No Root Cause Of O-Train Woes After Four Years
After almost four years, the City of Ottawa and OC Transpo have not been able to determine the root cause of the derailment of the O-Train near Hurdman station.
At a meeting of transit commission on Monday, transit officials responded to a question from Barrhaven West Councillor David Hill, saying that stresses from a number of directions are contributing to unusual wear on wheel bearing and axles.
Transpo says that about 350 axles have been replaced since the derailment in 2021 due to wear problem. The train does not operate at its recommended speed due to safety restrictions.
The stress results from differing loads from a number of factors affecting the trains such as loading passengers. The trains are in the process of receiving new sensors that might identify the nature of the loads on the wheel bearings and the axles. The trains have continued to run despite officials not knowing the root cause of the derailment. Frequent inspections and repairs far above the norm for a typical light-rail vehicle have kept the train running.
OC Transpo could not provide a timeline as to when the axles and wheel bearings would run properly.
Transpo says the cost of the repairs are being borne by the contractor Rideau Transit Group and not the city.
Mayor Mark Sutcliffe promised a fix for the train during his election campaign two years ago.
Construction of the O-Train began 2013 and opened in 2019. The train has been plagued with technical problems since the opening. Between the beginning of construction until today the axel problem has not been solved. It has taken 12 years to build 12.5 kilometres of track and it still does not work properly. The transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway took 4.5 years to construct in the late 19th century.
After the 2019 derailment, the Transportation Safety Board investigation discovered the wheel bearing problem which resulted in the derailment. The board was concerned about the quality of maintenance of the train and the frequency of repairs on the bearings and axles saying such repairs were highly expensive.
However, the TSB was unable to find the root cause of the derailment citing a number of factors that could be contributing to the problem.
Ken Gray
Transit committee on March 17. The relevant question from Barrhaven West Councillor David Hill occurs at 4:09 on the video.
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Qu’elle Surprise …
It’s difficult to imagine why, in this age of high tech de-evolution, a mechanical breakdown on technology that has been in use world-wide for decades (trains running on tracks) cannot be resolved. Maybe we need to take a step back and look not at resolving the problem itself, but rather examining the resolution process.
With fault comes responsibility. With responsibility comes consequences.
IF the city were to acknowledge that the root cause of the axle failures was due to something that it had control of (such as MULTIPLE tight corners on the route that the city insisted on) then it follows that the city could be held liable for the incremental cost of premature axle replacements. A cost that could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of the life of the LRT.
Ron,
If the fault for the axle problems, among others, could be laid at the feet of the City, surely one would expect that Rideau Transit Goup would have done everything in their power to make that connection. First of all, it would take the financial burden of replacing all those axles and accompanying parts off their shoulders and put it onto the City. Second, the damage they’ve borne to their reputation both here and externally would be repaired which is worth a considerable sum.
One wonders why either party hasn’t made a greater effort to shift the blame to the other from which they would clearly benefit. In addition, this has to be the longest-running unsolved mechanical issue in some time and one wonders why others haven’t devoted time and energy to solving it. Is there some unknown collusion to withhold the answer to the questions that is barring a resolution?
Is the trick that, after they’ve completed the construction, we will be informed of the root cause(s) of this mysterious behaviour on the part of the trains? At that juncture, will it be possible to go after the culprits for damages or will it simply be left to us to carry the ongoing costs? That could involve redesigning the track to remove the multitude of corners and/or going back to the drawing board for the trains to put new undercarriages in with a different configuration that doesn’t lead to perpetual axle replacements. Either or both of those remedies would carry an enormous pricetag. We may never, in fact, see the end of paying for the LRT construction and rolling stock what with the actual costs and accrued interest.
Will we still be looking at the same questions and issues in the second half of this century?