DEADLINE MISSED AGAIN
Still no delivery for Ottawa’s LRT system
The Rideau Transit Group missed a fourth deadline Friday to hand over a completed $2.1-billion LRT system to the City of Ottawa, but Mayor Jim Watson believes the Confederation Line will be ready within days.
“While the handover won’t take place today, I feel very confident that it will take place later next week,” Watson said Friday.
The mayor plans to lead a briefing next week for council and reporters to get details about the testing process and the handover. The date of the briefing hasn’t been announced.
“And we’ll also be able to take a train ride,” Watson said, “and we’ll be able to announce the specific date in September when the public will finally have access to these amazing vehicles and this system that will be a game-changer for our city.”
RTG achieved the “substantial completion” milestone on July 27. Two days later, the consortium started a 12-consecutive-day trial run of the LRT system, something that’s required under the contract before a handover can happen.
The trial has lasted 19 days as of Friday.
The Aug. 16 “revenue service availability,” which is the handover language in the contract, was announced on July 10.
On Friday, Watson said there was a “general consensus” from RTG, the city and the project’s independent certifier that they couldn’t sign off revenue service availability. All three parties have been overseeing the trial running and it’s ultimately up to the certifier to say if RTG has met the handover requirements.
Every missed handover deadline comes with a $1-million penalty for RTG. The consortium missed Friday’s handover, so that means the city can add the penalty to the ones applied to previous missed handovers on May 24, 2018, Nov. 2, 2018 and March 31, 2019.
Watson said there aren’t major problems holding up the LRT handover, although the city hasn’t disclosed exactly what has prevented RTG from achieving revenue service availability.
If the mayor is right and the city receives the LRT system next week, OC Transpo will need up to four weeks to prepare the 13-station, 12.5-kilometre rail line for the public in September.
Even when the city receives the LRT system, there will be outstanding questions about how it will operate.
For example, the trains haven’t been loaded with people to replicate real-life transit scenarios, with customers navigating crowded stations at rush hours and transferring between LRT and buses.
There are still questions about how the Confederation Line will handle Ottawa’s winter. For example, the city was still noticing problems with rail switch heaters last winter. Switches guide trains between sets of tracks and heavy snow can impact their performance.
RTG’s maintenance program during heavy snow and ice will involve running trains without passengers overnight to keep the tracks and overhead wires clear.
Watson said he’s “very confident” the LRT system will work in winter, largely because the maintenance affiliate of RTG has a 30-year contract to make sure the rail system is working in all seasons. He added that the Alstom trains operate in other international cities with winter climates. The Alstom Citadis Spirit trains were specifically designed for the City of Ottawa.
The current trial-run program is testing all elements of the LRT system, including the service frequencies expected by the city. At rush hours, 15 double-car trains should be arriving at stations every five minutes or less. There are also requirements for the system to be functioning when only one set of tracks are available between stations because of unexpected maintenance.
As of Friday, the LRT system was 450 days late, going back to the first handover date in the contract, May 24, 2018.
Watson said he understands why residents are anxious for their new transit line to open.
“I think there still is a very high level of excitement that people do want this system and they want the system to work well,” Watson said. “My goal continues to be, whatever system is handed over to us is as flawless as possible.”
The first phase of the Confederation Line will run between Tunney’s Pasture Station and Blair Station via a 2.5-kilometre downtown tunnel.
City council awarded the construction contract to RTG in December 2012. RTG’s main corporate partners are ACS Infrastructure, EllisDon and SNC-Lavalin.