Get Ottawa’s Unsafe LRT Off The Rails

OC Transpo isn’t telling us much except that there is a problem with a bearing somewhere its LRT trains that has result in shutting down the whole fleet this afternoon:

Here’s what the federal Transportation Safety Board last Feb. 3 had to say about bearings and the general reliability of Ottawa’s troubled light-rail fleet.

These are excerpts from the report:

On 08 August 2021, an eastbound OLRT
commuter train derailed about 90 m east of
Tunney’s Pasture Station in Ottawa. It was
determined that the No. 3 wheel on
LRV 1119 severed from the axle due to an
undetected catastrophic roller bearing failure and subsequent axle journal burn-off.
There were no passengers on board at the time of the occurrence (TSB occurrence
No. R21H0099).

Entire LRT System Closed Due To Safety Problem

And here’s another item from the report saying the city failed to address a TSB concern:

On 27 September 2021, the TSB issued Rail Safety Advisory (RSA) letter 617-02/213
related to the cartridge bearing assembly failure that caused the derailment. The RSA
suggested that OLRT may wish to ensure that it has heat detection systems in place to
monitor temperatures of LRV cartridge roller bearing assemblies in order to detect
overheated roller bearings in a timely manner and intervene before an in-service
catastrophic failure occurs.
To date, other than ongoing cartridge assembly free play monitoring, no concrete steps
have been taken to resolve the safety deficiency identified in the RSA.

And here is more information from that report from the TSB:

In summary, the 3 cartridge assemblies examined by the TSB exhibited numerous failure
modes. The modes included fatigue fractures, rolling contact fatigue, surface wear,
impact wear, environmental erosion, and frictional wear. The observed damage was
widely spread throughout the cartridge assemblies and was not limited to any one
particular component. Consequently, it was not possible to determine which of the
observed failure mechanisms occurred first.

Here’s how reliable the under-carriage of the light-rail vehicles is:

Since the LRV 1127 axle A disc brake side cartridge assembly axle hub failed within an
interval shorter than 7500 km (4393 km) from the previous inspection, on 29 July 2022,
Alstom revised the cartridge assembly free play inspection intervals for OLRT LRVs as
follows:
? The 7500 km inspection interval to be maintained on all axles with cumulative
mileage below 175 000 km.
? Axles for the 3 middle LRV bogies to be inspected every 3750 km when mileage
exceeds 175 000 km.
? Axles for motor bogie at each end of the LRV are to be replaced when cumulative
mileage exceeds 175 000 km.
Since OLRT LRVs have no on-board automated cartridge assembly heat detection
system, the free play inspections continue to be necessary. However, this additional
maintenance task is labour intensive and time consuming for a component that should
last over 1.2 million km.

The problems with the LRT under-carriages appears to be more about the basic design of the vehicles rather than component failure. In fact, the components meet industry standards. So why are they breaking? Because the basic design of the vehicles is flawed. There’s little way to fix that beyond getting new rolling stock. Alstom builds reliable vehicles but it could be that special requests from the City of Ottawa on design caused these under-carriages to fail. The individual components are fine. What’s breaking them? Basic design problems on the vehicles.

LRT Building Snarled, Traffic A Mess, Take A Boat

To date, there have been 2 serious main-track derailments and a near catastrophic
component failure that all involve OLRT LRV cartridge assemblies. While the materials
used to manufacture the cartridge assemblies conformed to the manufacturer’s
specifications, the 3 cartridge assemblies examined by the TSB exhibited numerous
failure modes. The observed damage was widely spread throughout the assemblies and
was not limited to any one particular component. Furthermore, areas of heat
discolouration observed on several components and the condition of some grease
samples suggested that the assemblies had been subjected to a higher-than-average
heat event that was likely related to a deteriorating cartridge assembly condition that
went undetected.
In the cases cited, the root cause of the cartridge assembly failures cannot be attributed
to a single component. It is likely that the combination of the newly designed LRV, new
Iponam bogies, and a more powerful drivetrain may play a role in the failure of cartridge
assemblies.
These cartridge assembly failures continue to pose a risk to safety until the issues are
resolved. Therefore, the City of Ottawa may wish to ensure that all parties involved in
the OLRT undertaking work together to resolve design, operational, and maintenance
risks to safety, as they emerge. Furthermore, the parties involved should ensure that
effective on-board monitoring systems for safety-critical LRV components, such as
cartridge roller bearing assemblies, are put in place to protect the travelling public.

The above is why The Bulldog, after some very serious consideration, said Ottawa’s Confederation Line should be closed because it is a threat to the safety of the people of Ottawa.

What happened today only reinforces The Bulldog’s position that these vehicles are very unsafe. One does not pull the whole system off the rails unless a very serious problem or problems have occurred.

This has happened far, far too often. It is time to study replacing the rolling stock on Ottawa’s disastrous light rail line. The current cars are too unsafe to be used and pose a deadly threat to the safety of Ottawa’s residents.

Now will the City of Ottawa produce its usual load of spin and half-truths or rather give us the whole truth?

The light rail dangerous drama continues.

Ken Gray 

 —

Don’t miss our regular features

Everything Ottawa      Full Local     Bulldog Canadian

Opinion    Comments    Breaking News   Hood Hub

Ontario   World    Get Cheap Gas   Big Money

Pop Gossip   Your Home    Relax …

Bulldog Weather    Full Local Sports

Page 2   Page 3   Page 4   Page 5   Page 6

Other features:    Full Bulldog Index    Return to Bulldog Home