Too many cooks spoil the broth and too many politicians spoil transit.
But there is one quote that leaves me puzzled:
The city chose an Alstom train with unproven technology that strained the limits of what an LRT system could do.
Light rail is anything but unproven, as it has been around in one form or another for about 125 years. The Citidis light rail vehicle family, which saw the first vehicles operate in 2006, now has well over 1,800 vehicles in operation in over 67 cities around the world! Also, the system is not LRT at all, rather a light-metro, with fully automatic operation, which as been around since the late 1960’s! There is nothing unproven at all.
Some historical context.
In September 2009, the City of Ottawa paid Siemens Canada Limited, PCL Constructors Canada Inc., Ottawa LRT Corp. and St. Lawrence Cement Inc. the sum of $36,718,500.00 in order to settle their lawsuit for the wrongful termination of a contract for the design, construction and maintenance of a light rail transit system in Ottawa.
The project consisted of 27 kms of electrified track, 21 specially designed and built vehicles, associated mechanical and electrical equipment and various buildings. Construction was to begin on October 15, 2006. The project was a public-private partnership between the Province of Ontario and the Government of Canada each agreeing to contribute $200 million in funding.
In October 2006, the Government of Canada announced that its funding contribution was conditional upon receiving a notice of support for the project from the newly elected City Council following the November 2006 municipal election. Following the municipal election, the newly elected council voted to change the scope of the project. The Federal and Provincial governments would not guarantee funding for the changed scope. In response, Ottawa terminated the contract on the basis that the condition precedent of funding from Provincial and Federal government had not been satisfied. The Project Agreement had limitation of liability clauses which purported to cap the plaintiff’s recovery at $2 million.
In June 2007, the plaintiffs commenced an action in Superior Court in Brampton, alleging fundamental breach and breach of the obligation to perform the Project Agreement in good faith. Brampton is the jurisdiction in which the lead plaintiffs were headquartered. In September 2008, the City of Ottawa’s motion for a change of venue from Brampton to Ottawa was dismissed. In September 2009 a settlement of the action was reached on the basis of a payment of $36, 718,500.00. Siemens Canada Limited, PCL Constructors and the Ottawa LRT Corp. were represented by McCarthy Tétrault LLP, Dean Novak, Siemens Canada Limited’s Assistant General Counsel, and Douglas Stollery, Q.C. General Counsel of PCL Constructors.
That’s right, Siemens was going to build a 27 km LRT system for $1 billion and a change of government changed it to a $2.1 billion 12.5 km light metro, using the proven
Alstom Citidis tram.
In the end, what did the inquiry do, except fuel the anti-LRT crowd (who do not know what LRT is) and ruin politcal careers. Will the inquiry improve the delivery of future transit projects or hinder, only time will tell.
‘Egregious violations of public trust': LRT rushed into service, commission finds
‘Deliberate malfeasance is unacceptable in a public project,’ Justice William Hourigan writes in final report
The Ottawa Light Rail Transit Public Inquiry has released its final report into the city’s problem-plagued LRT network, making more than 100 recommendations on how to repair ‘egregious violations of public trust.’ (Stu Mills/CBC)
Both city officials and the companies that built Ottawa’s troubled Confederation Line made “egregious” errors during the construction and testing of the $2.1-billion LRT — errors that raise questions about whether the city is fit to oversee such massive infrastructure projects, according to the final report from the Ottawa Light Rail Transit Public Inquiry.
The city and Rideau Transit Group (RTG), which includes SNC-Lavalin, ACS Infrastructure and Ellis Don, lost sight of the public interest in their race to finish the LRT, which was late by more than 15 months, according to the report.
It’s clear the Confederation Line “was rushed into service” by RTG, which was under financial pressure due to construction delays and political pressure from the city, says the report.
Justice William Hourigan, the inquiry’s commissioner, released his 664-page report, complete with 103 recommendations for how to prevent similar issues in the future, on Wednesday morning.
It’s the culmination of almost a year’s work by the commission, which received a million documents, interviewed more than 90 witnesses and heard from more than 40 of them during 19 days of public hearings this past summer.
In his conclusion, Hourigan wrote: “While human errors are understandable and expected, deliberate malfeasance is unacceptable in a public project. When participants deliberately mislead the public regarding the status of a public undertaking, they violate a fundamental obligation that underlies all public endeavours.”
Since its September 2019 launch, the Confederation Line has been hampered by a litany of problems: malfunctioning doors, flattened and cracked wheels, faulty overhead power lines and broken axles, to name just a few.
Hourigan said there were many issues that led to the wide array of problems, including a pair of derailments last year — one near Tremblay station shut down LRT for nearly two months.
However, he singled out two instances in the project “that stand out as egregious violations of public trust.”
Misleading timelines ‘unconscionable’
He blasted RTG and its construction arm, OLRT-C, for repeatedly giving the city completion dates that it knew were “entirely unrealistic.”
“It was unconscionable that RTG and its main sub-contractor knowingly gave the City inaccurate information about when they would finish building the LRT,” Hourigan wrote in his report, adding that the gambit failed on a commercial level and further strained RTG’s already tense relationship with the city.
Worse, said Hourigan, is that the public suffered from the repeated misinformation.
“The leadership at RTG and OLRT-C seemed to have given no thought to the fact that the provision of this misinformation adversely impacted the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of people. The people of Ottawa trusted RTG and OLRT-C to be straight with the City and tell them honestly when the system would be ready.
“The Commission finds that RTG and OLRT-C betrayed that trust,” he wrote.
In a statement sent Wednesday night, RTG acknowledged the group and its subcontractors “have work to do to restore the public’s confidence” in the LRT.
RTG said it’s committed to working together with new Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, council and staff to address the issues raised.
“We have listened, engaged in, and taken this process very seriously,” reads the RTG statement.
Harsh words for former mayor, manager
Hourigan also had harsh words for both former city manager Steve Kanellakos, who resigned Monday, and former mayor Jim Watson for withholding information from the rest of council about the final testing phase of the Confederation Line, known as the trial running.
Council wasn’t told that the testing criteria for the LRT had been lowered to allow it to pass its final testing phase.
“This conduct irreparably compromised the legal oversight ability of Council and raises serious concerns about whether the City of Ottawa can properly complete significant infrastructure projects,” Hourigan wrote.
It also “prevented councillors from fulfilling their statutory duties to the people of Ottawa. Moreover, it is part of a concerning approach taken by senior City officials to control the narrative by the nondisclosure of vital information or outright misrepresentation,” he found.
“Worse, because the conduct was wilful and deliberate, it leads to serious concerns about the good faith of senior City staff and raises questions about where their loyalties lie.
“It is difficult to imagine the successful completion of any significant project while these attitudes prevail within the municipal government.”
He added there is no reason to believe the conduct during the trial running was an “aberration or that transparency has improved within the city.”
A litany of problems
Hourigan found that the Confederation Line’ problems were a consequence of myriad factors. Those include:
The city chose an Alstom train with unproven technology that strained the limits of what an LRT system could do.
RTG did not coordinate the work of its subcontractors and failed to ensure the integration of the various systems and components.
The relationship between the city and RTG became too adversarial, and Ottawa residents “face the spectre of a largely dysfunctional partnership operating and maintaining its light rail system for decades.”
The City rushed the LRT system into service before it was ready, largely due to political and public pressure.
RTG and its subcontractors did not provide adequate maintenance.
The recommendations also include that an independent monitor keep city council and the transit commission informed about ongoing changes and issues.
Hourigan also recommends that all levels of government examine whether a public-private-partnership (P3) contract model, used here for the first time ever in a transit project in Ontario, is appropriate.
Caution tape is strung up next to the site of an LRT train derailment on Ottawa’s Confederation Line on Sept. 19, 2021. A pair of major derailments last year contributed to the province’s decision to call a public inquiry. (Nicholas Cleroux/Radio-Canada)
Failure to collaborate
At a news conference Wednesday morning, Hourigan and the inquiry’s lawyers hammered home a key theme: that the city and RTG failed to work collaboratively, to the detriment of both the project and the residents of Ottawa.
“The people who live in this city, who visit it, deserve to have confidence that the LRT system is safe and that it will get them to where they need to go, on time, reliably, every time they get on the train,” said co-lead counsel Kate McGrann.
“People and entities engaged in public infrastructure projects like this must always, always always keep that public interest at the forefront of everything they do,” she said. “And that, as a guiding principle, was lacking at times — very key times — in this project.”
Provincial taxpayers deserve accountability for their money.
- Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney
McGrann said it was the commission’s hope that the 103 recommendations would not just ensure the existing LRT network runs smoothly, but also guide the line’s Stage 2 expansions.
The commission’s lawyers also criticized the city’s daily recaps, which were sent out during the 19 days of testimony, saying it was something they’d never seen before at a public inquiry.
“We need to return to accountability and transparency with the City of Ottawa, rather than information control and spin,” said co-lead counsel John Adair.
In a statement, Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney said the province would review the findings closely over the next few days.
“As a funding partner, provincial taxpayers deserve accountability for their money,” wrote Mulroney. “We will continue making sure that Ontario taxpayers and transit riders get the best value for their money possible.”
Both the PCs and the previous Liberal government invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the design and construction of both stages of the LRT network, as did the federal government.
Sutcliffe also vowed to improve transparency with city council and the finance and economic development committee when it came to providing updates on the Confederation Line’s performance.
“I came into this job with fresh eyes and an open mind on how best to get the LRT system back on track,” said Sutcliffe, who was elected mayor in October after Watson chose not to run.
This is why LRT is bad. Skytrain is so much faster and better. The skytrain lines recreate the former interuban lines of central park and burnaby lake. Canada line should be extended to Steveston to recreate the old lulu island line.
Zwei replies: you haven’t a clue what you are talking about. Ottawa sent a delegation to Vancouver to compare the MALM system with light rail and found MALM was much more expensive to build, more expensive to maintain and operate; has less capacity and is not very user friendly. By the way MALM has a very poor operating record in the snow and do not forget when the Expo Line first opened in Vancouver BC Transit and the UTDC spent a year working out the bugs.
As for speed, faster commercial speeds = fewer stations which means longer door to door journeys.
You illustrate very well how ignorant the Sky?Train lobby is.
We still shake our heads at how entrenched your SkyTrain lot is.
Years ago, the UTDC had a tentative contract for a light metro system in Milan, but the vehicles did not meet the rigorous EEC safety protocols. It was found that the cars were rather flimsy and being small, meant they were not designed with the transit customer in mind. The final straw was that the pre production order cars had no end doors for through communication, which meant major safety issues. The order was cancelled in favour of VAL, which we thought was a mistake as well, as modern trams had a greater capacity and were cheaper to operate.
I believe the cars designed for Milan operate in Vancouver and can be recognized as being “blind” at the end.
The notion that many still believe that your SkyTrain is better than a tram seem to ignore that no one wants the damned thing. LIM powered trains is a yesterdays model for transit as today, the more flexible the transit system the better it is and with your proprietary railway means nil flexibility!
There are presently several German cities planning to replace their stand alone metros by purchasing modern trams that can operate universally on the region rail grid.
Lots of people like the skytrain. It is a fast way to travel. The Canada line reduced the travel time to richmond centre from over 1 hour to 25 mins. There is plans to add three new stations, 1 in richmond that is under construction and two more in Vancouver (Langara & QE Park). Each new station will add 1 minute of travel time. It also reduce travel time to White rock. Recently I took the bus/train to whiterock and it took just over 1 hour. Before the canada line was built, it was almost 2 hours. Trains are a big improvement over buses. The new tunnel on highway 99 will have bus lanes to increase travel times. Not part of the skytrain lobby. Just a regular user of all three Skytrain lines.
Zwei replies: The fact is, a lot more people do not like it and the empty bus seats to South Delta/Surrey is testement to that.
Again, the actual travel times using the Canada Line increased (you forgot to include transfer times, which can be up to 10 minutes) and again for many using the car is just faster for trips other than to the downtown core.
One new station is being built and in fact this station was deferred to save costs as the Canada Line was going over budget. There are other deferred stations but they need to be excavated on the subway section, which is hugely expensive. $100 million each was the last quote I saw.
There are express buses now from South Delta/Surrey, but post Covid they are running almost empty and I would say, the rise of electric cars has dealt a blow to SkyTrain and bus expansion.
For me, I would rather take a direct bus to downtown Vancouver and not Transfer and a lot of potential customers think as I do. the latest stat I have seen is that transit use has dropped considerably in the region with only the heavily used U-Pass routes regaining former ridership.
Don’t confuse an entire rail vehicle type/class with a failures of governance and out of control private companies that, simply ignored the legal operating agreements they helped create, in favor of wanting higher profits because there financial plan was created by banks and bankers, not their own railway operating experts.
LRT works just fine, worldwide it massively outsells anything in the Light Metro category offers, including Bombardier/Alstom’s, MALM Transportation System (Movia Automatic Light Metro Transportation System), known as the Skytrain in Vancouver. It’s the Skytrain’s Gadget Bahn operating systems, the simply wrong assumptions about rail operations that this particular light metro system professes and the LIM propulsion system that almost nobody wants, which has become so unpopular with potential clients that Bombardier, now Alstom, doesn’t offer it as a core part of the product but a potential option for the design (Bombardier couldn’t sell it past the early 2000’s). Once New York bought it for the train to New York’s Kennedy Airport and China’s Shanghai, Airport Authority for Shanghai’s main international airport, not to mention the unmitigated disaster in suburban Seoul Korea line to Everland (a rapid transit line to a popular amusement park), no one has purchased this particular LIM technology.
Only 1 of those 3 projects worked initially. Although the Kennedy Airport Line is now quite popular, locals still want a commuter rail line (Long Island Railroad) and or an MTA subway connection to Kennedy instead. Plus, a similar line to the much improved LaGuardia Airport, which currently has no rail connection and just had its new planned private rail rapid transit line connection cancelled . The whole Kennedy Airport Train project would have collapsed if the Federal government hadn’t stepped in with an emergency Business Development Bank of Canada loan and its project support division. The project’s supporters at Bombardier and SNC Lavlin had no idea how troublesome building anything in New York City actually is.
The Korean government swore after the conclusion of its court case with Bombardier, they would never by this or any other Bombardier product, ever again.
Zwei replies: I just heard on the radio the other day, a newly elected civic politicians claiming that SkyTrain was very popular and many new lines are being built, which I think would be news to Alstom!
This is why LRT is bad. Skytrain is so much faster and better. The skytrain lines recreate the former interuban lines of central park and burnaby lake. Canada line should be extended to Steveston to recreate the old lulu island line.
Zwei replies: you haven’t a clue what you are talking about. Ottawa sent a delegation to Vancouver to compare the MALM system with light rail and found MALM was much more expensive to build, more expensive to maintain and operate; has less capacity and is not very user friendly. By the way MALM has a very poor operating record in the snow and do not forget when the Expo Line first opened in Vancouver BC Transit and the UTDC spent a year working out the bugs.
As for speed, faster commercial speeds = fewer stations which means longer door to door journeys.
You illustrate very well how ignorant the Sky?Train lobby is.
We still shake our heads at how entrenched your SkyTrain lot is.
Years ago, the UTDC had a tentative contract for a light metro system in Milan, but the vehicles did not meet the rigorous EEC safety protocols. It was found that the cars were rather flimsy and being small, meant they were not designed with the transit customer in mind. The final straw was that the pre production order cars had no end doors for through communication, which meant major safety issues. The order was cancelled in favour of VAL, which we thought was a mistake as well, as modern trams had a greater capacity and were cheaper to operate.
I believe the cars designed for Milan operate in Vancouver and can be recognized as being “blind” at the end.
The notion that many still believe that your SkyTrain is better than a tram seem to ignore that no one wants the damned thing. LIM powered trains is a yesterdays model for transit as today, the more flexible the transit system the better it is and with your proprietary railway means nil flexibility!
There are presently several German cities planning to replace their stand alone metros by purchasing modern trams that can operate universally on the region rail grid.
Lots of people like the skytrain. It is a fast way to travel. The Canada line reduced the travel time to richmond centre from over 1 hour to 25 mins. There is plans to add three new stations, 1 in richmond that is under construction and two more in Vancouver (Langara & QE Park). Each new station will add 1 minute of travel time. It also reduce travel time to White rock. Recently I took the bus/train to whiterock and it took just over 1 hour. Before the canada line was built, it was almost 2 hours. Trains are a big improvement over buses. The new tunnel on highway 99 will have bus lanes to increase travel times. Not part of the skytrain lobby. Just a regular user of all three Skytrain lines.
Zwei replies: The fact is, a lot more people do not like it and the empty bus seats to South Delta/Surrey is testement to that.
Again, the actual travel times using the Canada Line increased (you forgot to include transfer times, which can be up to 10 minutes) and again for many using the car is just faster for trips other than to the downtown core.
One new station is being built and in fact this station was deferred to save costs as the Canada Line was going over budget. There are other deferred stations but they need to be excavated on the subway section, which is hugely expensive. $100 million each was the last quote I saw.
There are express buses now from South Delta/Surrey, but post Covid they are running almost empty and I would say, the rise of electric cars has dealt a blow to SkyTrain and bus expansion.
For me, I would rather take a direct bus to downtown Vancouver and not Transfer and a lot of potential customers think as I do. the latest stat I have seen is that transit use has dropped considerably in the region with only the heavily used U-Pass routes regaining former ridership.
Don’t confuse an entire rail vehicle type/class with a failures of governance and out of control private companies that, simply ignored the legal operating agreements they helped create, in favor of wanting higher profits because there financial plan was created by banks and bankers, not their own railway operating experts.
LRT works just fine, worldwide it massively outsells anything in the Light Metro category offers, including Bombardier/Alstom’s, MALM Transportation System (Movia Automatic Light Metro Transportation System), known as the Skytrain in Vancouver. It’s the Skytrain’s Gadget Bahn operating systems, the simply wrong assumptions about rail operations that this particular light metro system professes and the LIM propulsion system that almost nobody wants, which has become so unpopular with potential clients that Bombardier, now Alstom, doesn’t offer it as a core part of the product but a potential option for the design (Bombardier couldn’t sell it past the early 2000’s). Once New York bought it for the train to New York’s Kennedy Airport and China’s Shanghai, Airport Authority for Shanghai’s main international airport, not to mention the unmitigated disaster in suburban Seoul Korea line to Everland (a rapid transit line to a popular amusement park), no one has purchased this particular LIM technology.
Only 1 of those 3 projects worked initially. Although the Kennedy Airport Line is now quite popular, locals still want a commuter rail line (Long Island Railroad) and or an MTA subway connection to Kennedy instead. Plus, a similar line to the much improved LaGuardia Airport, which currently has no rail connection and just had its new planned private rail rapid transit line connection cancelled . The whole Kennedy Airport Train project would have collapsed if the Federal government hadn’t stepped in with an emergency Business Development Bank of Canada loan and its project support division. The project’s supporters at Bombardier and SNC Lavlin had no idea how troublesome building anything in New York City actually is.
The Korean government swore after the conclusion of its court case with Bombardier, they would never by this or any other Bombardier product, ever again.
Zwei replies: I just heard on the radio the other day, a newly elected civic politicians claiming that SkyTrain was very popular and many new lines are being built, which I think would be news to Alstom!