Line 1: Lipstick On A Pig: WHOPPER WATCH
“Sunday marked the anniversary of the opening of O-Train Line 1 and we were both encouraged by the progress that has and continues to be made to improve the reliability and sustainability of Line 1.”
Troy Charter, Acting General Manager, Transit Services in a press release on Ottawa’s light-rail project
How much lipstick can you put on a pig? Lots apparently.
Franklin Roosevelt, were he around today, would call Sept. 19, 2019 “a date which will live in infamy …”
It was the start of the largest municipal project in Ottawa history and the biggest municipal failure in Ottawa history. There’s nothing to celebrate about the national capital’s light-rail fiasco.
Some people should be celebrating they are still alive given the derailments in the months after Sept. 19. Few in Ottawa will forget hundreds of people walking downtown from Tunney’s Pasture station when the trains didn’t appear.
The trains are so bad that they must run at reduced speeds for safety reasons. So bad that the Transportation Safety Board, one of the world’s leading accident investigators, couldn’t find a single cause for the derailments but did isolate 10 different problems that could be the cause or contributed to the cause of the accidents. So bad that Premier Doug Ford promised to turn OC Transpo rail over to Metrolinx to see if that agency could turn things around. So bad that Metrolinx has failed to show. So bad that after six years and 750 replaced axles, OC Transpo can’t identify the cause of the destruction of the axles. So bad that the western line is two years late and has destroyed the Ottawa River parkway lands and caused havoc for city businesses and residents along Richmond Road. So bad that the province had to call a judicial inquiry into the whole mess and found acres of misdeeds, lying and malfeasance. So bad that Happy Town News can’t mask the stink from this project.
So Charter might be pleased with the progress that is being made but Ottawa is not.
You don’t fix a train with words. You fix it with actions.
Get this mess cleaned up and get this thing done.
Ken Gray
What would FDR call Sept. 19, 2019 and the opening of Ottawa’s first light rail?
For You:
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Terry Fox Tunnel Has Life Of It Own: MULVIHILL
Opponents Distributing Anti-Lansdowne Flyer
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***** Five Star Commentary
very kind of you david
k
This city, under the leadership of former mayor Jim Watson, bought the most expensively ill-suited LRT imaginable.
The once beautiful Western Parkway is a disgraceful mess.
There is no fix for this state-of-the-art LRT … there is no fix for the pathetically sad transit service.
Expensive E-buses are far behind schedule and sketchy at best in this climate.
The only solution this council, and those before, can think is to raise fares. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt .. it doesn’t work.
The “Dog” tells it like it is. City Hall/OC tell you like they wish it was. Very divergent “truths” With Ottawa having a record of lies, malfeasance and obfuscation whom do you believe?
While I am not a betting man, I would bet my last nickel that Ms. Stepanson is in total agreement with Mr. Charter’s Press Release. Consequently, there needs to be a change at the top of the city’s management “food chain” before there can be any improvements in the quality of the personnel lower down the food chain.