Confederation Line (Stage 1) | In Service 1.0

[silvergate]

Originally Posted by eltodesukane

Must drink coffee very fast before boarding the train. Not the way to enjoy coffee. Will not buy.

I used to buy coffee at the Quickie beside Bay station, then hold my coffee on the excessively bouncy bus journey to Tunney's. On most Ottawa transit, you don't want to be drinking hot liquids anyways.

[Mikeed]

Touch the greenbelt over my dead body. It will just create more sprawl.

More cities should have developed like Ottawa imo. What Ottawa needs to develope the satellite cities as true satellite cities and reduce the need to drive to the CBD.

Work from home, decentralized public service; these changes are accelerating. The old transitway of 1 seat rides to the CBD for the public service is relic of old thinking.


What the Feds need to do is clear out tons of D/C grade office blocks and redevelop them to residential. And move more employment to decentralized TOD.

When you look at the chunk of the experimental farm that was developed into a ticky-tracky suburb of cheap houses with non-insulated bathrooms and drywall that falls apart when you look at it wrong (I rented there for 2 years) Does anyone really think: yes, this is what we need more of! — the greenspaces; let's move suburba 3km closer to the central business district. That will really solve problems and increase livability.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by Harley613

I could but that's not the comparison I was going for. I'm trying to highlight how dense Toronto is where it is served by their primary city-ran mass transit system. I did include the future LRT line along Eglinton. If I did an overlay with commuter rail the map would span from Niagara to Kitchener to Barrie and to Oshawa. Streetcars are not a relevant comparison.

Considering that Ottawa was going to have at grade LRT, I'd say Streetcars are much more relevant of a comparison. They are also some of the highest ridership.

[Williamoforange]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Considering that Ottawa was going to have at grade LRT, I'd say Streetcars are much more relevant of a comparison. They are also some of the highest ridership.

Ottawa was going to have an LRT system that while at grade was going to be in its own lanes (not in traffic) and would be using vehicles with double the capacity of the Toronto Streetcars. Outlook are 130 max/vehicle, Spirit are 300 max/vehicle. Along with doing so at a much higher frequency roughly half.

So no Toronto streetcars are not relevant comparison to the Confederation line.

[J.OT13]

Some insight on the new O-Train coffee shops and how Happy Goat was able to beat the Timmies and Starbucks of the world.

Happy Goat Coffee set to open new Tunney’s Pasture location

KITCHISSIPPI TIMES | NOVEMBER 30, 2020


The Happy Goat Coffee Kiosk at Blair Station. The local coffee company has opened four kiosks at LRT stations in Ottawa, including Tunney’s Pasture in Kitchissippi. Photo courtesy of the City of Ottawa.

By Matthew Horwood

Starting in December, O-Train Confederation Line commuters will be able to stop at Tunney’s Pasture station to enjoy gourmet coffee and locally baked food from Happy Goat Coffee.

The local company is opening four concession stands at Blair station, Rideau station, Hurdman station and Tunney’s Pasture. They will offer specialty coffees and teas, baked goods, sandwiches and roast coffee beans.

Happy Goat Coffee Company was started in 2009 by artisan coffee roaster Pierre Richard, who passed the business onto Henry Assad and Ahmet Oktar. The coffee shop opened its first location on Laurel Street in 2011 and added six more locations in the city beginning in 2016. The company also sells its coffee to more than 100 restaurants, cafés, bars and supermarkets in the Ottawa region.

In May 2019, the City of Ottawa started a bidding process to open concession stands along the light rail transit (LRT) Confederation Line. Henry Assad, president and CEO of Happy Goat, said his company won the contract in July, beating out seven other companies such as Tim Hortons and Starbucks.

Assad said Happy Goat was chosen because of their “very strong proposal,” which included partnerships with other local companies to sell food and drinks, and plans to produce close to zero waste.

“All we have invested in the company over the last six years is finally bearing fruit; that’s also part of the reason we were chosen,” he said.


The Happy Goat Coffee Kiosk at Blair Station. The local company has opened four LRT kiosks, including Tunney’s Pasture in Kitchissippi. Photo courtesy of the City of Ottawa.

The opening of the locations was originally slated for November, but according to Assad, the COVID-19 lockdowns in March delayed construction on the locations. However, he said things were back to normal and the projects were going ahead by July. With construction on the four kiosks complete, inspections finalized and all 40 staff having received training, the Tunney’s Pasture location will be open at the end of November.

Assad said for a small company that doesn’t often receive exposure, the marketing value of four new locations along the LRT is “immeasurable.” He says Happy Goat Coffee has been given an opportunity to show off their culture, values and philosophy, and that the company is “very excited.”

“We are proud to have been chosen by [the] city and to have them put trust in [a] company like ours,” Assad said. “This is a unique opportunity that gives us ammunition to expand even further, whether it’s in the Ottawa area or outside.”

https://kitchissippi.com/2020/11/30/happy-goat-coffee-set-to-open-new-tunneys-pasture-location/

[DarthVader_1961]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-lrt-wheel-cracks-tsb-report-1.5841865

Article about the wheel problem.

[TransitZilla]

TSB letter to City from early November: https://www.bst-tsb.gc.ca/eng/securite-safety/rail/2020/r20h0079/r20h0079-617-08-20.html

I found this passage interesting:

It was reported that all the resilient wheels for the OLRT LRVs were shipped to Alstom from the manufacturer, Lucchini, with jacking screws already installed in the wheels. This was a change in process and was the first time that resilient wheels were shipped with jacking screws installed. Prior to the OLRT LRV build, Lucchini resilient wheels were shipped with plastic plugs or silicone installed in the jacking screw holes to protect the threads. The plugs were removed only when there was a need to use jacking screws to remove a wheel. It appears that the change in process was implemented with no requirement for the wheel manufacturer (Lucchini), the LRV builder (Alstom), or the personnel installing the wheels on the bogies to examine the rear surface of the wheel hub to ensure that none of the jacking screws protruded or otherwise interfered with the mating surface of the axle hub.

(Emphasis added). I wonder what the rationale was for this change in process? Was it initiated by Lucchini or Alstom?

[rocketphish]

TSB told Ottawa LRT contractor to speed up wheel swap after more cracks discovered
The TSB in early November suggested that work be sped up to remove wheels with the problematic screws.

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Dec 16, 2020 • Last Updated 14 hours ago • 3 minute read



The Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday provided details about an investigation into cracked wheels on Ottawa LRT vehicles, with the agency confirming that a protruding jacking screw on the wheel hub was the possible cause, and revealing a quirk in how the wheels were provided for installation.

The TSB in early November suggested that work be sped up to remove wheels with the problematic screws.

And the agency’s probe isn’t ending at the bogies and wheel assemblies on the Alstom Citadis Spirit trains.

The agency said it’s also looking into maintenance activities and “other possible contributing factors” to the cracked wheels.

Three wheels showed signs of defects in July, leading to the TSB launching an investigation and Rideau Transit Maintenance (RTM), which is responsible for the upkeep of the LRT system, starting a daily wheel-inspection routine. RTM is the maintenance arm of Rideau Transit Group, which built the Confederation Line and contracted Alstom to supply the trains.

City transit management announced in the summer that the protruding screws were the likely cause of the cracked wheels, although they emphasized that the TSB was independently looking into it.

On Tuesday, in its first meaty update on the investigation, the TSB said it has discovered a total of eight wheels with cracked hubs.

The agency also released a detailed safety advisory letter dated Nov. 4, 2020 sent to city manager Steve Kanellakos regarding the cracked wheels.



In the letter, the TSB called for an expedited removal of all the wheels that were originally installed on the trains because cracks could be hidden by grounding cables. One jacking screw on each wheel is usually obscured by a cable, the TSB said.

The trains have a multi-layer “resilient wheel” design typical of light-rail vehicles going back to the late 1990s, the TSB said.

The wheels on the trains are manufactured by Italian company Lucchini RS Group. The TSB noted that Lucchini is one of the largest manufacturers of passenger car wheels in the world.

According to the TSB, resilient wheels have a service life of about 330,000 kilometres, but Alstom proactively decided that the Ottawa LRT vehicles required a bogie retrofit program about every 100,000 kilometres “in order to address some maintenance issues.”

A bogie retrofit at Alstom’s facility in Sorel-Tracy, Que., on July 2 uncovered the first wheel cracks, leading to the TSB investigation.

The TSB’s letter said a unique circumstance when it comes to the Ottawa trains is that the wheels were shipped by Lucchini to Alstom with jacking screws already installed in the wheels.



Previous to the Ottawa train build, there were plugs in the jacking screw holes to protect the threads and the plugs were only removed when jacking screws were required to remove a wheel, the TSB letter said.

No one — Lucchini, Alstom or the wheel installation crews — checked the rear surface of the wheel hubs to make sure the jacking screws weren’t protruding or interfering with the surface of the axel hub, the TSB letter said.

As of Nov. 4, 116 of 185 new wheels examined by Alstom and the TSB had one or more jacking screws protruding from the rear surface of the wheel hub, the TSB said.

“Although ongoing daily inspections by (RTG) maintenance staff are being observed, the preliminary TSB examination results demonstrate that some wheel hub cracks may go undetected and the development of cracks in the area of jacking screws installed in the hub of resilient wheels may be more widespread than initially thought,” the TSB letter said, before suggesting that Alstom and RTG accelerate the removal of wheels equipped with jacking screws.

Alstom, at its cost, has been replacing the wheels on all of Ottawa’s LRT trains and the work has been projected to stretch into 2021.

The first phase of LRT came with 34 single vehicles, which together provide 17 double-vehicle trains. Fifteen double-vehicle trains are required for peak morning service, with two available as spares.

“To date, 13 of 38 (vehicles) have had all impacted wheels replaced,” transportation general manager John Manconi told council in a memo. “Vehicles that have had their wheels replaced now go through the regular maintenance inspection cycle. Daily inspections continue on the remaining vehicles in our fleet.”

Alstom has been building trains for the Stage 2 expansion, beyond the initial 34 vehicles for Stage 1.

The transit commission has a meeting scheduled for Wednesday.

[email protected]
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...-wheel-swap-after-more-cracks-discovered

[Catenary]

I see some people, including councillors on Twitter getting very concerned about this, and asking questions about how these are still allowed to be in service at all. I think they misunderstand the TSB - it seems very official and scary, because it is to some extent. What is missed is that is there was any immediate risk, they would have made a call ages ago.

Based on the design of the wheels, even a complete radial crack would not affect the short-term operation of the wheel or be an immediate hazard, which is why inspection is considered sufficient.

My question is; have they gone through the fleet and at least removed the jacking screws and plugged the holes in the interim? That would prevent any new cracks from forming and reduce the propagation of any existing cracks, and seems like an obvious first step.

[OTownandDown]

So if I understand this correctly, there are three threaded holes near the hub of the wheels, and they're usually just empty until you need to remove the wheel, then you put in the jacking screws and slowly force the wheel off by tightening the screws and pushing?

Then these screws were pre-installed somehow, and some might have been extended behind already? Thus when the axle bolts (name?) were super-tightened, the screws exerted shear point-loads on the surrounding steel? Seems weird that the wheels weren't a bit off balance with a protruding screw sandwiched in there?

Originally Posted by Catenary

I see some people, including councillors on Twitter getting very concerned about this, and asking questions about how these are still allowed to be in service at all. I think they misunderstand the TSB - it seems very official and scary, because it is to some extent. What is missed is that is there was any immediate risk, they would have made a call ages ago.

Based on the design of the wheels, even a complete radial crack would not affect the short-term operation of the wheel or be an immediate hazard, which is why inspection is considered sufficient.

My question is; have they gone through the fleet and at least removed the jacking screws and plugged the holes in the interim? That would prevent any new cracks from forming and reduce the propagation of any existing cracks, and seems like an obvious first step.

[On Edge]

Originally Posted by Mikeed

Touch the greenbelt over my dead body. It will just create more sprawl.

More cities should have developed like Ottawa imo. What Ottawa needs to develope the satellite cities as true satellite cities and reduce the need to drive to the CBD.

Work from home, decentralized public service; these changes are accelerating. The old transitway of 1 seat rides to the CBD for the public service is relic of old thinking.


What the Feds need to do is clear out tons of D/C grade office blocks and redevelop them to residential. And move more employment to decentralized TOD.

When you look at the chunk of the experimental farm that was developed into a ticky-tracky suburb of cheap houses with non-insulated bathrooms and drywall that falls apart when you look at it wrong (I rented there for 2 years) Does anyone really think: yes, this is what we need more of! — the greenspaces; let's move suburba 3km closer to the central business district. That will really solve problems and increase livability.

So, if I live in Blackburn Hamlet and my job moves to Stittsville. Really helps my commute a lot. Way to drive virtually everybody in to cars and simultaneously gut the downtown. We could be the Tucson of the north! The greenbelt is a colossal mistake, sorry, as is the experimental farm. Just pushed everything further away from everything else and made transit hopeless. Parkways and cars, that is the Ottawa way, and the greenbelt and farm are a big part of the reason why.

[rocketphish]

Cracked wheels and 'Hurdman curve' draw ire of transit commissioners at last meeting of 2020

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Dec 16, 2020 • Last Updated 41 minutes ago • 4 minute read

Transit commissioners divided their scrutiny between cracked LRT wheels and ear-splitting trains during their last meeting of 2020.

Fresh off of the Transportation Safety Board releasing new details on its investigation into the cracked wheels, commissioners on Wednesday heard city transit management stress that the Confederation Line is safe and that there’s no need to park the trains.

Transportation general manager John Manconi said he was surprised to see the TSB on Tuesday release a detailed letter to the city, dated Nov. 4, 2020, about the ongoing investigation, which started in July.

The letter reveals the investigative leads the TSB is pursuing when it comes to a misaligned jacking screw that came installed on the wheels from Alstom’s wheel supplier, Lucchini.

The screw is believed to be the cause of cracks on eight wheel hubs discovered as of early November and the TSB at the time recommended speeding up the process to remove the original wheels from the Alstom Citadis Spirit train vehicles.

Thirteen out of 38 single vehicles had their wheels replaced as of Wednesday, with the full fleet remediation anticipated to be done in early 2021. The other 25 vehicles are still in service and are going through a rigorous daily wheel inspection.

Grounding cables that have concealed the jacking screws from inspection have been moved without impacting the performance of the vehicles, the commission heard.

It’s not certain all original wheels will be replaced, even though the TSB suggested they all should be in case the problem is widespread.

According to city transit management, Alstom is waiting for specialized equipment to arrive in January to help check wheels and adjust the jacking screws if there’s no wheel damage.

While the TSB suggested that removing the original wheels should be expedited, Manconi said the federal agency has supported every measure the city has undertaken, including the process to check the wheels and adjust the jacking screws.

“The TSB has not objected to anything we’re doing or any approach,” Manconi said.

The city has several layers of safety oversight when it comes to LRT. There are the safety experts with the Rideau Transit Group (RTG), there’s an independent LRT regulatory monitor which reports directly to the city manager and there’s OC Transpo’s own chief safety officer.

Transit management was reluctant to disclose more details to commissioners regarding the wheel cracks because the matter is still under investigation by the TSB, which could still take several months to issue a final report.

There’s still a mystery about why the wheels were shipped to Alstom with the jacking screws installed, something the TSB has found to be unique.

Brandon Richards, the chief safety officer for Transpo, told the commission it’s not necessarily unusual that the jacking screws were in the wheels — it’s that the screws were installed too far into the wheel.

The commission pivoted from cracked wheels to noisy trains.

Coun. Catherine McKenney started a discussion about the noise generated by LRT trains rolling on the tracks, which led to a critique of the roaring “Hurdman curve.” There are sharp turns in the tracks on each side of Hurdman Station.

Manconi said the train noise at the Hurdman curve is unacceptable and the city has told RTG so, since there are mandated decibel levels.

The intolerable noise has been going on for about a year and it might never end, even as RTG works to smooth the rail head to reduce the wheel grinding and vibrations. RTG might even try a special oil that’s used on the rails of the Toronto transit system, the commission heard.

“The Hurdman curve will be a maintenance issue forever,” Manconi said. “You will never have a silent curve there.”

It’s not the first time there have been complaints about noisy LRT trains. It’s come up in the western stretch where the trains zip through a trench between Tunney’s Pasture and Bayview stations.

It’s been a wild 2020 for all public transit agencies, but especially Transpo, which started the year with a highly unreliable LRT system, leading to the City of Ottawa issuing a notice of contract default to RTG in March.

RTG continues to work on improvements that will be reviewed by a city assessment team.

Manconi said the city can breathe easier when it gets through winter.

And on that, there’s a bit of good news.

All track switch heaters on the 12.5-kilometre line have been upgraded, including the switch heaters in the eastern leg that are now powered by natural gas.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to stifle Transpo’s ridership levels.

The latest numbers had Transpo’s ridership in November at 28 per cent of what it would normally be outside of the pandemic. Pat Scrimgeour, Transpo’s planning director, estimated the LRT system’s ridership at 20 per cent of levels expected in normal times.

[email protected]
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...it-commissioners-at-last-meeting-of-2020

[Kitchissippi]

“The Hurdman curve will be a maintenance issue forever,” Manconi said. “You will never have a silent curve there.”

I've always wondered why they couldn't have built Hurdman at a skew from the original Transitway station. They had all the room in the world.

[OCCheetos]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

I've always wondered why they couldn't have built Hurdman at a skew from the original Transitway station. They had all the room in the world.

That room belongs to the NCC and the NCC would have none of that.

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by OCCheetos

That room belongs to the NCC and the NCC would have none of that.

The old station is on NCC land as well so I don't see why they would have a problem with a realignment, aside from saving a few trees which could be replanted where the old station was.

Also, I tried my best but I can't plot a realignment between the constraints of the existing river bridge and the VIA tracks that would be much softer and worth the cost of moving the station area. (second image)

[IMG]NCC LAnd by harley613, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]Hurdman by harley613, on Flickr[/IMG]

[eltodesukane]

About the Hurdman curve:
https://ottawasun.com/news/local-news/cr...wcm/56a460b8-2583-435b-b9c8-77a02261ae4f

Coun. Catherine McKenney started a discussion about the noise generated by LRT trains rolling on the tracks, which led to a critique of the roaring “Hurdman curve.”
There are sharp turns in the tracks on each side of Hurdman Station.
Manconi said the train noise at the Hurdman curve is unacceptable and the city has told RTG so, since there are mandated decibel levels.
The intolerable noise has been going on for about a year and it might never end, even as RTG works to smooth the rail head to reduce the wheel grinding and vibrations.
RTG might even try a special oil that’s used on the rails of the Toronto transit system, the commission heard.
“The Hurdman curve will be a maintenance issue forever,” Manconi said.
“You will never have a silent curve there.”

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

I've always wondered why they couldn't have built Hurdman at a skew from the original Transitway station. They had all the room in the world.

This would have been ideal. Maybe move Hurdman further west to align with the current placement. The bus loop could have been optimized to take-up less space.

Everyone seems to blame the NCC, but did the City even try to negotiate? The new station layout already takes up more space than previously. I have a feeling City bureaucrats were stuck in their "box", assuming they could only work with what they already had.

I hope that 10-20 years from now, when it's time to redevelop the Hurdman, the City and NCC agree to rebuild this stretch of the Confederation Line to optimize operations, reduce maintenance and include a proper bus terminal similar to Toronto's TTC stations.

[Catenary]

Originally Posted by OTownandDown

So if I understand this correctly, there are three threaded holes near the hub of the wheels, and they're usually just empty until you need to remove the wheel, then you put in the jacking screws and slowly force the wheel off by tightening the screws and pushing?

Then these screws were pre-installed somehow, and some might have been extended behind already? Thus when the axle bolts (name?) were super-tightened, the screws exerted shear point-loads on the surrounding steel? Seems weird that the wheels weren't a bit off balance with a protruding screw sandwiched in there?

You're correct. To remove a wheel, they would take off the lug nuts and then install the jacking screws. Tightening the screws more or less evenly would push the wheel off. This is a common design for this type of application, I've used it with hubs for gears and pulleys before too.

The second part is correct too, the latter says they were formerly shipped without the screws installed, just a plug or cover on the holes. With the bolts installed, some of them protruded past the inner face of the hub by a small amount. The Lug Nuts are tightened down quite hard and the bolts didn't protrude that far, so I can see this not being noticed in the balance.

All of this seems incredibly minor in the grand scheme of things. The path that lead to the mistake is very reasonable, and not a result of any significant lack of oversight. The TSB is investigating because we hold things to a very high standard. I think this is what's getting the councillors and commissioners confused though, since they aren't used to this level of scrutiny outside of major incidents.

[Richard Eade]

I completely agree; this is a tempest in a teapot. The issue has been found, including the ‘root cause’, so we can move on to correct it and put procedures in place to prevent the same thing from happening in the future.

However, the ‘root cause’ is that there were jacking screws protruding from the inside face of the wheels when the lug nuts were torqued. Gradual the cracks formed from the outside, as the cast metal was under too much tension. But the issue does point out a secondary problem; one with the installation of the wheels.

When the wheels are installed, the installer should be ensuring that there is no foreign material on either of the two mating surfaces. For example, a rag should be run around each of the surfaces to wipe away any large particles. (If a protruding jacking screw can be a problem, then so could machining debris.) If the surfaces had been wiped when the wheels were first installed, the rag would have snagged on the protruding jack screw. This SHOULD have alerted the installer to a problem. Evidently, this did not happen.

So, finding the ‘root cause’ is, sometimes not enough. If future jacking screws are installed only when needed, the ‘root cause’ is corrected, but it will do nothing to correct the problem of the installer not understanding that the two pieces must mate properly.

Also, I need to comment on Catenary’s comment that “Based on the design of the wheels, even a complete radial crack would not affect the short-term operation of the wheel or be an immediate hazard, which is why inspection is considered sufficient.”

Based on the photographic evidence, it appears that the cracks were not limited to the radial direction.


Picture is from the CBC article.

[Catenary]

Originally Posted by Richard Eade

I completely agree; this is a tempest in a teapot. The issue has been found, including the ‘root cause’, so we can move on to correct it and put procedures in place to prevent the same thing from happening in the future.

However, the ‘root cause’ is that there were jacking screws protruding from the inside face of the wheels when the lug nuts were torqued. Gradual the cracks formed from the outside, as the cast metal was under too much tension. But the issue does point out a secondary problem; one with the installation of the wheels.

When the wheels are installed, the installer should be ensuring that there is no foreign material on either of the two mating surfaces. For example, a rag should be run around each of the surfaces to wipe away any large particles. (If a protruding jacking screw can be a problem, then so could machining debris.) If the surfaces had been wiped when the wheels were first installed, the rag would have snagged on the protruding jack screw. This SHOULD have alerted the installer to a problem. Evidently, this did not happen.

So, finding the ‘root cause’ is, sometimes not enough. If future jacking screws are installed only when needed, the ‘root cause’ is corrected, but it will do nothing to correct the problem of the installer not understanding that the two pieces must mate properly.

Also, I need to comment on Catenary’s comment that “Based on the design of the wheels, even a complete radial crack would not affect the short-term operation of the wheel or be an immediate hazard, which is why inspection is considered sufficient.”

Based on the photographic evidence, it appears that the cracks were not limited to the radial direction.

I can imagine a situation where somebody notices the bolts, but since "they came that way" they overlook it. It would be interesting to know if this is an issue on every train - does it also affect the unit assembled in Hornell, if my recollection is correct that one was fully assembled there?

As for the cracking, I missed that image of the circumferential crack. That is a concern, but it also mitigates the issue with the grounding cable covering the hole, as you would easily spot that crack.

In the end, we'll forget about this soon until the CBC drags it up again. The LRT and Alstom in particular have some flaws, but this sort of minor issue is pretty typical of new rolling stock.