Confed Line Should Have Been Diesel: THE VOTER
The original O-Train was a pilot project which used the diesel trains on the north-south line that is now labelled the Trillium Line.
As a result of the success of the pilot, plans were undertaken for an east-west line, now known as the Confederation Line, but the decision was made to go with electric trains plus using a different size track which means that the two LRT lines are incompatible and the trains can’t run on each others rails.
Somehow the conclusion had been reached that piloting “A” successfully meant that implementing “B” would show equal success and, of course, OC Transpo has proven the fallacy of that presumption more thoroughly than might have been believed possible. It’s like a restaurant serving beef bourguignon to rave reviews one night and then presenting chicken cacciatore the next night and expecting it to be received the same way. We could have had the proven beef dish with the diesel trains across the whole system but that was not to be. It does speak volumes that, when they revamped and expanded the Trillium Line, they stuck with the successful diesel model rather than switching it to the disproven electric one.
What you really need to do is regard the two lines, Trillium and Confederation, as completely different entities. The success or failure of one should not be allowed to brush off on the other. We also need to recall that if there’s one thing at which OC Transpo at it’s snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. They still have time and opportunities to totally screw up the Trillium Line both before and after it goes into service actually carrying passengers. Don’t count them out yet. They’re a long way still from implementing a reliable service on the Trillium Line.
Let’s wait to see how long OC Transpo can maintain the Trillium Line’s “perfection” before cheering too loudly.
The Voter is a respected community activist and long-time Bulldog commenter who prefers to keep her identity private.
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I believe the electric train choice considered many things, such as: The toxic exhaust must go somewhere in a tunnel.
How would riders with asthma and respiratory problems and those living and working near the nessesary exhaust vents feel on this?
Andrew:
Get really good ventilation.
cheers
kgray
If the Trillium Line succeeds after the miserable failure of the Confederation Line the councilors who are still around from both projects will use the Trillium Line to prove their worth in the hope of getting re-elected in the next election while they sweep the first fiasco under the carpet. Will we ever rid ourselves of Alan Hubley, Jeff Leiper, and the rest of Jim Watson’s bobble heads?
I still maintain that the reliability of the switches on the bypass section is critical to the smooth functioning of the single track trillium line.
Snow and freezing rain will be a challenge to any switching system, and the so called testing will be long since completed before the real winter weather stresses this critical component.