SkyTrain for Surrey, not LRT!

We would like to share this hilarious image portraying the effects of a single blockage of light rail tracks in Toronto.  The streetcars are lined up in front of a broken-down car.

Tram block in Toronto
Tram block in Toronto

The tracks prevent the many streetcars from moving around this broken vehicle.  While track blockages are a reliability problem faced by all rail systems, the risk can be exacerbated for light rail systems that are placed in risky on-street rights-of-way, as there may be several vehicle and pedestrian crossings that serve as possible conflicts.

The City of Surrey has planned to build light rail in a similar way.  Apparently, the image above is what Surrey wants.

PHOTO: Accident blocks LRT in Toronto (this is what Surrey wants)

2 thoughts on “PHOTO: Accident blocks LRT in Toronto (this is what Surrey wants)

  1. This is not LRT, this is streetcar. Very different from each other. LRT runs in separated rights of way, only interacting with traffic at intersections. A car would never be running in the same lane as an LRT vehicle, as shown in this photo.

    1. We’re aware of the different context of LRT in this photo as an on-street shared-lane streetcar. However, the fact that we were trying to point out was that this is still a risk where any LRT runs on-street, even if on-street means in its own dedicated lane. The conflicts at intersections will always create a high reliability risk in the same way that sharing general traffic lanes in Toronto can.

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