arrival problem just sucks more since they don't have a specific time schedule they are trying to hit.

[earthling]

MAX arrive times haven't been too bad outside downtown. And I use Google Maps a lot that shows countdown timer for bus arrival, usually fairly accurate - though at times way off. I wonder if because there is a streetlight at almost every block downtown and with all the zigzags that the estimate is more off base than reality.

[swid]

We were talking about this at the Downtown Neighborhood Association event last week...the streetcar uses the same GPS-based arrival estimate system that the MAX uses.

I get why using the existing system makes sense for support/integration reasons, but it couldn't have been a surprise that the same tall buildings that screw up arrival times for the MAX downtown would do the same for the streetcar.

[KCPowercat]

MAX arrive times haven't been too bad outside downtown. And I use Google Maps a lot that shows countdown timer for bus arrival, usually fairly accurate - though at times way off. I wonder if because there is a streetlight at almost every block downtown and with all the zigzags that the estimate is more off base than reality.

I may be wrong but I think all the online services and apps just pull the data provided by the real time system used for the signs.

[KCPowercat]

By my calculations the streetcar has a 97.4% uptime 25 days into service.

[earthling]

What's the typical industry standard uptime?

[KCPowercat]

No idea. Just thought it would be fun to calculate after last week's "hell week"

[scooterj]

My last few trips have gone much faster, they seem to be getting better about shortening the time spent at each stop. BTW I rode three times on Memorial Day and it was packed each time.

Saw this on the Streetcar's facebook page. I guess he expects the streetcars should have basements???

[KCPowercat]

I'm actually unclear why the train would be evacuated. I walked by a 129 bus that day that was obviously stopped for the same reason and passengers were on board.

[flyingember]

I'm actually unclear why the train would be evacuated. I walked by a 129 bus that day that was obviously stopped for the same reason and passengers were on board.

The bus should probably have emptied too if it was in an area with an active warning

Vehicle + tornado = you will die if hit

[KCPowercat]

Pretty sure I can die standing next to it too. Without a plan telling people where to shelter, leaving a bus or train seems silly.

[flyingember]

Pretty sure I can die standing next to it too. Without a plan telling people where to shelter, leaving a bus or train seems silly.

I bet the drivers have this information and can make an announcement. Or they should at least.

[KCPowercat]

friends of mine said the stop button wasn't registering Sunday night....seeing reports via twitter of that same thing happening today...that seems like a pretty foolproof system?

[KC_JAYHAWK]

My last few trips have gone much faster, they seem to be getting better about shortening the time spent at each stop. BTW I rode three times on Memorial Day and it was packed each time.

Saw this on the Streetcar's facebook page. I guess he expects the streetcars should have basements???

Old people need to stay off social media.