Confederation Line (Stage 1) | In Service 1.0

[OttawaSteve]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

O-Train Line 1 will be closed all week – and it 'may be further extended'

Megan Gillis, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: 2 hours ago • 1 minute read

[...]

OC Transpo staff will be on hand to direct riders to replacement buses that will be running along the Confederation Line during a fourth closure for work since the beginning of May.

[...]

There were no OC Transpo staff to be found at UOttawa station or at the R1 bus stops on King Edward last night at around 8:00pm. There was definitely a need for them. Much confusion among would-be passengers arriving at the shuttered LRT station.

[OCCheetos]

Originally Posted by Catenary

I don't recall any noticeable slow orders due to heat on the Trillium Line, but there have been some due to the spring thaw and other issues.

I think the line benefits from a few things. First, there is the tunnel and trench at the north end to shade the tracks. More importantly, I don't think there are any stretches with a significant length of track without gaps or other places that would adsorb some expansion. There's 2 diamonds, multiple switches and jointed rail over the Rideau River bridge that would all hep. Combine all this with the relatively lightweight and slow rolling stock and it would have to be very hot to have problems.

Now we have an actual number of days!

The Trillium Line operated at reduced speeds due to the heat 34 days over 5 years. #ottnews

https://twitter.com/PringleJosh/status/1275469085753647104?s=19

[rocketphish]

The departure of Peter Lauch — when LRT has you up and running

Kelly Egan, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: 1 hour ago • 4 minute read

The surprise is not that Peter Lauch resigned, but how he managed to last this long.

Did he not have the worst job in Ottawa?

Not only was every transit user a potential critic — with a full jacket of social media ammo — but his list of “bosses” was a long one, some of them quite eager to question the basic competency of the builders and operators of Ottawa’s $2.1-billion LRT system: in effect, his work product.

Lauch announced Monday he is leaving Rideau Transit Group and its maintenance arm on July 10 after seven years as a key figure in the building and running of the first phase of light rail, the biggest infrastructure project the city has ever undertaken.

On July 11, one has to wonder, Lauch may wake up feeling — not unemployed — but as though released from prison.

An engineer with a background in aviation, Lauch never looked entirely at ease when facing his public-sector masters at city hall and RTG never established any rapport with the general ridership or media. So, as problems mounted, suspicion abounded: were these growing pains or evidence this consortium just could not run a train system?

Adding to the skepticism was the degree to which city hall types grew to publicly embarrass, if not humiliate RTG and RTM, even before the trains began to roll.

As early as February 2019, Lauch was telling a committee of councillors that RTG did not “contemplate any other scenario” than handing over a revenue-ready system on March 31. (It didn’t launch until September.)

No sooner were the words spoken (and wasn’t the phrasing weird?) that OC Transpo general manager John Manconi, backed by Mayor Jim Watson, both said they doubted RTG could pull it off. They were right.

In November, meanwhile, real-time train problems had begun to sprout everywhere and the city’s top bureaucrat, Steve Kanellakos — before a packed council chambers and live television — gave RTG another spanking.

“We have experienced issues with RTG and RTM that I can only categorize as inadequate management oversight, poor planning, under-resourcing and failure to anticipate predictable issues,” he said, not yet done with the slapping machine.

“We actually had to tell them what things we would do, and we’re not rail specialists, for them to be able to improve this service.”

And on and on it went, every time the city’s transit commission would meet, second-guessing galore.

In January, Lauch was before politicians again, trying to explain why switches frequently froze and wheels became square and power wires suddenly fell from the sky. One could not sense any urgency or alarm in his responses — RTG had no “winter operations” worries, he assured — though those around the table were pulling their hair out.

“I’m struggling to understand how you can tell us that with a straight face,” Cumberland Coun. Stephen Blais told Lauch at one point.

Manconi said RTG needed “more experienced railroaders” to help right the system, applauding the hiring of JBA Corp. as outside experts to get the trains running on time, or at all.

(Think of it: you hire a company to build a backyard fence, then a consultant to tell the company how to put the posts in.)

By March, the city up in arms, the municipality decided performance was so bad that a line had legally been crossed and it sent a “notice of default,” which contained a number of howlers. In detailing how RTG had not reached many basic benchmarks, the city went even deeper with this poke in the eye:

“It is clear to the City that RTG materially misrepresented its experience, knowledge, skill and capacity.”

Lauch’s performance aside, the city has to wear LRT’s problems because it designed the whole house of cards, with a 30-year horizon.

As colleague Jim Bagnall has thoroughly explained, the city signed a big cheque to pass all the financial risk to the private operators, accepting a corporate structure in which RTG would be a supervisor/traffic cop among a group of big-name contractors.

(RTG has about 200 employees, with about 150 from Alstom, the train-maker, and 51 at RTM.) The city’s hammer in this carrot-and-stick arrangement was monthly revenue: if the service didn’t meet standards, then millions would be withheld. It sounded foolproof, but for one thing — it hasn’t really worked.

Here we are cruising to the end of June, with several months of payments cancelled, and the system still not free of deficiencies, the city running out of levers to pull. And now a leadership change.

This is, as they say, no way to run a railroad. Even the head engineer is leaving at the next whistle stop.

To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-291-6265 or email [email protected]
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...cm/f9ea74da-0fb8-4808-baf0-72847bbd0d6a/

[rocketphish]

New RTG boss, whoever it will be, faces immediate challenges

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: 12 minutes ago • 2 minute read

Whoever takes over as the next boss of Rideau Transit Group (RTG) and its affiliate Rideau Transit Maintenance probably shouldn’t have any plans for leisure this summer.

City council wants all problems on the LRT system fixed by the end of August as RTG answers problems detailed in a notice of contract default issued by the city in March.

Peter Lauch is leaving his chief executive jobs at both RTG and the maintenance division on July 10. The company hasn’t named a successor.

RTG’s corporate partners are ACS Infrastructure, EllisDon and SNC-Lavalin.

RTG is taking care of Ottawa’s LRT system under a 30-year contract with the city, ending in 2048. Maintenance for the Stage 2 LRT extensions is also included in the work.

There’s a lot to fix on the LRT system, as listed in a letter the city sent RTG following the notice of default. The letter was subsequently criticized by the company.

The city, meanwhile, is peeved that RTG hasn’t provided a date in writing when all of the problems on the LRT system will be resolved.

The city has refused to make a monthly maintenance payment to RTG after making an initial payment for the first month of service last September.

While there has been some progress in fixing the $2.1-billion Confederation Line, aided in part by multi-day closures of the rail system like the one this week, there are some issues the new boss will need to address after moving into RTG’s corner office.

For one, the company will have to figure out a way to work better with Alstom to deliver for Ottawa taxpayers and transit customers.

There are more than 200 employees who work under Rideau Transit Maintenance, but two-thirds of them are Alstom staff, according to RTG’s website. Alstom, as the supplier of the Citadis Spirit trains, is RTG’s main contractor for Ottawa’s LRT system.

The transit commission heard from city management recently that, according to their reading, RTG and Alstom are at odds about how to maintain the LRT system. RTG’s apparent struggle to get Alstom to perform has been magnified by Mayor Jim Watson’s decision to contact Alstom’s CEO directly on multiple occasions.

Another thing that annoys the city: The maintenance division, in the eyes of city transit managers, doesn’t have a sense of urgency. Based on updates to the transit commission and council, the city has been finding that problems are piling up to the point of overwhelming RTG’s maintenance group. So, the city will want to see more hustle.

While the goal is to have a reliable LRT system by the end of August, RTG must also prepare for the colder months to avoid what transportation GM John Manconi recently called “another winter of hell.” The quality of the heaters on track switches, for example, is still a source of argument between the city and RTG as the city tries to convince the company to install better equipment to keep ice and snow off the infrastructure.

Prevent system breakdowns. Bring in revenue. If the new CEO achieves those two things, everyone — the city, transit customers and RTG’s big corporate bosses — will be happy.

[email protected]
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...cm/ac7f7c0b-9803-433c-9316-d7b7fc751856/

[sseguin]

OC Transpo has been advised by the Rideau Transit Group that the planned maintenance and repairs to improve system performance on O-Train Line 1 will be completed on Sunday, June 28. As a result, R1 bus service will end and trains will resume service at 5am on Monday, June 29.

https://www.otrainfans.ca/news/o-train-line-1-temporary-closures

[OCCheetos]

The new CEOs of RTG and RTM:

Nicholas Truchon is the new CEO of RTG, leading all commercial, financial and contractual matters, manage the interface with RTM, and ultimately responsible for quality assurance and delivery of services
Mario Guerra is the new CEO of Rideau Transit Maintenance.

https://twitter.com/RiverWardRiley/status/1278047337219264514

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by OCCheetos

The new CEOs of RTG and RTM:


https://twitter.com/RiverWardRiley/status/1278047337219264514

Mario Guerra was Vice President - Rail Operations at SNC Lavalin. He has broken ethics rules in the past:

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/mta...g-job-subway-car-maker-article-1.1052494

Linked-in: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/marioguerra1

Nicolas Truchon was the CFO of Signature on the Saint Lawrence, the group who built the new Champlain Bridge in Montreal. Some of the head partners are the same as RTG: SNC Lavalin, Dragados and ACS.

Linked-in: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-truchon-530b523

[rocketphish]

New transit execs face monumental task for LRT upgrade

Bruce Deachman, Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Jul 02, 2020 • Last Updated 14 hours ago • 4 minute read

Nicolas Truchon and Mario Guerra face the monumental task of ensuring that Ottawa’s transit riders don’t have to go through what city transportation general manager John Manconi describes as “another winter of hell.”

The beleaguered Rideau Transit Group announced on Tuesday that Truchon would take over chief executive duties as of July 10, while Guerra will take over as head of Rideau Transit Maintenance, the RTG affiliate responsible for maintaining the city’s $2.1 billion LRT system, on the same date.

The appointees replace Peter Lauch, who RTG announced last month was voluntarily leaving the organization on that date. Lauch is CEO of both RTG and RTM.

Manconi’s hellish comment two weeks ago underscores the numerous problems that have plagued Ottawa’s LRT since its launch last fall.

The city hasn’t made maintenance payments to RTG since an initial $5.1-million transfer, mostly for the company’s performance last September when the 12.5-kilometre LRT line opened.

Mayor Jim Watson and city management, meanwhile, have told RTG to have a reliable LRT system by the end of August. RTG has said it can make the necessary repairs to civil infrastructure by then, but the timeline for making the Alstom Citadis Spirit trains more reliable has been unclear.

For while the city is seeing progress with some repairs, such as new software for the train doors to make them less sensitive, adjustments to the overhead-wire power system and maintenance to the tracks, it still doesn’t have a firm date for a reliable LRT system. Some of the fixes are related to seasonal changes in weather, like making sure heaters properly melt snow and ice on track switches.

Truchon was most recently the chief financial officer for Montreal’s $4.2-billion Samuel de Champlain Bridge public-private partnership project. According to RTG’s announcement Tuesday, he has more than 20 years of experience leading, developing and operating public-private partnerships (P3s) across Canada.

As CFO for the Champlain Bridge project, he managed financial and commercial aspects throughout the construction phase and into operations.

At RTG, he will “lead all commercial, financial and contractual matters, manage the interface with RTM and ultimately be responsible for quality assurance and delivery of services under the project agreement with the City of Ottawa.”

A chartered financial analyst, he was a partner for government and infrastructure advisory with Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton between 2005 and 2015.

Guerra, who has been involved in the Ottawa project since 2016, has 40 years of rail transit experience with the Toronto Transit Commission and New York City Transit.

He will be responsible for operational, maintenance and performance-related issues on the LRT project, reporting to Truchon, “and will continue to be supported by the existing team of rail experts at RTM as well as additional experts in infrastructure, rolling stock, operations and maintenance,” RTG said.

Guerra found himself in some hot water in 2011 and 2012 when, according to the New York Daily News, he was chief mechanical officer at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s NYC Transit division and part of the agency’s selection committee evaluating contract bids for a $600 million project to build 300 new subway cars.

Guerra reportedly sent his résumé to an executive at Bombardier, which was one of two companies vying for the contact. An investigation found no evidence that Guerra or Bombardier executives attempted to influence the competition, but investigators concluded Guerra had violated the MTA’s code of ethics.

RTG did not immediately respond to an email on Wednesday asking for comment on the matter.

The city’s transit commission is not expecting to meet with Truchon until September, but the deadlines for improvements remain fixed, said commission chair Coun. Allan Hubley.

“Leadership is key at RTG and RTM, and we’re happy the consortium was able to move quickly,” Hubley said, adding he was pleased that different people had been named to manage different roles.

“Lauch was wearing multiple hats and it must have been a challenge.”



New RTG/RTM executives at a glance:


Nicolas Truchon

Before becoming CFO of the group designing and building Montreal’s Champlain Bridge, a position he undertook in August 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile, Nicolas Truchon spent close to a decade with Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton in Montreal, where he was a partner and part of the firm’s government and infrastructure advisory.

With masters degrees in science and business administration from the Université de Montréal, he also spent three years as a relationship manager on the Bank of Nova Scotia’s corporate side, and four years as project finance director with VINCI Concessions, which designs and builds airports, highways and railways.


Mario Guerra

A former subway and streetcar mechanic, Mario Guerra, a Mississauga native, left the TTC in December 2010, having risen to the position of general superintendent of rail cars and shops.

He spent a half-dozen years as transportation director with EllisDon construction and building services company, out of Mississauga.

In the early 2010s, he spent almost two years with New York City Transit, following an extensive, nearly 30-year career with the Toronto Transit Commission.

Guerra, according to his LinkedIn profile, has been vice-president of SNC Lavalin’s rail operations, in Toronto, since October 2017.


https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...cm/e9e3c9da-6d3d-4392-b607-a4ad10fd3916/

[DarthVader_1961]

If only one thing is learned, it might be not to start running until you have tested properly during one winter

[MalcolmTucker]

Originally Posted by DarthVader_1961

If only one thing is learned, it might be not to start running until you have tested properly during one winter

Even then, I doubt testing would have shown the door problems.

[black cat]

Testing of the LRT was always minimal and sub-par. We now know that there was no proper winter testing of the system, and testing in so-called winter conditions in a shed by the NRC was flawed and results are not being permitted to be made public, presumably because they are embarracing. Even the city councillers were deliberately kept in the dark. Shocking.

Having travelled on rail systems across the world, I have never experienced the door problems that the LRT suffers. Even the O train does not seem to suffer these problems.

The opening/closing of doors is simple to test, though the fact that it was not picked up was either due to the manufacturers, RTG and OC Transpo putting a lid on it, or again they did not properly test the system with passengers in the trains.

Lets hope the LRT works this winter - though many in Ottawa likely will have low expectations. Perhaps some of the additional train sets that were always needed may actually be delivered to the fleet.

[MalcolmTucker]

^ Newer cars seem to have door problems as they've tried to automate our way to safety. It isn't an Ottawa specific problem. How significant the issue is Ottawa specific though, and that is caused by cultural learning of how to get on mostly full, about to pull away buses over the years.

[OCCheetos]

Originally Posted by black cat

Testing of the LRT was always minimal and sub-par. We now know that there was no proper winter testing of the system, and testing in so-called winter conditions in a shed by the NRC was flawed and results are not being permitted to be made public, presumably because they are embarracing. Even the city councillers were deliberately kept in the dark. Shocking.

What? No.

There was only one "winter-related" issue with the vehicles which turned out to be a combo of salt spray and defective electrical components. Everything else was switch or intrusion detection system related, and the biggest issue faced this winter was by far the execution of maintenance by Alstom.

The trains were running last winter and that didn't catch the salt spray/defective inductors. The switches had also been flagged beforehand and it's always been a matter of implementing the right fix. No word on the intrusion detection system. But above all, I don't think anyone would have predicted or could have caught Alstom being such a big disappointment.

We already know that the LRVs passed nearly all of the tests conducted at the NRC except for a number of water seal issues, but for all the hype of a winter failure that was predicted: we didn't get any trains stuck in the snow, doors didn't freeze shut, the electronics performed fine in low temperatures, and I haven't heard anything about water leakages anywhere so...

The winter months were bad, no disagreement with anyone there. Being relegated to half a working fleet is terrible no matter the situation. But I think "winter conditions" is being way over-attributed to what happened over the winter.

[rocketphish]

https://twitter.com/OC_Transpo

[OCCheetos]

Cracked wheel on one vehicle, so all vehicles are being inspected before being allowed out for service.

https://twitter.com/PringleJosh/status/1279030471884779520?s=19

[J.OT13]

O-Train Fans
@OTrainFans613

Update from OC at 10:25am —- Six vehicles have been cleared and are in service. Loads are light. We are pulling back supplemental bus service as it is not warranted at this time. Inspections continue on the fleet.

10:27 AM · Jul 3, 2020·Twitter for iPhone

https://twitter.com/OTrainFans613/status/1279059078388514822

[Catenary]

Originally Posted by black cat

Testing of the LRT was always minimal and sub-par. We now know that there was no proper winter testing of the system, and testing in so-called winter conditions in a shed by the NRC was flawed and results are not being permitted to be made public, presumably because they are embarracing. Even the city councillers were deliberately kept in the dark. Shocking.

The results weren't made public because the NRC was contracted by Alstom to do the winter testing. OC Transpo and the City of Ottawa, as the customers were not party to that testing. When you buy a car, you aren't suddenly entitled to all of the engineering tests that it went through in development.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by OCCheetos

Cracked wheel on one vehicle, so all vehicles are being inspected before being allowed out for service.

https://twitter.com/PringleJosh/status/1279030471884779520?s=19

Maybe going for Canadian build products should be the future. Knock Bombardier all you want, but most of their stuff can take our climate and conditions.

[Lightspotting]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Maybe going for Canadian build products should be the future. Knock Bombardier all you want, but most of their stuff can take our climate and conditions.

I'm not sure if bombardier is really much better https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/12...-streetcar-just-days-after-deadline.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ttc-bombardier-streetcars-welding-problem-quebec-1.4732985
http://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/about-300-nyc...from-service-for-door-glitches-1.1370994

[OCCheetos]

Originally Posted by Lightspotting

I'm not sure if bombardier is really much better https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/12...-streetcar-just-days-after-deadline.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ttc-bombardier-streetcars-welding-problem-quebec-1.4732985
http://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/about-300-nyc...from-service-for-door-glitches-1.1370994

Yeah, I was hopeful that Alstom would allow us to avoid that mess, especially with the great performance of the LINTs, but... nope!

I just really hope Stadler doesn't mess up on those new FLIRTs...