Lead, Mark Sutcliffe. Make An LRT Decision: WHOPPER WATCH

“We are making progress on inspections, testing, and establishing a return to service plan.”

OC Transpo head Renee Amilcar on getting LRT working again

No you’re not.

OC Transpo is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome.

That won’t happen.

From reports, there appears to be something fundamentally wrong with the trains. According to the Transportation Safety Board, all the parts are up to industry standards. However they are put under stresses that break perfectly good parts.

So perhaps Transpo is making progress if you consider throwing parts at trains that will break them, then there’s major progress. Or if you consider progress, throwing labour at a problem that is bound to re-occur and Transpo is consuming big wages checking the trains much more often than would normally be the case.

Ottawa’s LRT Failure: It’s Time To Start Over

Why?

Because those bearings will break again. They’ve caused derailments and the trains are down now because Transpo feared another derailment. Why else do you shut down a major city’s transit spine?

Amilcar is practising failure. Simple as that. Transpo is putting in the same fix that didn’t work before or won’t work in the future. We can only hope that Transpo catches the next failed bearing or pray that when a train derails, very few people will be on it. These trains won’t be fixed. They will be patched until they break again.

Transpo has had two years to find the root cause and in that, the transit service has failed. Isn’t two years enough time to find the root cause? Maybe Transpo and the city know the root cause but are afraid for political and fiscal reasons to reveal it. If the rolling stock and the tracks must be replaced, the cost will be stupendous.

Were one to guess, two years brings you a root-cause solution. Perhaps our betters at city hall don’t want residents to know what that is. Maybe replacing the rolling stock?

Politically and fiscally perhaps the best solution is fixing something that will break again. But maybe it is time that Amilcar and Mayor Mark Sutcliffe come to terms with a train that doesn’t work. These trains are dangerous. How many times to they need to derail to get that through city hall’s collective thick skulls?

It’s time to make important decisions and show leadership. And it’s time to make sure you are right.

We elected Sutcliffe to lead … so lead. What you and Transpo having been doing doesn’t work. Either find the root cause very soon or start rebuilding what needs to be rebuilt. Do we need new rolling stock? Or can the present trains be fixed? Or do the tracks need to be adjusted or the turns made gradual or should they be torn up and replaced? Does the overhead electrical system need to be replaced so it can withstand accumulated ice?

LRT In State Of Apprehended Derailment: GRAY

Transpo in its current fix is practising failure. For $2.2 billion and for adequate transportation in this community, we need Sutcliffe to make a the correct decision. The time to act was a long ago.

Lead. We don’t need more Jim Watson. We need an effective Mark Sutcliffe. And if the current mayor can’t solve the biggest problem in the community, which is fixable, maybe we need a new mayor.

Act … now. Before people are injured or killed.

Ken Gray

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