Five months in, wobbly LRT looks to outside rescue
Kelly Egan, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: January 23, 2020
It was a five-hour meeting, but the most important news came in the first 10 minutes.
No, OC Transpo general manager John Manconi is not being fired and the City of Ottawa is not tearing up the 30-year contract to run its new LRT system. For now, people, we’ll just keep bailing this leaky ship.
City manager Steve Kanellakos offered Ottawa’s transit commission a passionate defence of Manconi’s leadership in bringing about the capital’s $2.1-billion rail system and credited the OC team for rebounding after its detailed launch plan was basically thrown in the trash.
“I can tell you one thing from my perspective: this management team and Mr. Manconi, in particular, aren’t going anywhere. I have 100 per cent confidence in them.”
The city’s top public servant said he felt compelled to address “the elephant in the room” after media reports that Manconi should be ousted for the numerous troubles that have plagued LRT since its launch in September.
He also argued that ending the relationship with Rideau Transit Maintenance would be the wrong move.
“Blowing it up is not going to fix it. Taking out leadership is not going to fix it. If you’re taking out leadership, you take out me. I am ultimately accountable,” Kanellakos said, sitting in council chambers with every key LRT executive.
At this juncture, he’s probably right. Changing skippers at OC and dumping the maintenance contract now would be disastrous. The last thing we need, five months into a launching complex system that is wobbling along like a baby giraffe, is more chaos.
One of the themes, however, that emerged from Thursday’s meeting was that RTM and its predecessor, RTG, were unprepared for fairly obvious eventualities. And it still needs outside help to get its act together.
During winter testing in 2018/19, for instance, there were problems with the switches, a vital piece of equipment that directs trains to the right track. There are about 30 of them on the 12.5-kilometre system and, in December and January, there were six failures, some weather-related.
Yes, RTG knew ice and snowpack could cause the “tongue” of the switch to fail to slide into its “home” position against the rigid rail. So what did it do during testing? Called the equipment installer to check the operation of the heaters.
Did that work? Not so much. It happened again this year and RTM has taken to sending personnel in with blow torches to melt the frozen mess. Some councillors were dumbfounded.
“I’m struggling to understand how you can tell us that with a straight face,” Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais said to RTM chief executive Peter Lauch, who found himself on the hot-seat for much of the afternoon, frequently at a loss for details.
The Trillium line, it was pointed out, uses natural gas heaters and has had virtually no frozen switch problems for years.
Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney was not impressed with RTM’s explanation, while Manconi snapped that it was obvious what RTM needs to do to solve the problem.
“Quite frankly, I’m shocked that we are where we are today,” McKenney said, given that RTG knew it was an issue a year ago. The city would be “paralyzed” if this winter’s weather was like last year’s, the councillor added.
There was, too, a confusing but alarming explanation as to why LRT had so many trains pulled out of service for wheel flats this week. (We bought 17 double-trains but we’re running with only eight at one point.)
“Is this really normal?” asked commissioner Sarah Wright-Gilbert. “This is a pretty new system.”
Wheel flats are a regular occurrence with any rail system. RTM has a two-wheel lathe that removes the flat spots on a pair of wheels, a process that takes about an hour. The problem? The machine wasn’t working and the maker had to send a technician, causing a lengthy delay.
“We got left by the side of the highway with a flat tire,” said McKenney.
Several councillors said they weren’t feeling confident about RTG’s ability to straighten out the early problems.
The consortium, for instance, isn’t sure what is causing this rash of flat wheels, nor is it certain why 80 metres of overhead wire that feeds electricity to the trains were yanked down near St. Laurent station, causing a massive headache in the east end.
Nor was it reassuring to hear an outside consultant, a British firm, is coming in to help RTM get its operations in order. Or that RTM is assembling a task force to investigate the braking issue.
So no, perhaps it isn’t time for drastic action, like cleaning house. But, at this rate, that day is creeping ever closer.
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email
[email protected].
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/egan-five-months-in-wobbly-lrt-looks-to-outside-rescue
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