Software glitch on trains left Ion passengers guessing
WATERLOO REGION — In October and November, a glitch in the LRT system left too many Ion passengers in the dark about where they were.
An on-board passenger information system faltered, internal records show. Audio announcements went silent on some trains. Electronic displays went dark.
When this happened, passengers were no longer automatically told the station they were at or approaching. The greatest impact was on passengers with poor hearing or eyesight. Service disruptions spiked.
Drivers had to reboot the passenger system to restore it. Typically this reset took up to three minutes while the train was moving between stations. The longest reboot took 48 minutes in November.
Train supplier Bombardier says a software update appears to be fixing the problem. When the system glitches, drivers have the ability to call out stops.
“Bombardier has made improvements but is still in the process of testing and verifying the changes so I am unable to confirm that the problems we were having are entirely fixed,” Thomas Schmidt, transportation commissioner for Waterloo regional government, said by email.
Behind the scenes the fallout lingers, after disruptions reduced the measured performance of the LRT fleet.
Between their launch in June and November, trains travelled 510,864 kilometres in Kitchener and Waterloo and caused 38 disruptions to passenger service, Bombardier says.
That’s typically four service disruptions per month but in October trains caused 21 disruptions as automated announcements faltered.
Bombardier sees stop announcements as “a critical factor in providing the most efficient and comfortable experience” for passengers, spokesperson Kaven Delarosbil said by email. Fixing it is “one of our highest priorities.”
Bombardier says it is working with regional government to reclassify passenger disruptions. This may in turn affect how the performance of 14 trains is measured.
“Doing that could be an option but would be entirely in the context of improving service for our customers,” Schmidt said.
Before October, Bombardier trains were travelling 29,000 kilometres before causing a service failure of five minutes or more. By November this per
formance fell by half to 13,400 kilometres.
This leaves Bombardier some way to go. Trains are expected to travel 24,300 kilometres between service failures by June 2021 as their warranties expire.
By August 2024, trains are expected to travel 35,000 kilometres between service failures. Bombardier says it’s normal for a new LRT fleet to have problems and the company will modify trains to make them more reliable.
“We are confident the processes we use to monitor, analyze and improve reliability will ensure that we meet our commitment,” Delarosbil said.
The October spike in service disruptions dampens Bombardier’s performance benchmark until March. Disruptions fall out of calculations after six months.
Go to this story at therecord.com to monitor the performance of Bombardier trains.