How to fix the LRT's wheel-rail interface? Greasing the rails might help, city sub-commitee hears
Blair Crawford, Ottawa Citizen
Published Apr 28, 2023 • Last updated 33 minutes ago • 3 minute read
The impact of Justice William Hourigan’s scathing report into faults with the construction and maintenance of the Confederation Line will be felt across all city operations, says the city’s acting general manager, Wendy Stephanson.
“The public inquiry gave us a road map on what needs to be addressed in the light rail project,” Stephanson told councillors on the LRT sub-committee Friday morning.
“I want to assure you that we are listening. We are actively making changes to ensure transparency and accountability to help regain that public trust. We are using the recommendations to influence areas outside the LRT project. We are putting a city-wide lens on this.”
Former city manager Steve Kanellakos was singled out for criticism by Hourigan, who found “persistent failures in leadership, partnership and communications” during construction of the $2.1 billion Confederation Line. Kanellakos quit two days before the report’s release.
Stephanson said the city accepts all 103 of Hourigan’s recommendations (though not all were addressed to the city) and is taking steps to strengthen “transparency and accountability” —both to councillors and the public.
The full city response, laid out last week at a technical briefing and delivered in exhaustive detail to the LRT sub-committee Friday, tackles everything from how the city will approach P3s (public private partnerships) to wonkish topics such as “Risk management in procurement policies” and “creating an effective contract scheme.”
But it was the LRT’s technical problems that have led to derailments and delays that drew most attention from councillors. They were eager to know how and when a permanent fix will be found to problems with the LRT’s wheel-rail interface.
The answer may lie, in part, to an old cliché: greasing the rails.
Greasing the rails — aka “applying a friction modifier” or “top rail lubrication” — is one of the solutions proposed to help reduce wear and tear on the LRT’s beleaguered wheels.
“It may help, but it’s not the sole solution,” the city’s director of engineering services Richard Holder told the sub-committee.
Regrinding the rails and the continuing temporary speed reductions at sharp curves in the track are still just temporary fixes to the problem of “catastrophic” failures of the Alstom train’s wheel-axle assemblies. Holder conceded a complete redesign of the assembly might be needed.
“We just need to go through the process,” he told reporters after the meeting. “It is frustrating for staff and RTM and, I’m sure, for the travelling public about the time it’s taking, but there is a sequential methodical approach being applied and it just takes time for each of these to feed into a very robust solution that will come in the future.”
Hourigan’s report also mentioned the difficulty finding trained technical workers in Ottawa to build and maintain the train. Staffing continues to be an issue for Rideau Transit Group as it competes for workers with other LRT projects in Canada.
“Ottawa doesn’t have the strong train-based skills as compared to other jurisdictions,” said Nicolas Truchon, RTG’s CEO. “There’s a limited pool with rail experience available. The challenge that we have, as with any other industry, is there are other projects out there that are competing for talent.”
Friday’s briefing came just hours before the Confederation Line tunnel closes for the weekend to allow workers to seek solutions to water seepage that could cause longterm damage to the tunnel. R1 buses will run between Parliament Station and Hurdman station over the weekend, with full service resuming Monday morning.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-new...rails-might-help-city-sub-commitee-hears
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