Councillor wants details of LRT’s winter testing
Assurances by NRC don’t match up with real-world performance, he says
An Ottawa councillor is asking to see the full results of cold-weather testing performed on LRT vehicles by the National Research Council.
Keith Egli from Knoxdale-Merivale says councillors have heard a series of general assurances that the Alstom trains passed their testing, but have never heard enough details.
“City council was informed on several occasions by senior staff that the trains currently in use on the LRT system were winter- and cold condition-tested at the NRC laboratories,” Egli wrote in a formal inquiry to city staff.
“Further, council was left with the impression that the testing had gone well and there were positive results regarding winter performance. However, the trains have experienced numerous challenges in winter conditions.”
He has asked what instructions were given to the NRC lab, and what results came from testing.
“It seems to be that this (the test results) is a bit of a missing part here. We’ve all been talking about the city and about the constructor and the maintenance and everything else,” he said in an interview. “But part of the decision-making process, I think, for a lot of councillors, was (that) we were told NRC — which is world-class in this kind of testing — has looked at these trains. They have put them through their paces and they have come back and said: ‘Yup, these are good in the winter.’ ”
But Egli may have trouble getting the information he wants. The Citizen has tried asking about the cold-weather testing, but even using federal and municipal access-to-information laws has not produced any response.
On Jan. 30 we filed an access request with NRC asking for results of the testing. But three weeks later the department responded that a time extension will be required because it has to consult an unnamed “third party.” NRC says its customer is Alstom SA, the train’s manufacturer, making it the likely third party.
The NRC’s media office wrote on Tuesday: “In these circumstances, the details and results of this research and testing are the property of the client, and the decision to release that information rests with them. We suggest you contact Alstom Transport Canada Inc.”
A day later we also asked the City of Ottawa, but its access-to-information office confirmed Tuesday that this request is also held up by consultations with a third party.
The law protects the third party’s name. But many of our access requests dating back to the early days of LRT construction have been stalled for months, and in some cases blocked successfully, by Rideau Transit Group.
Normally governments are supposed to answer access requests in 30 days. But if the request involves information about a private company like Alstom or RTG, the company can make an argument against releasing information.
Even if the city’s access-to-information office then decides it should release the information, RTG or another third party can appeal and launch a multistage process that has no fixed deadline.
Egli doesn’t even know whether city officials have seen the full set of test results from the NRC. It’s possible that RTG or Alstom gave the city its own summary without all the data, he said.
“If we got the thumbs up (i.e. good test results from NRC), then something was wrong with the testing. And if we didn’t get the thumbs up, then we didn’t get the right information when we were deliberating. So either way there is an issue here I think.”
He has now asked to see test results, but also asked for details about what kind of questions NRC was assigned.
For instance, Alstom has advertised that its cars are good in extreme cold. Egli wants to know whether the testing covered other nasty aspects of winter driving, such as performance in salt, blowing snow, freezing rain and ice. He wonders whether testing the train included “interaction with the track system.”
Councillors felt this was independent confirmation that the technology is good, yet the train has faced “challenges,” he said.
We were told NRC — which is world-class in this kind of testing — has looked at these trains.