Confederation Line (Stage 1) | In Service 1.0

[lrt's friend]

New opening predictions?

It seems like it is now on the horizon and it is for real now.

I say July, post Canada Day when they can operate for several weeks during a lower ridership period. They can get the kinks out.

I think if the transfer does not happen by the end of April, so service can begin by the end of May, they are not going to push it with Canada Day crowds looming so close.

[CityTech]

My guess is handover late April and opening late May for transition period, bus changes in late June to align with start of summer schedule.

[kmcamp]

Originally Posted by CityTech

My guess is handover late April and opening late May for transition period, bus changes in late June to align with start of summer schedule.

That's what I've been betting for a while now, and I think it still holds true

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by CityTech

My guess is handover late April and opening late May for transition period, bus changes in late June to align with start of summer schedule.

I hope you are right. The wild card in all of this is having all 34 trains ready to operate.

[c_speed3108]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I hope you are right. The wild card in all of this is having all 34 trains ready to operate.

All 34 now exist.

Last I heard 24 were fully signed off and left 10 to test (individually).

I have been trying to watch the fleet numbers.

They mentioned in the e-mail update about the train arrival announcements at the stations. That is definitely one of the things they are doing right now.

I feel like the 12 day test can't be far away.

[c_speed3108]

This is an interesting tweet if the information is correct:

https://twitter.com/rail613/status/1106613767985659904

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by c_speed3108

This is an interesting tweet if the information is correct:

https://twitter.com/rail613/status/1106613767985659904

That was the planned outlined during the FEDCO meeting. No specific dates were given.

[sseguin]

Lots of fleet numbers spotted and logged. Still about 10 to see out in actual testing along the line but good progress being made. You can check the fleet numbers spotted and share your findings and spottings with us here : https://www.otrainfans.ca/forum/topic/64-confederation-line-train-tests-spotting

One of our members has also shared a YouTube video he took at night around Lees, with many trains passing by, some singles and some coupled. You can also hear the Train Arriving station announcements.

[J.OT13]

Testing around uOttawa and Lees. First seen this one on O-Train Fans Train Spotting thread

• Video Link


Blair



https://twitter.com/_stevenli/status/1106361573147201538

[rocketphish]

Why do Ottawa lawyers love LRT? There are 18.7 million reasons why

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: March 18, 2019

Transit riders haven’t yet seen any benefits from the multi-billion-dollar LRT system, but lawyers sure have.

Outside consultants are feasting off the city’s LRT project and the legal fights that have come with it.

An analysis of council-received reports shows city hall paid law firms more than $18.7 million between 2011 and 2018 to help pore over contracts and give advice as the municipality builds the O-Train network.

It would have been 2011 when the contract work would have heated up for the current LRT project. The city started building the $2.1-billion Confederation Line LRT after a council decision to award the construction contract to the Rideau Transit Group (RTG) in December 2012.

In 2018 alone, the city paid $4.2 million to three law firms for their work on the O-Train project. The spending accounts for more than 60 per cent of all outside legal work done for the city last year. The city also spent more on external legal advice in 2018 than in any of the previous seven years, as it deals with legal matters stemming from Stage 1 construction and embarks on Stage 2.

The city contracts out legal work if it doesn’t have the expertise or internal resources to handle large files. The city will hire outside lawyers for litigation, labour matters and other commercial deals.

The LRT project is the granddaddy of commercial deals for city hall.

Two law firms have gobbled up most of the city’s LRT legal cash: Borden Ladner Gervais and Norton Rose Fulbright.

If it was a battle between who can make more money from city hall, Borden Ladner Gervais would be winning so far, but to be fair, the firm has been involved in the city’s LRT project for much longer than the other firm.

Borden Ladner Gervais collected about $12.3 million from the city between 2011 and 2018.

Norton Rose Fulbright, which only came on the scene of the city’s LRT project roughly three years ago, billed about $5.7 million between 2016 and 2018.

According to city solicitor and clerk Rick O’Connor, those two firms won the big legal contracts after the city accepted bids for the work.

“The selection of Borden Ladner Gervais and Norton Rose Fulbright as the legal advisers for the Stage 1 and Stage 2 LRT projects was done by way of competitive procurement processes overseen by the respective rail offices, with the support of the city’s supply services office,” O’Connor said.

A third firm, Singleton Urquhart, has comparatively only made a tiny bit of money off the city’s transit ambitions: $710,210, and all in 2018.

The Stage 2 procurement culminated last week with council’s 19-3 vote to award $4.6 billion to two construction groups. There wasn’t a breakdown for legal costs associated with Stage 2, but Chris Swail, the director of O-Train planning, said there’s a legal support budget included in the global project budget.

The amount of money spent on external legal advice on LRT so far in 2019 isn’t available yet, but the city can probably expect a hefty bill.

Council has heard the city had been negotiating the Stage 2 contracts almost right up until the recommendations went public in February. Now that council has approved the deals, the lawyers will need to finalize the contracts.

The public last week got a small taste of what it’s paying for when an expert procurement lawyer from Norton Rose Fulbright was on the hot seat answering questions from councillors about the Stage 2 bidding process. Geoffrey Gilbert batted down questions from councillors about the scoring of the winning contractors, declining to comment how the contractors faired. He said he was protecting the city’s interests.

In all, LRT-related legal consulting has accounted for 42 per cent of all external legal costs for the city over eight years.

There will be plenty of billable hours to come.

As the city continues to fight to recoup $25 million (and counting) related to Stage 1 delays, the city will need to continue paying for outside legal advice during the negotiations with RTG. O’Connor confirmed external lawyers are involved in the negotiations.

The city has said it would aim to collect all cost overruns from RTG associated with the delay, but even Mayor Jim Watson has acknowledged the dispute could end up in court.

And that, of course, would mean more legal bills for city hall.

[email protected]
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...e-lrt-there-are-18-7-million-reasons-why

[Gat-Train]

Recorded a train test on Scott Street. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BJsxM7Q3ss

[613Steve]

Is anyone slightly concerned about the width of the aisles on the Citadis Spirit? I'm a bit worried that there are too many seats which will result in passengers being squeezed into narrow aisles when the train is near capacity.

[Multi-modal]

Originally Posted by 613Steve

Is anyone slightly concerned about the width of the aisles on the Citadis Spirit? I'm a bit worried that there are too many seats which will result in passengers being squeezed into narrow aisles when the train is near capacity.

Yes, its been discussed before, and I think almost everyone on this forum would agree with you. OC Transpo / the City prioritize seated customers too much, and the result is narrow aisles that restrict passenger flow and reduce the capacity of the trains during high-volume periods.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Multi-modal

Yes, its been discussed before, and I think almost everyone on this forum would agree with you. OC Transpo / the City prioritize seated customers too much, and the result is narrow aisles that restrict passenger flow and reduce the capacity of the trains during high-volume periods.

The low floor model with wheel wells limits the seating configuration.

[Multi-modal]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

The low floor model with wheel wells limits the seating configuration.

There are still numerous locations within the train where it looks like seats could be removed.

[613Steve]

Feels like going low floor was a mistake unless the city starts being ok with at grade crossings in the suburbs

[Ottawaresident]

I'm not OK with grade crossings in the suburbs or anywhere outside of the middle of nowhere!

[kmcamp]

Originally Posted by 613Steve

Feels like going low floor was a mistake unless the city starts being ok with at grade crossings in the suburbs

It's a mistake in retrospect, but the original intention was to run at grade in the burbs back when things started. That's out the window now, but they at least they compensated by going with subway like train lengths

Most cities with LRT have 60m coupled trains, not 100m like ours

[acottawa]

Just watched a segment on CTV. They confirmed busses will run for 3 weeks after LRT launches and that’s if there is a system failure there will be limited backup.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by 613Steve

Feels like going low floor was a mistake unless the city starts being ok with at grade crossings in the suburbs

Yep. I attended some of those public consultations a decade ago. Kinki Sharyo might have been the only OEM that proposed a light metro system during those consultations.

It's unfortunate that the transit planners picked LRT instead of HRT. Would have probably made sourcing rolling stock easier. And improved the internal layouts. It was always obvious to me that they weren't going to do surface running, at least inside the greenbelt.