Let’s Place Bets On Trillium Line: THE VOTER
It’s no accident of someone’s scheduling that the testing of the Trillium and airport lines is taking place before the snow flies.
When the weather-related problems start – and they will – we’ll hear from OC Transpo general manager Renee Amilcar how thoroughly they tested “all” aspects of the track and the cars. The brain trust at OC Transpo will be just as mystified by whatever goes wrong with Trillium as they were with the Confederation Line.
As for the beleaguered, erstwhile riders of the Trillium Line, they will in all likelihood face the same unreliable service as their brethren on the Confederation Line have for years. Let’s just hope that the “root causes” aren’t so elusive and it doesn’t take anywhere near as long to clean up the mess as has been the case up until now.
I’ve just thought of a way OC Transpo could raise some of the $140M they’re short in their budget. They could organize a series of pools based on points in time when various things will happen on each of the two lines. For example, one could be a challenge for people to guess (A) the date when Trillium will actually enter into service and (B) how many days until it shuts down. There could be three prizes: one each for the people who guess each of date A and date B correctly and a larger one for the person who gets both of them correct.
A second contest could be run each month from January to March with the winner each month identifying how many days that month the train didn’t run at some point during the day due to either mechanical or weather-related causes. The possibilities are many for variations of those ideas.
I’d still like to know why the sections of track with switches and other vulnerable equipment haven’t been covered to protect them from the elements. It’s not like the Confederation Line where a canopy would have to cover the electric lines above the train as well as the train itself. In fact, some of the track-related equipment could be covered on its own with no need to cover the trains. Of course, prevention measures aren’t high on the list of needs among the decision-makers at the transit company.
The Voter is a respected community activist and long-time Bulldog commenter who prefers to keep her identity private.
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I have a lot more faith in diesel trains than electric ones but the point about the switching is very valid. I was concerned before as it appeared they ripped up the tracks around Carleton I after putting them down initially. I’m hoping for the best
Voter, it appears to me that you have been paying far too much attention to the plethora of on line betting apps involving in game parlays etc.
As for installing covers over the switches to limit their exposure to freezing rain and snow, have you no sense of how much more it would cost on top of the $6.X billion? It could reach well into the tens of thousands of dollars! Not to mention reminding those who see these structures of how limited the actual planning of the LRT was.
To be fair, the Trillium Line won’t have to navigate the excessively tight turns found on the Confederation Line between Lees and Hurdman (theWatson-Hubley curve). And as a result, less “unexplainable” wear and tear on axle/bearing assemblies.
That said, this city never ceases to amaze in their ability to find new ways to fork up a sunny day!