Confederation Line (Stage 1) | In Service 1.0

[Marshsparrow]

Josh Pringle reported that the firm hired by OC Tranpso to oversee the LRT return to service plan is STV - the former (retired NOT fired) OC Transpo goon John Manconi is a senior VP at this firm. So the idiot who created this mess is being brought in to now fix it at probably 4x his previous salary.

And where is the mayor? Great leadership Mark Sutcliffe...

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Marshsparrow

And where is the mayor? Great leadership Mark Sutcliffe...

Good point. I don't remember seeing him even once since this happened. At least Watson commented every time and participated at the media availability (even though he deliberately withheld information from Council and citizens).

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Good point. I don't remember seeing him even once since this happened. At least Watson commented every time and participated at the media availability (even though he deliberately withheld information from Council and citizens).

Mark Sutcliffe was just interviewed on CFRA. To be fair, he is in a tough spot, but the usual political babble was coming out. The suggestion was made by Graham Richardson that Renée Amilcar does not live in Ottawa full time.

[OCCheetos]

Originally Posted by Marshsparrow

Josh Pringle reported that the firm hired by OC Tranpso to oversee the LRT return to service plan is STV - the former (retired NOT fired) OC Transpo goon John Manconi is a senior VP at this firm. So the idiot who created this mess is being brought in to now fix it at probably 4x his previous salary.

And where is the mayor? Great leadership Mark Sutcliffe...

STV is a very large firm with dozens of VPs. As of now there's no indication that Manconi himself is handling their cases with Ottawa's LRT.

STV's perspective on this particular issue is also in addition to another independent group (TRA). It's bad optics, but at a glance there isn't actually anything blatantly wrong going on here.

[OTownandDown]

Originally Posted by Marshsparrow

Josh Pringle reported that the firm hired by OC Tranpso to oversee the LRT return to service plan is STV - the former (retired NOT fired) OC Transpo goon John Manconi is a senior VP at this firm. So the idiot who created this mess is being brought in to now fix it at probably 4x his previous salary.

And where is the mayor? Great leadership Mark Sutcliffe...

The Mayor's office finally realized that they have such LITTLE input on operations and maintenance of OC Transpo that they've decided to turn off the commentary from that direction, and avoid being tied to the negative public opinion. Which is the correct approach. Amilcar needs to step up with more public sightings and brovado about pushing the team to finish repairs, just to mime to the public that someone has their back.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

Mark Sutcliffe was just interviewed on CFRA. To be fair, he is in a tough spot, but the usual political babble was coming out. The suggestion was made by Graham Richardson that Renée does not live in Ottawa full time.

Didn't know that. In any case, he so far seems like any classic politician. Other than the more balanced leadership roles on Council, and cutting out Hubley, he doesn't seem much different than Watson thus far.

As for Amilcar not living full-time in Ottawa, I don't care much. I'm sure there's a reason for that, family obligations and all. More important what she does to improve transit. That said, I'm not convinced she's done a whole lot up until now.

[Marshsparrow]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Didn't know that. In any case, he so far seems like any classic politician. Other than the more balanced leadership roles on Council, and cutting out Hubley, he doesn't seem much different than Watson thus far.

As for Amilcar not living full-time in Ottawa, I don't care much. I'm sure there's a reason for that, family obligations and all. More important what she does to improve transit. That said, I'm not convinced she's done a whole lot up until now.

Amilcar doesn't live in Ottawa, yet Mark is instrumental in forcing thousands of PS back into the office using a train system the city can't fix... ONLY in Ottawa.

[hwy418]

In my opinion, top City managers need to be available in person 5 days per week so that means at least living here! Isn't that why we pay them?

If she doesn't want to live here, they should find someone else to manage that dumpster fire called OC Transpo. So far she's been very absent.

[Marshsparrow]

Councillor Carr (Alta Vista) this morning left house at 7:30 and arrived at City Hall at 9:18 - could have walked faster. This is a joke.

https://twitter.com/AVmartycarr/status/1612455980146515969

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by hwy418

In my opinion, top City managers need to be available in person 5 days per week so that means at least living here! Isn't that why we pay them?

If she doesn't want to live here, they should find someone else to manage that dumpster fire called OC Transpo. So far she's been very absent.

It's really crazy. Aren't we big enough to hire someone who actually led a similar sized system and is willing to move here? I mean it's obvious why she was hired but making her move her seems like a basic minimum standard. At least maybe she actually takes the LRT From the Via Rail station.

[zzptichka]

She's been on the job for more than a year. Doesn't look like we are moving in the right direction tbh...

[daud]

Graham Richardson really pins Mark Sutcliffe in this part of the interview:

https://twitter.com/CFRAOttawa/status/1612473896262897664?s=20&t=2O7Rbptb7_ifew3RuaEAlQ

Mayor was talking a bit tough-paraphrased excerpt

Mark: we're going to deliver better transit to the people of Ottawa
Graham:are you sure?
Mark:we are going to fix the system but its going to take some time...its not something that can be fixed in 1 or 2 days or even 1 or 2 months...its going to take time
Graham: We're in 4 years, this is the 4th winter. I accepted that argument in 2019, I accepted that. This is the 4th winter

[Fading Isle]

It’s been 6-months since the last derailment (with still no communication whatsoever about what caused it), trains travel at a crawl through a big chunk of the central-east end of the system, we learn that the trains can be rendered completely inoperable for at least 5-days by a small amount of freezing rain, and it also takes 5-days for our new mayor to say anything about our broken transit system (and even then he basically says nothing and appears to be completely passive). It’s all so disheartening.

[Marshsparrow]

Originally Posted by Fading Isle

It’s been 6-months since the last derailment (with still no communication whatsoever about what caused it), trains travel at a crawl through a big chunk of the central-east end of the system, we learn that the trains can be rendered completely inoperable for at least 5-days by a small amount of freezing rain, and it also takes 5-days for our new mayor to say anything about our broken transit system (and even then he basically says nothing and appears to be completely passive). It’s all so disheartening.

At a staggering $2,100,000,000 and growing cost...

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by hwy418

In my opinion, top City managers need to be available in person 5 days per week so that means at least living here! Isn't that why we pay them?

If she doesn't want to live here, they should find someone else to manage that dumpster fire called OC Transpo. So far she's been very absent.

How can we have a transit boss who doesn't live here? How can anybody know the transit needs of the average Ottawan without experiencing Ottawa travel conditions on a daily basis?

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

How can we have a transit boss who doesn't live here? How can anybody know the transit needs of the average Ottawan without experiencing Ottawa travel conditions on a daily basis?

Yeah, this is problematic.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by Marshsparrow

Councillor Carr (Alta Vista) this morning left house at 7:30 and arrived at City Hall at 9:18 - could have walked faster. This is a joke.

https://twitter.com/AVmartycarr/status/1612455980146515969

Wow! Almost 2 hours from an inner suburb.

As I said a few days ago, I refuse to use R1, which means that I refuse to go downtown.

Who will support downtown businesses with a limping downtown transit system?

This is an ongoing bad advertisement for our city centre.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

How can we have a transit boss who doesn't live here? How can anybody know the transit needs of the average Ottawan without experiencing Ottawa travel conditions on a daily basis?

Even when they live in the locale they are in charge of,they wouldn't use the service, so why should they care? Maybe part of the requirement for all municipal politicians is that they must use the transit system for the month of February for all city business they conduct.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by swimmer_spe

Even when they live in the locale they are in charge of,they wouldn't use the service, so why should they care? Maybe part of the requirement for all municipal politicians is that they must use the transit system for the month of February for all city business they conduct.

There has been a tradition of asking councillors to declare that they will use transit one day in February, but that hasn't happened since the pandemic began. One day! Not every councillor has agreed in the past.

[swimmer_spe]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

There has been a tradition of asking councillors to declare that they will use transit one day in February, but that hasn't happened since the pandemic began. One day! Not every councillor has agreed in the past.

It should be part of their mandate.

And one day? It should be at least a week.