Confederation Line (Stage 1) | In Service 1.0

[zzptichka]

WTF? So trains can't run due to the snowstorm but buses can?

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by zzptichka

WTF? So trains can't run due to the snowstorm but buses can?

They can run, just not in the tunnel where they are sheltered from the storm. They will be running on either side of the tunnel though. It’s definitely because of the snow storm.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by zzptichka

WTF? So trains can't run due to the snowstorm but buses can?

It has more to do with the convoy and the police effectively cordoning off the area.

[Catenary]

Given that this is quite clearly a convoy-driven closure, I'm not sure why the trains are not just running "express" through the downtown stations without stopping. The highway ramp closures are causing significant detours to the routes already on detour, with no service from the 6 or 7 on Bank north of Billings Bridge.

[Richard Eade]

Originally Posted by Catenary

Given that this is quite clearly a convoy-driven closure, I'm not sure why the trains are not just running "express" through the downtown stations without stopping. The highway ramp closures are causing significant detours to the routes already on detour, with no service from the 6 or 7 on Bank north of Billings Bridge.

Well, it is easy to say "Just close the downtown stations and run the trains through the tunnel without stopping." But that is the view of someone who doesn't think 'outside the law'.

Imagine, if you can, a train barreling through the tunnel, only to run smack into a huge pile of rubble from a collapse of the tunnel. This is a major police action, and they need to account for things that you, and I, wouldn't normally think of. How do we know that there are not vehicles which have been modified to be bombs (which might cause a 'cave-in')? We don't. But the police need to take such things into account.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Richard Eade

Well, it is easy to say "Just close the downtown stations and run the trains through the tunnel without stopping." But that is the view of someone who doesn't think 'outside the law'.

Imagine, if you can, a train barreling through the tunnel, only to run smack into a huge pile of rubble from a collapse of the tunnel. This is a major police action, and they need to account for things that you, and I, wouldn't normally think of. How do we know that there are not vehicles which have been modified to be bombs (which might cause a 'cave-in')? We don't. But the police need to take such things into account.

Hadn't thought of that. Sounds plausible.

[Richard Eade]

As Martha Stewart might say "And that's a good thing." If it didn't occur to you right away, that probably means that you are (likely) a law-abiding person.

[Catenary]

Originally Posted by Richard Eade

Well, it is easy to say "Just close the downtown stations and run the trains through the tunnel without stopping." But that is the view of someone who doesn't think 'outside the law'.

Imagine, if you can, a train barreling through the tunnel, only to run smack into a huge pile of rubble from a collapse of the tunnel. This is a major police action, and they need to account for things that you, and I, wouldn't normally think of. How do we know that there are not vehicles which have been modified to be bombs (which might cause a 'cave-in')? We don't. But the police need to take such things into account.

While it's important to consider all possibilities, this seems like quite a stretch and some serious whataboutism. The amount of energy required to cave in a tunnel through solid rock is vastly beyond any vehicle-born IED we have seen before. If something were to happen, the multiple cameras and intrusion detection systems would likely catch it, and then if they didn't the lack of traction power would.

Everything we do has a risk, and we balance that with reward. In this case, the level of inconvenience seems to outweigh the remote possibility that the actions above ground affect the train. Given that there might have been uncertainty in the first day, now that we have been through a day of police action with little to no significant unrest, it seems that opening the train for non-stop service seems very reasonable.

The only reasons I can think of for not running express are technical. While this should be possible, we don't know that it actually is. We also don't know if the issue is simply one of emergency or technical response times if there is an issue in the tunnel.

[rocketphish]

Cue the hot lube jokes...

LRT train emitting burning smell didn't have enough gearbox lube, city says
"These inspections confirm this was an isolated incident."

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Mar 15, 2022 • 5 hours ago • 1 minute read

Another gearbox-related problem was identified on Tuesday as the reason for the latest LRT shutdown, requiring another call to the Transportation Safety Board.

OC Transpo announced replacement bus service between Blair and St. Laurent stations on Thursday around 11 a.m.

Transpo chief safety officer Duane Duquette told council in a memo that an eastbound train was approaching Blair Station when it started making an “abnormal noise and emitting a burning smell.” There was also debris on the track. The train was placed out of service and parked at Blair Station.

An inspection by Alstom technicians revealed that a gearbox failed because of an inadequate amount of lubrication fluid.

It has forced Rideau Transit Maintenance (RTM) to inspect the entire fleet to make sure gearboxes have the right amount of lubrication fluid. The work has been done under the watch of the city and the city’s external advisor, TRA.

“These inspections confirm this was an isolated incident,” Duquette told council.

“The city is working with external stakeholders and RTM to examine quality assurance practices and implement corrective measures to prevent incidents like this from reoccurring.”

Full train service resumed around 12:50 p.m. on Thursday.

The train derailment near Tremblay Station on Sept. 19, 2021, happened after a gearbox came loose.

A TSB report on the derailment concluded the bolts connecting the gearbox to the wheel assembly weren’t properly torqued in the shop. Investigators also asserted an oil plug on the gearbox was never installed in the shop. There was only one litre of oil in a gearbox that typically requires 6.1 litres, the TSB discovered.

The city and Rideau Transit Group, which is the affiliate company of RTM, are fighting in court over the Sept. 19 derailment and another derailment on Aug. 8. A judge is being asked to confirm the city-identified reasons that allegedly prove a contract default, but RTM wants the court to stay the city’s application.

The separate LRT public inquiry is scheduled to begin in June.

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https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...didnt-have-enough-gearbox-lube-city-says

[rocketphish]

New court documents expose more distrust between city and RTG
The two sides are contractually tied for 30 years and they're already fighting each other not even three years into the LRT maintenance deal.

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Mar 15, 2022 • 4 hours ago • 4 minute read

It’s hard to imagine a detente anytime soon between the City of Ottawa and the Rideau Transit Group, judging by the war of words that continued in new court filings this week.

The two sides are contractually tied for 30 years and they’re already fighting each other not even three years into the LRT maintenance deal.

In the latest batch of court submissions, the city’s director of O-Train construction, Michael Morgan, shot down allegations by RTG that the Sept. 14, 2019, launch of the Confederation Line was politically motivated, but two senior RTG executives heaped on more claims in attempt to bolster its argument that the city had been more of a pain than a partner.

The court case, which hasn’t yet seen a judge test the allegations, is another act in Ottawa’s LRT drama.

It kicked off with an application filed by the city in December asking for a judge to rule if RTG is in default of the LRT contract because of two derailments in 2021.

RTG wants a judge to stay the city’s application, arguing that the city didn’t follow the proper dispute process in the contract before going to court.

It was the second time that the the city said RTG defaulted, though RTG disputes the city’s default issued in March 2020.

Currently, the city isn’t looking to end the maintenance contract with RTG, but it’s building a case against the consortium if it needs to consider termination of the agreement in the future.

The court battle is a window into their public-private partnership. While the city has been more inclined to publicly criticize RTG for maintenance failings, the public hasn’t learned much about what RTG thinks about its client.

Until now.

After telling his side of the story in an affidavit filed earlier this month, Nicolas Truchon, the CEO of RTG, supplied a second affidavit this week, accusing the city of using the two derailments in an attempt “to exert leverage over LRT and extract concessions on matters unrelated to a safe return to service.”

It’s a pattern that started with the launch of the LRT system, Truchon claims.

“I believe the city has done so to (sic) in order to be seen by the public as being ‘tough’ on RTG,” Truchon said in his second affidavit.

The city’s approach, Truchon alleges, “is about short-term political thinking, not long-term city building.”

RTG’s court filings also offer a glimpse into how the consortium is handling not being paid in full as the city holds back funds for poor LRT performance.

According to Truchon, the city’s decision to hold back maintenance payments “has caused considerable financial strain on RTG and its subcontractors.”

“I believe that the city is not paying RTG in large part because they want to be able to say to the public that they have paid nothing to RTG, in line with the expectations clearly stated by members of the in transit commission meetings,” Truchon said

Truchon also accuses the city of hiring consultants on the LRT project to provide cover to city staff and politicians.

He warned the court that a finding of contract default would have “irreparable consequences” that would change the “risk allocation” for the project.

Meanwhile, the head of Rideau Transit Maintenance, which is an RTG affiliate, said the city’s hiring of Philadelphia-based consultant TRA provided little help with a return-to-service plan.

In his own lengthy affidavit, Mario Guerra, the CEO of RTM who’s been seconded from his position as vice-president of rail operations at SNC-Lavalin, said, “TRA micromanaged RTM and Alstom at every step in the process, but provided no real solutions or even guidance as to its expectations for the plan”

Morgan stood up for the city, refusing RTG’s claim that politics have been at the root of the LRT controversies.

In his affidavit, Morgan said he had to address Truchon’s statements because of their “inflammatory nature and to correct the record.”

Morgan pointed out Truchon didn’t join RTG until July 10, 2020, and wasn’t around when the LRT system launched on Sept. 14, 2019. Morgan accused Truchon of counting on incorrect second- and third-hand information.

While Truchon claimed in his first affidavit that the city didn’t consult RTG prior to launching the LRT system, Morgan said RTG issued the “revenue service availability” notice on Aug. 30, 2019, meaning the system, on paper, was technically ready for launch the next day.

It also meant RTG could receive a $202-million milestone payment from the city.

Morgan also criticized observations by Matthew Slade, an EllisDon rail director who was director on the LRT construction. In his first affidavit, Truchon said Slade indicated there was a “political push” to get the LRT system running.

However, Morgan said the claims were “inaccurate” and “disingenuous,” dismissing them as “revisionist history.”

RTG even handed Mayor Jim Watson a ceremonial key suggesting the LRT system was ready for launch, Morgan noted.

RTG complained that it has only received 55 per cent of the scheduled maintenance payments, but Morgan explained the payments are based on LRT performance and RTG hasn’t met the performance requirements under the contract.

And Morgan rejected RTG’s claims that the city is trying to get ahead of the LRT public inquiry, which is scheduled to begin in June.

“The public inquiry is the direct result of the ongoing performance issues with the system which have been caused by RTG’s poor performance of its obligations under the project agreement,” Morgan said in his affidavit.

The city and RTG still need to work together to provide daily LRT service to customers. Their relationship might be at its most critical moment as more residents of the capital region return to their workplaces under loosened COVID-19 restrictions.

RTG spokesperson Helen Bobat said the consortium’s objective was to provide people with a safe and reliable LRT system.

Bobat said, “we believe achieving that objective requires that together, the city and RTG, operate in a true spirit of partnership. Rideau Transit Group will continue to operate in this spirit of partnership.”

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https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...xpose-more-distrust-between-city-and-rtg

[rocketphish]

City wanted oversight of maintenance team reviewing derailment footage, RTM claims

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Mar 16, 2022 • 2 hours ago • 3 minute read

After the September 2021 derailment on the Confederation Line, the city’s contracted LRT maintenance company wanted to see a video recording from the train to better understand what happened.

According to Rideau Transit Maintenance, it wasn’t until a month later that it was able to view the video, but only under the watchful eye of city staff. RTM’s boss says his workers weren’t even allowed to work the controls on the video playback.

The allegations are contained in the affidavit of RTM CEO Mario Guerra, whose observations were filed with court documents this week in response to a city application asking for a judge to recognize a contact default related to two derailments in 2021.

The first derailment happened near Tunney’s Pasture Station on Aug. 8, when a wheel severed from one axle of an out-of-service Alstom Citadis Spirit train. No one was hurt.

The second derailment on Sept. 19 happened near Tremblay Station. About a dozen customers were onboard a train when a gearbox loosened from an under-torqued wheel assembly. There were no injuries. The city closed the entire LRT system until Nov. 12.

In issuing the default notice to RTG after the September derailment, the city said it didn’t have confidence in RTG and the consortium’s maintenance affiliate RTM to manage and respond to the safety incident. The two sides were already at odds over a city-issued default notice in March 2020.

An erosion of trust in the LRT public-private partnership is one theme that has emerged in the court filings.

In his affidavit, Guerra chronicles RTM’s work trying to view city-held video from front-facing train cameras after the September derailment. RTM has direct access to the station cameras, but not to the train cameras.

“Because RTM is better positioned than the city in terms of technical expertise in rail, there are issues that RTM or Alstom technicians may identify from this footage that the city would not,” Guerra said in his affidavit. “Additionally, since RTM was being delayed in its other inspection work, this was one of the few things we could do to start the inspection process.”

Guerra said the city had been “content” with providing video after previous requests, but it was a different story after the September derailment.

According to Guerra, the city initially delivered the video on a USB device. That USB device was sitting on the desk of RTM’s maintenance director when a city rail staffer saw it and took it, saying RTM shouldn’t have access to it without city supervision, Guerra’s affidavit said.

Guerra said the city required RTM to fill out a “master video request” form and the company submitted the document on Sept. 21.

It wasn’t until the afternoon of Oct. 20 that RTM and Alstom, which is RTM’s main subcontractor, were granted an opportunity to view the video, but only with a city staffer operating the controls, according to Guerra, who said the viewing sessions were longer than they should have been.

According to Guerra’s affidavit, “any time the city reviewer arrived at a part of the footage where a person’s face was visible on camera, they would stop or fast-forward the video, citing privacy concerns.”

The city’s video playback didn’t have the ability to slow the images down frame-by-frame, which is a feature of RTM’s technology, Guerra said.

RTM also wasn’t allowed to interview the OC Transpo operator of the train and only received a statement from the operator, Guerra said.

Guerra offered the story in his affidavit as he recalled the ways the city, in the eyes of RTM, delayed re-opening the LRT system.

However, the city said often during the temporary shutdown last fall that it was unwilling to reopen the LRT system until management was satisfied it was safe to do so after an assessment by expert consultants.

The city remains uncertain about the ability of RTG and RTM to adequately maintain the Confederation Line.

In his own affidavit filed in court this week, city rail construction director Michael Morgan rejected claims by RTG and RTM that the city’s court application was fuelled by political pressure.

Morgan said RTG’s performance had been poor through the maintenance term, which is not even three years into a 30-year deal.

None of the allegations in the affidavits have been tested in front of a judge. Hearing dates haven’t been scheduled.

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https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...-reviewing-derailment-footage-rtm-claims

[rocketphish]

LRT watchdog finds partial conformance in maintenance firm's safety and emergency plans

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Mar 21, 2022 • 55 minutes ago • 3 minute read

Ottawa’s LRT regulatory watchdog has found that Rideau Transit Maintenance didn’t completely conform to contract requirements for a safety management system, something another city consultant flagged during the shutdown of the Confederation Line last fall.

Sam Berrada, the city’s independent LRT regulatory monitor and compliance officer, also found needed improvement when it came to RTM’s emergency management processes, according to his 2021 annual report released publicly on Monday.

The city is the regulator of the LRT system through an agreement with the federal government. To do the work of regulatory oversight, the city retained Berrada in 2018. His job isn’t to assess how well the LRT system is running; it’s about whether the city and contractor have proper procedures in place, with the documents to prove it.

As part of his annual work, Berrada set out to review two areas in 2021 for Transpo and LRT contractors: safety management systems and emergency management.

In his report, Berrada describes a safety management system as a “systematic way to continuously identify and monitor hazards and control risks.”

The safety management system was a major focus of Transportation Resource Associates (TRA) when the Philadelphia-based firm was hired by the city to review RTM’s back-to-service plan. The city closed the LRT system after a derailment last September and relied on TRA’s advice to determine when to re-start the LRT system.

In recent court filings for a legal dispute between Rideau Transit Group and the city, RTM chief executive officer Mario Guerra was critical of TRA and the city’s “obsession” and “fixation” with the safety management system in the context of quickly getting the LRT system running again.

TRA and the city insisted on RTM “overhauling” the plan with little guidance on what TRA wanted changed, Guerra said in an affidavit.

(Rideau Transit Group has subcontracted the 30-year LRT maintenance agreement to its affiliate RTM. The main subcontractor for RTM is Alstom.)

Berrada assessed 18 areas related to RTM’s safety management system and found 10 to be in full conformance with the LRT contract. Six areas were mostly in conformance and two areas were in partial conformance.

According to Berrada’s analysis, RTM and Alstom had a plan focused heavily on occupational safety, but not broadly on operational safety.

Out of the 18 compliance checks on Transpo’s safety management system, the municipal transit agency was found fully compliant on 17 and found mostly compliant on one.

The one outlier was related to Transpo’s oversight of the contractor. Because there were “gaps” identified in RTM’s safety management system, Transpo’s evaluation took a small hit when it came to its own monitoring of RTM’s plan.

Transpo general manager Renée Amilcar’s business plan for 2022 talks about increasing resources for overseeing the LRT maintenance contract.

When it came to RTM’s emergency management process, Berrada found four out of 10 areas were in full conformance with the contract. Four other areas mostly conformed with the contract and two areas partially conformed.

In his report, Berrada says “a formal Emergency Response Plan was not available at the time the monitoring started,” though he noted some aspects were in place, like a fire safety plan for the maintenance and storage facility. He also called for RTM to have stronger training material.

Transpo had nine of 10 areas in full compliance for emergency management, but again, the one mostly compliant area related to its oversight of RTM’s emergency management.

Berrada’s regulatory and compliance work for 2021 had a budget of $231,876, but the actual cost was $158,078, according to his report.

The transit commission is scheduled to receive Berrada’s report during a regular meeting on March 30.

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https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...tenance-firms-safety-and-emergency-plans

[rocketphish]

LRT builders countersuing City of Ottawa for $225M over delay dispute
Confederation Line builders say city’s claims on costs ‘exaggerated’, not RTG’s responsibility

Joanne Chianello · CBC News
Posted: Apr 21, 2022 9:29 PM ET | Last Updated: 10 hours ago

The consortium that built the Confederation Line hit the city with a $225-million countersuit, arguing that under its contract with the city, the builders are not responsible for the 15-month delay to finish the LRT line.

It's just the latest salvo in the escalating — and complex — legal battle between the city and the Rideau Transit Group (RTG) that designed, built and are maintaining the 12.5-kilometre light rail system.

According to the contract, the LRT was supposed to be handed over to the city on May 24, 2018, but that didn't happen until Aug. 31, 2019.

Last May, the city sued RTG for $131 million for so-called soft costs it says it incurred due to the 2016 Rideau Street sinkhole. The city claimed those expenses were due to extra carrying costs, delayed opening expenses, consultant expenditures, wages and salaries of employees, financial costs and accounting expenses.

The city's also suing its insurance companies since they denied the city's claim for losses related to the sinkhole — a separate court case altogether. That suit is also seeking $131 million.

RTG is arguing that the city is attempting a "double recovery" by suing both parties for the same alleged costs.

(To add more complexity, RTG is also suing the insurers for what it says are its own costs due to the sinkhole.)

Now, RTG is arguing that the court should dismiss the city's claim against it and is countersuing for $225 million in damages, plus additional costs like interest.

According to the consortium's statement of defence and counterclaim to Ontario Superior Court dated April 5, RTG says the "damages claimed by the city are excessive, exaggerated and remote."

And more to the point, says RTG, any costs the city may have incurred were either the city's own fault or not the responsibility of the companies, according to the statement.

RTG's arguments in the countersuit include:

• that any delays caused by the Rideau Street sinkhole are an "excusable delay" under the contract
• that the city was 10 months late approving the design book for the French-made Alstom train, which in turn delayed the production of the trains
• that the city did not accept RTG's application that the Confederation Line was substantially complete on April 29, 2019, incorrectly alleging that the trains were "deficient". The suit quotes comments that former OC Transpo boss John Manconi made to council members on May 9, 2019 where he said, among other things, that there were "minor issues" remaining with the trains.

RTG argues that the city's entire claim related to delays, and that the contract — or project agreement — caps delay-related penalties at $1 million for each missed deadline.

The $225 million countersuit includes a claim for RTG to recoup the $31 million it says the city "unlawfully withheld" when it paid its final bill to RTG.

This particular legal battle between RTG and the city is specifically about disputes over the design and construction of the Confederation Line, the city's rail director Michael Morgan clarified in a memo to council Thursday evening.

The heated disagreement over how well the trains have worked since the Confederation Line opened in September 2019 and the maintenance problems since are an entirely separate fight.

Councillors are scheduled to get a closed-door legal update at the finance and economic development committee next Friday.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/lrt-builders-countersue-city-225m-1.6427053

[rocketphish]

Independent LRT assessment comes with recommendations for safeguarding city's $2.2B asset
In its report, released Friday, Mott MacDonald agreed that Rideau Transit Group exceeded the contract-permitted "failure points" that led to the city issuing two notices of default.

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Apr 29, 2022 • 1 hour ago • 3 minute read

An independent review of the Confederation Line has provided more proof to the City of Ottawa that its LRT contractor needs to improve its maintenance program, especially as ridership picks up speed.

In the most comprehensive review of the LRT system released publicly to date, global engineering firm Mott MacDonald made nearly 100 recommendations on how to improve the $2.2-billion rail system and safeguard the municipal asset for the long term.

The city released the roughly 290-page report on Friday, satisfying an order from council last October to make the document public.

Mott MacDonald was retained by the city’s external lawyers to review parts of the LRT system, including the trains, tracks, overhead wire system and the maintenance facility on Belfast Road.

The city has been in legal disputes with the Rideau Transit Group over two notice of defaults, one of which was issued on Sept. 24, 2021, after two derailments in the summer, and another issued by the city on March 10, 2020, after a lengthy period of unreliable LRT service. The most recent notice of default prompted the city to ask a judge to confirm the city’s position.

In its report, Mott MacDonald agreed that RTG exceeded the contract-permitted “failure points” that led to the city issuing both notices of default.

One analysis of deferred maintenance by Mott MacDonald exposed a backlog of work that more than doubled between January 2020 and January 2021. Up-to-date data were still outstanding at the time of the report’s release.

According to the report, the backlog “indicates a maintenance system which appears to not be controlling and managing maintenance tasks, including corrective and preventative maintenance tasks.” Mott MacDonald warned that, once ridership picks up coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for vehicles will put more stress on maintenance requirements.

The backlog itself should be the subject of its own root-cause independent review, the report said.

A rectification plan presented by RTG after the March 2020 notice of default would help the LRT system’s reliability, the report said.

The report said the consultant “cannot definitely confirm our findings related to all issues noted” because of the time it has taken to receive information. Many information requests to RTG were outstanding at the time of the report’s release.

In a separate memo to council on Friday, city rail construction director Michael Morgan said several improvements were complete, stemming from the rectification plan.

However, Morgan also noted that several areas identified by Mott MacDonald still need to be addressed, such as upgrades to auxiliary power units, track performance during high ambient temperatures, wheel-to-rail interface issues, upgrades to platform-edge cameras (whistle-blowing spotters are still in the stations), passenger counting and the station screens showing the next train arrivals.

Morgan told council there needed to be organizational and process changes to improve the oversight of LRT maintenance. The city has repeated the message for nearly the entire operational life of the LRT system, which opened in September 2019.

The city has made moves to improve its own oversight, with OC Transpo hiring a new chief safety officer and currently hunting for a director of engineering services, which is a new position.

LRT performance has been decent so far in 2022. Data presented to the transit commission showed that the LRT system delivered 99 per cent of scheduled service in March and had been matching that rate in April.

The Mott MacDonald report could draw interest from a provincial inquiry commission, which has been assembling records in preparation for hearings on the Ottawa LRT program. The inquiry will have public meetings in May before launching hearings in June.

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https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...ations-for-safeguarding-citys-2-2b-asset

[rocketphish]

City wants unfair leverage over RTG for the rest of their business partnership, company claims
RTG wants the court to stay the city's application because the company believes the dispute should first be handled by an adjudication process.

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
May 31, 2022 • 2 hours ago • 2 minute read

The City of Ottawa wants to unfairly keep the Rideau Transit Group under a constant threat of being turfed from the LRT maintenance job, the company claims in new court filings.

According to RTG’s written arguments filed Tuesday, the company believes the city is trying to skirt the dispute resolution process in their LRT contract as a way to push, and leave, the company on the ropes during their public-private partnership.

“(The city) is requesting this Court’s confirmation of the default, not because it intends to terminate, but because it wants leverage against RTG for the remainder of RTG’s term. This Court should suborn this conduct,” RTG’s factum says.

In December, the city filed an application asking the court to declare a default under the LRT contract based on two derailments in 2021.

In its own court filings, the city has accused RTG and its affiliate Rideau Transit Maintenance, which is responsible for Confederation Line upkeep, of performing their jobs poorly.

RTG wants the court to stay the city’s application because the company believes the dispute should first be handled by an adjudication process.

The company claims the city trying to get a court decision before going through the dispute process in the contract is “unique” for the industry.

According to RTG’s factum, “no public authority has taken the brazen position that it is entitled to skip a mandatory step in the (dispute process) unilaterally and proceed directly to court.”

The company accuses the city of acting “for tactical and political reasons.”

A judge has not yet tested the allegations made by RTG and the city in their respective court filings.

The legal dispute between the city and RTG is happening as the provincial LRT inquiry commission is poised to begin hearings in mid-June.

The Ontario Progressive Conservative government ordered the inquiry in December and appointed Justice William Hourigan as inquiry commissioner. The commission, which is looking into the technical and procurement circumstances of Stage 1 LRT, has so far identified 40 witnesses who will provide testimony in the open hearings.

RTG has accused the city of filing the court application as a way to get out in front of the inquiry. The city has rejected RTG’s allegation, saying the inquiry is happening because of RTG’s inability to properly maintain the LRT system.

RTG, which is a partnership of ACS Infrastructure, EllisDon and SNC-Lavalin, is also fighting with the city over costs related to construction delays.

The $2.2-billion Stage 1 LRT system launched in September 2019. RTG is contracted to maintain the electric rail system for 30 years.

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https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...heir-business-partnership-company-claims

[lrt's friend]

Predictable finger pointing.

[rocketphish]

LRT boasts of 99 per cent reliability since winter breakdown; new card readers coming
The only significant disruption occurred after a derecho storm in May, which knocked out power to much of the region

Staff Reporter, Ottawa Citizen
Jun 15, 2022 • 47 minutes ago • 1 minute read



While a provincial commission continued to dissect what went wrong with the design, construction and operations of Ottawa’s LRT Wednesday, city transit officials were bragging about the system’s recent run of reliability.

The Confederation Line has had 99-per-cent reliability for the past three months, members of the Transit Commission were told at their monthly meeting. The only significant disruption to service occurred after the May 21 derecho wind storm, which knocked out power to much of the region.

The longest shutdown prior to the derecho occurred in late January when extreme cold caused a clamp to shift on the overhead catenary that feeds power to the Confederation Line.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Transit Commission chair Allan Hubley deflected a question about the LRT Commission’s work and allegations that the city wanted to rush the LRT into service before it was ready.

“With respect to what’s going on with the inquiry, I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to comment on anything right now,” Hubley said.

In other developments, riders will soon be able to pay their fare with a credit card when boarding buses. OC Transpo is gradually phasing in new card readers to replace the green Presto card readers now installed on buses. The new red readers will accept payment from Visa and Mastercard along with the existing Presto cards. Users can also scan the bar codes or QR codes from transfers or special event tickets.

OC Transpo general manager Renée Amilcar said the conversion should be complete by the end of the year. Travellers on the O-Train already have the option to pay by credit card if boarding at one of the 13 Confederation Line stations.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...winter-breakdown-new-card-readers-coming

[silvergate]

Commuted to the office for the first time in a long time and finally got to use the train! It was very lightly populated even at rush hour. Really smooth sailing and the bike infrastructure around Tunneys was pretty nice

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by acottawa

But also the city consistently disregarded the advice they were given. They held consultations with industry early in the process. The consistent advice they got was light metro, which they could have just bought off the shelf. Instead they insisted on using trams, which meant they needed a heavily customized product, which led to needless expense and delays.

Yep. I actually attended one of the public consultations very early on. The Kinkishariyo rep was actually first out of the gate to argue that the levels of traffic Ottawa was proposing and the size of vOttawa, made a small metro much more appropriate. He got pushback from some politicians there and some of the audience who thought it was too much for Ottawa.

For whatever reason, people just could not imagine that Ottawa could have a metro. We could have had something like REM with enclosed stations for maybe just a few percent more.

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6491731

[bartlebooth]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Yep. I actually attended one of the public consultations very early on. The Kinkishariyo rep was actually first out of the gate to argue that the levels of traffic Ottawa was proposing and the size of vOttawa, made a small metro much more appropriate. He got pushback from some politicians there and some of the audience who thought it was too much for Ottawa.

For whatever reason, people just could not imagine that Ottawa could have a metro. We could have had something like REM with enclosed stations for maybe just a few percent more.

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6491731

Do you know why the city insisted on trams instead of metro? Was it really a lack of imagination, was it a cost thing, or was it both? Enclosed stations sounds appealing. Too bad.